This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 29, 2024 - August 4, 2024
Property management goes beyond maintenance. As Kaginic Corp Sdn Bhd project manager Venus Chai notes, it is important to manage expectations, and the landlord’s goal is to make sure the tenants are happy.
“We [the landlord] provide support in terms of the facilities and management. The appointed property managers are then tasked to achieve that,” says Chai. Kaginic Corp is the owner of UOA Business Park Tower 7.
When Henry Butcher Malaysia (Mont Kiara) Sdn Bhd (HBMK) was appointed the property manager of UOA Business Park Tower 7 in June last year, the onboarding process was not a walk in the park. Due to the lacklustre performance of the previous property managers, the tenants already had a preconceived notion about property managers in general.
But with the help of the owner, HBMK persevered and managed to turn things around in a matter of months.
In recognition of the collaborative efforts of HBMK and Kaginic Corp, Tower 7 was accorded Gold in the 10 Years and Below — Single-owned Office in a Mixed Strata Development category at The Edge Malaysia Best Managed & Sustainable Property Awards (BMSPA) 2024.
Tower 7 is a 14-storey building with a net lettable area of 75,905 sq ft that was acquired en bloc by Kaginic Corp in 2016. It is fully tenanted and some of its key tenants are Jebsen & Jessen Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Daythree Business Services Sdn Bhd, Blackmores (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Asian Recruit Sdn Bhd.
Tower 7 is part of the 9.37-acre freehold development UOA Business Park in Temasya Industrial Park, Shah Alam. Developed by Everise Project Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of UOA Development Bhd (KL:UOADEV), the project was completed in 2016. The business park consists of 11 office blocks and a 3-storey retail podium. Fronting the busy Federal Highway, it is connected to the Subang Jaya LRT and KTM stations via a pedestrian bridge.
A rough patch
HBMK senior area manager Kathrine Yong recalls that the onboarding and transition period did not go well due to the lack of cooperation from the previous property manager.
“When we took over, the previous property manager was not present during the transition period. Thankfully, the owner was very hands-on and had kept all the documentation properly and shared them with us. We worked very closely with Kaginic Corp so that we could have a smooth transition during that period.”
On top of that, the tenants were uncooperative. “They [tenants] already had a perception in mind: Are you going to last long here? Why should I talk to you? So, we had to figure out how to change that mindset and tell them that we are here for the long term and we are here to support our client to make sure that the transition is done well,” she says.
HBMK made gaining the trust of the tenants its mission. “Our job is to act as a bridge between the owner and the tenants. We were appointed the property manager to do the day-to-day job here. The owner can’t be here 24/7. If the owner is here all the time, what is our purpose for being here then?” says Yong.
She says they spent a lot of time getting to know the tenants and communicating with them regularly to establish a relationship. HBMK would also go through all the complaints that were raised in the past two years and cross-check with the tenants to ensure those issues had been resolved.
Some of the issues that HBMK discovered were complaints like water seepage at the window. “For issues like this, we coordinated with DATS Property Management Sdn Bhd [the property manager of UOA Business Park] to get these issues fixed,” she says.
Breakthrough
The turning point came when HBMK conducted a fire drill last year.
“Even though they had participated in a fire drill previously, they were [not familar] with the procedure. This time around, we enforced our standard operating procedures (SOPs), we conducted briefings to tell them what they should do in the event of a fire, [we made sure] they were familiar with the floor warden and knew the [escape route],” says Yong.
“We would actually record the time taken by the tenants to reach the assembly point because we wanted to ensure that in case of a real fire, they can escape in time. We then gave them a report, telling them how they performed in the fire drill.”
Having never experienced such a well-coordinated and detailed fire drill, the perception started to shift and confidence in the new property manager grew.
“Nowadays, the tenants report any issues directly to us. Sometimes, they even let us borrow some of their facilities like their meeting rooms to conduct our meetings,” says Yong.
In fact, when the BMSPA judges visited Tower 7 in April, the presentation was held in one of the meeting rooms of Jebsen & Jessen. “It took us three to four months to gain their trust,” she recalls.
Collaborative efforts
With the tenants’ newfound trust in the property manager, how will HBMK and Kaginic Corp sustain the confidence?
“The key is to always work closely with all the parties involved and to understand your tenants better. The tenants have been with us for many years and they have their own set of behaviours. All the background information that we have, we share it with the property manager so it can [do the job better],” says Chai.
“When the property manager understands the way the tenants function and their requirements to operate their business, only then will it [HBMK] know how to handle the problem.”
Yong gives the example of the requirements of one of the tenants, who runs a call centre service. “They work 24/7 and we work the normal 9am to 5pm schedule. How do we ensure the cleanliness of the facility, the security guards [are on standby] and the lift functions well beyond our normal working hours?
“We will check one round to make sure everything is in order. They understand that we cannot be here with them all the time but if they do encounter any issues at night, they can report straight away to our security team, who will report to us or call us directly because our phones are available 24/7 for them to approach us.”
At the end of the day, Kaginic Corp and HBMK work together to keep the tenants happy by providing not only a good quality and well-maintained property but also a property manager who is reliable and ready to respond whenever needed.
Enhancement works
As Tower 7 is now eight years old, the property manager and owner are now looking at upgrading and enhancing the building. Some of the major plans are refurbishing the marble floor and upgrading the CCTV surveillance cameras with the latest technology.
“We are looking into the marble flooring. The marble flooring has been here since day one. With people moving in and out of the office daily, the tiles will start to pop out bit by bit after a certain age. We will reuse the tiles [as the original tiles are hard to come by] nowadays. So, we will take out the tiles one by one and relay the mortar [under the tiles] to make sure it is smoothed,” says Yong.
The maintenance works will be done without causing much inconvenience for the office workers who come in and out of the office daily. HBMK expects the work to be completed by the fourth quarter of this year.
The CCTV cameras will soon be replaced with more up-to-date technology. “The CCTV cameras too have been here since day one and they are not of high resolution. Our system should be comparable with the current technology in the market,” Yong adds.
As for energy-saving initiatives, HBMK has replaced the lighting in the common corridors with motion-sensor lighting to reduce energy consumption.
With the strong partnership between HBMK and Kaginic Corp, the maintenance and care of Tower 7 is expected to be top-notch for years to come.
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