Hurricane Preparation and Emergency Planning Part I
Along the Gulf South, we are nearly three months into Hurricane Season, and approaching the more active time of the year. Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of “if,” but “when” a disaster will strike—so it’s critical that businesses prepare for emergencies before they occur. Every company should have a process in place to make sure that you, your employees, and clients are prepared in case of an emergency. However, research shows that more than 57% of real estate companies lack business continuity and an effective disaster plan. We tapped our Stirling Properties’ expert, Patrick Malik, Vice President of Property & Risk Management for his guidance on Hurricane Preparation and Emergency Planning. Below are a few tips for advance emergency planning concepts.
Part I: Advance Emergency Planning
Businesses in hurricane prone environments have the opportunity to “get ready” each year. This is a tremendous responsibility considering the advancement of technology, evolving business functions, and the need for planners to anticipate hurricane impact scenarios and its effect on their business.
Before starting the emergency planning process, serious thought should be applied to the following concepts as advance preparation:
- Income Stream
- Chief Job Functions
- Coordination with IT to plan data and connectivity preservation
- Insurance
- Critical Company Responsibilities
Your income stream, how it is derived and how it is processed, is essential to preparing cash reserves and insuring against the loss of revenue. Real estate service companies have difficulty insuring their transactional income but can rely on recurring monthly property management income to help bridge times when transactional income pauses due to a disaster.
The principal job functions necessary for assuring your income stream, getting employees back to work safely, and establishing your business continuity need to be identified ahead of time. Also, attention to supporting your employees with their personal emergency plans and specific needs after a hurricane is instrumental to your company’s recovery. Likewise, getting individuals back to work with temporary offices, if necessary, is important to consider in establishing job function and returning to normality.
Continuing advances in IT infrastructure and your company’s dependence on its availability are ever increasing. Bandwidth has become irreplaceable, and security defense of your network sometimes limits your outside access. Data storage, redundancy, and consistent access to email are critical matters to preserve job performance. The technology and IT infrastructure that supports these vital job functions must be resilient and available for employees to resume work.
Insurance is not a popular subject, but it is necessary when unfortunate and traumatic events occur. Many people are ill-equipped or simply don’t want to deal with these situations. Understanding your insurance and knowing that your coverage is adequate to assure your business continuity is very important. Small- and mid-size companies can seldom afford a risk manager on staff and depend greatly on their insurance agent for advice and guidance. The resulting coverage is based on how well your insurance agent knows your company—its income stream, critical job functions, IT infrastructure, and risks. This is a lot of information that someone outside of your company needs to understand and accurately quantify, and it is your responsibility to provide the necessary details.
Have you ever practiced the application of your insurance? As something potentially vital to the survival of your company, why not? Desktop exercises and what-if scenarios with key personnel can help to identify potential issues and questions to discuss with your insurance agent and proactively address with your emergency plan. These training exercises can significantly enhance company resilience and assure accurate insurance coverage, thus building confidence in your business continuity efforts.
Identifying your most critical company responsibilities advances the first four concepts above to a coordinated plan that combines efforts to mitigate exposure, minimize impact, reduce damages, and insure for losses. We all know how expensive insurance is, and the impact of losses intensifies that expense over time. Having the knowledge and taking the appropriate steps in advance will assure that your emergency plan is in sync with your insurance coverage and your responsibilities to make sure your business doesn’t miss a beat.
These advanced planning concepts extend beyond hurricane planning and support the need to evolve your hurricane emergency planning to become a comprehensive emergency plan that tackles all threats to your business and employees.
For a more in-depth look at Hurricane Preparation and Emergency Planning, read Part II: The Hurricane Emergency Plan.
Hurricane Preparation and Emergency Planning Part II
Part II: The Hurricane Emergency Plan
Living and working on the Gulf Coast, we are faced with the inevitability of hurricanes. Fortunately, it is a somewhat forecastable event with a defined season. We cannot always accurately predict the worst and must have flexible and responsive plans that can adapt to an ever-changing hurricane impact.
There are five parts to hurricane emergency planning:
- Personal Planning
- Before the Storm
- Timing of Events
- During the Hurricane
- The Aftermath
Personal Planning
During a disaster, the most critical part of a company’s emergency plan is the underlying personal emergency procedures that support you, your employees, and the ability to fulfill work roles. For those responsible for executing this plan, the same attention must be applied to your personal life—including your family and home. If your personal affairs are not in order, it is difficult to perform emergency plans in support of your business. All key company personnel should have a detailed personal emergency plan in place to ensure smooth business continuity following a hurricane or disaster.
