Highly Engaged

Mert Livingstone
IAMC Chair

It's fall now. The season is changing and IAMC is moving into our 10th year as an organization. Plans are under way for our 10th anniversary celebration to be held at our 2012 Fall Professional Forum in Omaha, Neb. However, we have much to accomplish as an organization before reaching this milestone.

The 2011 Fall Forum in Philadelphia was one of our most successful events to date. Not only did we set an attendance record, but attendees have told us they enjoyed and received great value from some of our best guest speakers ever, breakout sessions and social networking opportunities.

One of the true highlights of the event for me was the Sunday evening opening event held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Sept. 11. The venue and art were extraordinary and the dining experience was exceptional. However, the ultimate and inspiring part of the evening was the tribute to 9/11. Our programming and event planning teams arranged for the Philadelphia High School of Performing Arts chorus ensemble to perform all verses of "Amazing Grace." There was not a dry eye in the place. The tribute was brief, yet very impactful. It certainly caused me to pause and reflect on everything in life for which I am so blessed and thankful.

I'd like to express my sincere appreciation to our immediate past chair Doyle Shea. I have greatly benefited from knowing Doyle for years now, but most importantly for having the privilege to work with him over the past year.

We're at an important inflection point on our journey. All metrics validate that the overall IAMC value proposition to all membership classifications continues to indicate high levels of overall member satisfaction. Our founding principles of maintaining balance across our membership categories, our unwavering focus on "quality over quantity" and our formula resulting in outstanding Forum experiences must be maintained. However, we know that the world around us is in a constant state of change and as a result, we must also be open and mindful of ways to improve and enhance the organization's relevance to members.

Our IAMC strategic planning effort, known as IAMC 2020, will be the vehicle through which we must continue to gain insights from many corners. To date, we have gathered a significant volume of input, and are now ready to begin building our strategic roadmap. Our efforts to date have identified six focus areas: Globalization, Technology, Role of the Workplace, Broadening Definition of Assets, Changing Role of the CRE and Relevance to our Organizations. You will begin to see and hear regular updates on these areas and the overall IAMC 2020 initiative.

One aspect of our organization that has been discussed a lot at the board level is member engagement. We believe that you get value from our organization in proportion to what you give to it. A full two-thirds of our overall IAMC membership attended the Fall Forum, which included a record number of active members. When we tally all of you who serve faithfully on committees and task forces and serve in other ways — I can tell you that I believe we have a very engaged membership. This is critical for our sustained success. I sincerely thank you all and look forward to serving you as your chair.

Mert Livingstone
IAMC Chair

POST THIS ARTICLE TO SOCIAL MEDIA

IAMC INSIDER

From Site Selection magazine, November 2011

POST THIS ARTICLE TO SOCIAL MEDIA

estlé Waters North America in September announced that its headquarters (pictured) in Stamford, Conn., had received LEED-Gold certification, marking the 10th Nestlé Waters facility to be LEED certified. Since 2003, Nestlé Waters' additional LEED-certified facilities have helped the company reduce energy use by 1.5 million kWh, carbon emissions by 2.1 million pounds, and water use by nine million gallons. More than 500 employees moved to the facility in October 2010. CPG Architects did the re-design and Pavarini, part of the Structure Tone organization, led the construction effort.

his summer the southwest bay of the L-10 hangar at the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, Ga., opened. Aircraft 0035 (above) tore the ribbon as the first aircraft to be modernized in the bay. The new facility is the third of four bays in the hangar to be utilized for the modernization of the C-5 Galaxy. Also this summer, the U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin launched the first-of-its kind High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator (HALE-D) airship (pictured) from the historic Akron Airdock in Ohio. Opened in 1929, the Airdock features 364,000 sq. ft. (33,800 sq. m.) of unobstructed floor space — an area equivalent to eight football fields.Photos courtesy of Lockheed Martin

n September DEXUS Property Group announced the leasing of a nearly 1.7-million-sq.-ft. (157,930-sq.-m.) rooftop space at an industrial property (shown) occupied by Whirlpool in Perris, Calif., to Southern California Edison (SCE) for the creation of the largest individual rooftop solar project in the United States. The 20-year rooftop lease will see SCE install a solar power system encompassing approximately 36,000 solar panels. The new solar station will be part of a network of solar plants SCE is building throughout Southern and Central California.

n conjunction with the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville-Buncombe County, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced its plans to expand operations in Asheville, N.C., with the creation of 110 new positions within the next seven months. The new positions strengthen the company's significant presence in Buncombe County, with 580 employees in its Aiken Road plant, over 200 employees in its technical customer service center in Biltmore Park, and additional sales and service professionals throughout the region.

