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ULI Philippines Webinar: Property and Pandemics
13 April 2020
On 27 March 2020, ULI Philippines hosted its first in a webinar series on Property and Pandemics to tackle strategic and tactical response to owning and managing properties and tenant communities in the new normal. Invited speakers from neighboring countries talked about the best practices on how to effectively manage buildings and prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Speaker Stuart Mercier, Managing Director, Head of Asia, Brookfield Asset Management shared his first hand experiences in operating properties in China and Korea during the rise of the COVID-19 crisis. According to Stuart, what we’ve seen in China and Korea is a very rapid evolution of the rules of operation, authorities deals with changing facts everyday and that then leads to different pieces of advice which are issued to building owners and managers, then it comes down to property owners’ responsibility to manage and adapt.
Here are some of the advice shared by Mercier that Brookfield practiced as they continue the operation of their properties amidst the COVID-19 situation:
- Very active communication with staff so they understand what’s expected of them
- Open communication with tenants and their employee
- It is important to move fast and make decisions and actions like deep cleaning or partial shutdown of space if necessary
- Understanding what shift work looks like, and how you balance workloads across all employees is also important
- If the properties are to remain open and also to ensure that you have equipments to protect your staff
- Lastly, to be optimistic that eventually this too shall pass. As per Stuart, “This will be an exercise and managing your way through a difficult period. Hopefully China now stands as a bit of an example that this can be beaten and there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
A roundtable discussion and QandA with the participants was led by Kenneth Rhee -Executive Director of ULI China mainland and discussion leaders Buds Wenceslao -ULI Philippines Chairman and CEO of D.M. Wenceslao & Associates Inc., Sylvester Wong -Vice President of AECOM Asia Pacific, Raymond Rufino -CEO of NEO, and Remmel Ortiz -Director for asset management of D.M Wenceslao & Associates Inc. The discussion leaders shared their insights on how to rise up from the current situation. Common points highlighted were to work collectively and inspire each other, be quick to adapt to the situation and to have a long term plan on how to return back and operate in this new normal.
In the Philippines setting, Raymond Rufino, office building developer and owner of seven different office buildings in BGC shared his firsthand experience and the challenges encountered in managing the first office building to have a COVID-19 positive case. According to him, it is the most important step as building owner, that when you receive the news you have to act quickly and honestly inform everyone involved.
Here are some of the steps taken by NEO in handling the situation:
- A 24 hour shutdown of the entire building
- Disinfect and sterilize the entire building over a 24 hour period
- Continue the regular disinfection after the 24 hour period to reassure the tenants and make them feel safe
Discussion leaders also exchanged ideas on the contribution of maintaining the balance between air-conditioning and fresh air. They have suggested to improve fresh air ventilation into the buildings to dilute the concentration of virus and reduce the probability of spreading diseases.
There may still be a lot of uncertainties in the situation but everyone agreed that during these challenging times, being proactive and working collectively to inspire others are the best ways to get through this crisis.
The full recording of the webinar is available in Knowledge Finder.