It’s pretty easy to make a Holiday To- Do List for your personal life. Items that might top the list could include: “Learn how to cook the holiday meal so that the roasted potatoes don’t get done before the turkey is thawed,” and “don’t forget to get a gift for Great-Aunt Edna (again).”
But what should go on your list when preparing your commercial real estate for the mania of on-site holiday activities and for the down days when there is limited foot traffic? And how can your commercial property management team help?
Holiday Prep and Clean up
As the year draws to a close, you and your tenants work long hours to complete what needs to be done before the holidays, and it’s especially difficult to fit in any additional to-dos. For example, organizing and managing holiday decoration design, installation, and dismantle can be a daunting task. Keeping track of all the extra packages arriving is a challenge too. So is finding the right vendors for holiday catering, entertainment, extra security, setting up and monitoring any charity collection bins placed in the lobby and – everyone’s favorite – cleaning up after any on-site seasonal festivities.
But there is no need to cry into your hot cocoa. Your commercial property management team can help you get it all done. They can help manage security and janitorial services, and ensure that appropriate scopes of work are in place with professional vendors.
Coordinating holiday site functions and advertising with the tenants and tenant merchant association is also important duties of commercial property managers. Kevin Tagle, Vice President of Meissner Jacquet Commercial Real Estate Services, ensures that tenant relations is of utmost importance in each property managed. Tagle says that, “it’s each property management team’s responsibility to meet each tenant site contact on a regular basis and respond proactively and promptly to their questions and concerns.”
Getting Through Holiday Down Time
After all the tinsel is cleared away and the majority of your building’s occupants have left for vacation, your semi-empty space can take make the most of this “down time.”
This is a perfect time to conduct a thorough and deep cleaning throughout the structure – including air ducts and vents. It’s also the best time to conduct electrical and HVAC safety tests, as tenants will less likely be affected. Painting, updating lighting, installing and testing new equipment, redesigning floors pace, and restocking supplies are other great projects to tackle over the holidays as there will be fewer interruptions for the work crews and a lower risk of disrupting tenants.
The exterior of your commercial asset can undergo a sprucing up too. Landscape vendors can install new landscaping elements, lighting or sprinkler systems, build or repair sidewalks, clean fountains, and provide an overall general clean and trim. And that roof could also get a once over – weather permitting.
It can sound overwhelming, not to mention exhausting. But that’s what your commercial property management firm is enlisted to do, manage and oversee everything. Including, planning all service orders, interviewing and selecting vendors, preparing cost estimates, scheduling work, making sure all equipment is available, checking progress, and keeping all records of the work performed. They can also provide you with the assurance that you need that every job will be done right the first time, will stay on budget, and will be entered into every relevant record. Allowing you and your building to start the New Year refreshed and revitalized.
Sources:
Property Manager.com
Encharter.com
Meissner Jacquet Commercial Real Estate Services