HOW BROOKFIELD PROPERTIES WEATHERED THE PANDEMIC

Five years ago, I interviewed my friend and client for the very first edition of this newsletter. Wayne is the vice president of engineering for Brookfield Properties, a commercial real estate company based in New York. He lives here in Texas and oversees a dozen commercial buildings, including 11 in Houston and one in Nashville.

As you know, a lot has changed in the property management industry in the last five years — particularly in the last year and a half! This month, I checked back in with Wayne and Brookfield’s senior vice president of marketing, Katie Williams, to find out how their company has adapted to weather the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe you can take a leaf out of their book.

“COVID made everyone take a step back to reevaluate how we were operating our buildings, not just mechanically but also from a cleanliness standpoint. That included the day-to-day procedures that we have and that Brookfield has as a company,” Katie says. “Brookfield formed a corporate task force to coordinate and communicate a lot of those initiatives we rolled out throughout the region.”

The steps Brookfield took included providing hand sanitizing stations, requiring masks and social distancing, conducting increased cleaning, and taking a closer look at each building’s HVAC system.

“We really adapted to the current environment and wanted to make sure our tenants felt safe, whether they wanted to continue to work during the pandemic or return to our buildings when they were ready,” Katie says.

Recently, Brookfield increased its commitment by also earning the WELL Health-Safety seal for all of the buildings in its North American portfolio. As you read in our March newsletter, this indicates a high standard for health and cleanliness.

“We’re really proud of that, and of being a leader in the community and adapting our services to the WELL rating. It ensures we have [excellent] cleaning and sanitizing procedures, emergency preparedness programs, health services, air filtration, and water quality,” Katie says. “It was a really big step that we did as a company, but especially here in Houston, to be a leader and communicate that we’ve taken those extra measures for our tenants and their safety.”

Twice a year, I also visit Wayne’s buildings and conduct a proactive survey to make sure their indoor air quality is ideal for the tenants’ health and safety. Together, we ensure his team is taking all the necessary steps to keep up its buildings during periods of low occupancy, including often-overlooked ones like flushing water systems regularly.

“When you have fewer people in a building, you’re consuming less water. So, we have to ensure that the water coming in, which we’re delivering to tenants, is still potable,” Wayne says. “We flush those systems and make sure to keep everything as sanitary and clean as possible. That’s another added task for building staff [during the pandemic]. And we do testing of the water in-house to make sure what we’re delivering to tenants is acceptable.”

It has been a privilege to work with someone as conscientious as Wayne. I’m looking forward to seeing more tenants return to Brookfield’s commercial properties and continuing to help keep them safe.