" 'Actionable.' That is the word I would use to describe the information and people that I am exposed to in IAMC. From Site Selection magazine, to the Professional Forums, to follow-up connections with incentives professionals, I derive benefits from my membership with IAMC. I appreciate the mix of roles attending the working sessions, the open and friendly information exchanges, and the 'inform' versus 'sell' approach of the attendees. This all reflects the insights of the organization's leadership."

Whirlpool’s Vitek Earns Inaugural Award

onald J. Vitek of Whirlpool Corp. was the recipient of the first Mac Conway Excellence in Corporate Real Estate Award, announced September 13 at the IAMC Fall 2011 Professional Forum in Philadelphia. Vitek is director, global real estate program management, at Whirlpool where he reports to Lee R. Utke, MCR, senior director, global corporate real estate.

The award, named in honor of the late Mac Conway, founder of IAMC and Site Selection magazine, is a joint initiative of the two entities that recognizes excellence in one or more of these arenas: overall project return, innovation or process improvement, alignment of the real estate function with corporate strategy, managerial leadership or sustainability. A committee of past IAMC chairmen and Site Selection's editor in chief, Mark Arend, conducted due diligence and reviewed materials submitted by service providers, peers and colleagues of individuals nominated for the award, which is presented annually at IAMC Fall Professional Forums.

"Donald Vitek brought strategic and managerial excellence to several projects at Whirlpool in recent years," said Arend, "including Project Zenith, a re-tooling of the company's supply chain and distribution center network across North America; a new manufacturing plant in Cleveland, Tennessee; and Project Everest, Whirlpool's new North American operations campus in Benton Harbor, Michigan."

"It is with great honor and humility that I accept this award, which is especially meaningful because it comes from peers in our profession," said Vitek. "I have been fortunate in my career at Whirlpool to have been surrounded by smart, talented, unselfish and supportive people, including key service providers like Jones Lang LaSalle, who work as a team in every sense of the word. Without these great relationships, none of our collective successes would have been possible."

"IAMC continues to provide me with the opportunity to interact with fellow corporate real executives to understand trends and happenings in the industry. The discussions are great for sharing information and allowing us to be as efficient as possible in our real estate roles."

IAMC Report Compares Outsourcing of
Corporate Real Estate Functions

AMC recently published the report "Resourcing Critical CRE Activities within Large Scale Manufacturing and Consumer Packaged Goods Industry Sectors," the product of a benchmarking project initiated by the Large Scale Manufacturing Industry Group. "CRE units at large manufacturing companies employ outsourcing for a wide variety of activities," concludes the report. "However, the extent of outsourcing is considerably less than was initially assumed and less than what is typically found in the service and financial sectors." In fact, among the sample of 30 respondents, most of whom work for large manufacturing companies, the outsourced portion of corporate real estate work averages just 27 percent of total allocation of full-time equivalents.

The top five tasks, rank ordered by the total allocation of FTEs, (in-house plus outsourced), for all 30 respondents were: 1) facilities management, 2) transactions, 3) space planning, 4) strategy development and 5) tenant fit-out and support. Strategy development and lease administration were the top tasks conducted primarily by employees, while property management and database management were the tasks most frequently outsourced.

On average, the 14 smallest companies outsource about twice as much of their corporate real estate work as the 14 largest companies.

The full report and other IAMC research reports and white papers are available at iamc.org.

"As a new member of IAMC, I attended the Fall 2011 Forum with some skepticism about the added value that the conference would provide. I could not have been more pleased with my experience, and found that the opportunities to learn, network, and grow professionally exceeded my expectations. As corporate real estate leaders, too often our busy schedules do not afford opportunities to seek and learn about trends in the industry and the tools available to assist our workplace initiatives. IAMC provides the perfect platform for such interaction, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be associated with this beneficial organization."