Planning procedures improve with experience. Here on the Gulf Coast, (unfortunately) we have had many chances to test our emergency plans in a variety of real-life scenarios, including what many label as the worst case, Hurricane Katrina—which heavily impacted a major portion of our regions’ residents and businesses. The shock and trauma of a disaster such as this can have a lasting impact on employees, and requires patience, sensitivity, and support from an employer. From Hurricane Katrina, Stirling Properties learned that as part of our company emergency plan, we must anticipate the need to assist our employees with basic supplies, temporary living arrangements, home repairs, and insurance claims.
Before the Storm
A company’s lifeblood is its ability to effectively communicate. With a disaster, you should plan for complete disruption of communications. A rally point or a place to connect in the event of a hurricane should be considered. A toll-free phone number is a good option for employees and customers/clients who may become scattered by evacuation. A shared phone line can help to provide a common source for information, assistance, and flexible response. However, this line must be protected and placed on a network that won’t be impacted by the storm or flooding. Preferably it should direct to an inland office that won’t be affected and can be manned by live personnel.
Encouraging employees to be prepared and up to date on the emergency plan for hurricanes should be a priority in the spring of each year. Simple reminders on generator maintenance for their homes, as well as instructions from both your company and municipal authorities on preparation and evacuation procedures that can be shared on an easily accessible company intranet site are invaluable. Also, employees should inform their supervisor of where they will be during the storm and alternate means of contact should local communications fail.
Aligning your resources in advance of a hurricane landfall is a critical step to being responsive, minimizing insurance claims, and reducing damage. Focus on the first wave of assistance: debris and tree removal, roofers, glass contractors, water mitigation services, janitorial crews, and general maintenance providers. (Stirling Properties identifies a few providers from inland cities that will not be impacted by the storm.) The second wave of assistance includes additional debris removal, rebuilding contractors, HVAC services, and electrical and plumbing services. For this, we focus almost exclusively on local companies for resources so that we are putting local people back to work, and dealing with businesses we know and already have established relationships. Post-storm environments attract vendors and contractors from all over the country and are usually not the best place to find resources. It’s important to have providers identified ahead of time.
Insurance is instrumental in planning for a hurricane. Putting your agent and insurance underwriter on notice before the storm is important to assure lines of communication afterward. Some agents go as far as making a claim prior to landfall on heavily exposed properties, putting you near the front of the service line after the hurricane. It is important that your insurance coverage is aligned with your emergency plan to assure that your needs are met and that you are able to take advantage of the benefits of your coverage, particularly as it relates to business continuity.
Timing of Events
The approach, path, and timing of a hurricane are never 100% predictable—you should always have a contingency plan. Municipal authorities have predetermined plans for announcing recommended and mandatory evacuations that must be understood and considered to plan properly. Activating your emergency communication plan needs to be completed prior to closing your business and employees evacuating.
When you will activate portions of your emergency plan and consider evacuation should be well thought out. Consider the timing of events relative to weekends as well. On the Friday before Hurricane Katrina was forecast to make landfall east of Mobile (three days before landfall), we activated our emergency communication plan, only to learn Saturday morning (two days before landfall) that the direction changed towards New Orleans. Our employees were off for the weekend, possibly not monitoring email, and rushing to evacuate for a storm that would effectively stop all communication. Activating our emergency communication plan on Friday (even though we were not in the projected path of the storm) was instrumental in our post-hurricane recovery.
During the Hurricane
Your emergency plan should also consider communications during the hurricane. Opportunities to react to property damage early, whether during or just after the storm, are critical for minimizing damage and accelerating recovery. This involves utilizing prepositioned resources such as janitorial and maintenance crews at properties to respond during the storm (we do not condone traveling during a hurricane) or evaluating post-hurricane response to address priorities.
Communicating with employees—whether they evacuate, stay at home, or are prepositioned at properties—to confirm their location and safety is a critical step and reduces unnecessary stress.
The Aftermath
Nothing can prepare you for what you may face. Every hurricane is different in its impact. Flexibility, relentless drive, and unending patience are necessary. If your plan is strong (it is typically imperfect) and you have the information and resources (there is never enough), then fortunately, you only have to execute. Recovery has several immediate steps:
- Communication
- Helping employees return to work
- Debris removal & damage assessments
- Initiating insurance claims
- Re-establishing business
- Helping others
As always, communication is the most critical component. It is important for morale to assure employees and customers that your company is resilient and will persevere. Both internal and external communication through digital platforms, social media, or shared phones lines should be planned to ease implementation and assure a concise, positive message.
The second most critical step is helping employees return to work by providing necessary assistance. Sometimes it involves monetary or work schedule adjustments to deal with personal impacts of the hurricane. At Stirling Properties, we have found that in the first couple of weeks after a disaster, a gesture as simple as having breakfast and lunch available in the office has a tremendous positive impact on company morale. It adds a sense of “we,” lessoning personal stress.
Helping others following a devastation is the pinnacle of your emergency plan. Aid comes in many forms and is typically dependent on you, your employees, execution of your plan, and available resources. If there is such a thing as “thriving” in an emergency, helping others truly defines what that is.
This blog is part of a series, read Part I: Advance Emergency Planning.
President’s Message: The intersection of retail and healthcare
It’s no secret that the retail real estate environment is evolving at lightning speed. E-commerce and technology are driving much of that transformation, as well as the shift in consumer shopping behaviors.
You’ve heard me talk of today’s ‘high-maintenance’ consumer. Their expectations have changed. They want convenience, they want choices, and they want it now. Those same consumer demands are also driving a shift in the outlook and strategies for the healthcare industry.
New healthcare laws have significantly increased the number of consumers seeking medical care. Combined with advances in technology, it’s created a type of healthcare marketplace, where consumers are now able to shop for providers and compare costs and services across multiple channels. Patients have morphed into customers.
In commercial real estate, there is substantial growth in the integration of healthcare in the retail setting, and on the flip side, retail is emerging in the medical space. Clinics providing same-day urgent care, primary care, specialty care, and wellness services have boomed over the last few years. More recently, we are seeing the healthcare services provided in retail environments expanding beyond your typical medical office buildings. Healthcare providers need many of the same components as retailers do, and having various locations increases the entry portals into their respective healthcare networks.
Very similar to the last mile in retail, the entire healthcare delivery system is changing. It’s all about getting the product to the consumer in the shortest amount of time possible. That means connecting with them closer to where they live, in their own neighborhoods and communities. Speed, convenience, and cost efficiency are at the core of this integration.
Retail environments offer high visibility with easy access and ample parking. Customers want a one-stop shop for all of their daily needs. They want to get their groceries, buy new shoes, and visit a physician all in convenient locations.
Another attractive quality for the retail location is surrounding amenities such as restaurants and entertainment options. Patients can eat lunch, go to a movie theatre, or shop in between medical appointments or while waiting on test results. Surrounding hotels provide convenience for extended medical care needs of visiting patients and their families.
Cost efficiency is also a major factor in shifting healthcare services away from traditional hospitals and acute care settings. Smaller facilities are easier to maintain and cost less to operate. Segregating various outpatient medical services into specialized clinics can also provide customers with higher-quality, focused care—while freeing up more expensive hospital beds for extensive inpatient care.
Technological advancements—e-commerce (or should I say e-healthcare?)—are disrupting healthcare in much the same way as retail. We are seeing the rise of innovative digital medical services such as virtual doctor visits, robotics, and simulated wellness plans. Customers are now researching doctors and reading online reviews. They are price shopping providers and services. They want to order prescriptions and supplies and schedule medical appointments right from their mobile devices.
Ochsner Medical Complex River Parishes in LaPlace, LA
At Stirling Properties, we are adapting to this changing environment. As the demand for new healthcare services increases, so are our service lines to meet those local needs. As part of our company’s strategic growth plan, we are expanding into new real estate sectors where we have a translatable skillset that can add value—specifically one of those is healthcare—and diversifying our commercial portfolio.
“The types of uses coming out of the major regional hospitals is expanding beyond what we have seen in the past. Emergency departments and imaging services, maternity and phlebotomy, long-term and short-term acute care, outpatient acute care surgery, and behavioral health facilities are all emerging outside of the typical hospital setting,” said Townsend Underhill, Senior Vice President of Development for Stirling Properties.
“With this shift from inpatient to more outpatient services, there is a demand for new development to meet healthcare facility designs and product offerings, like the micro-hospital concept—a hybrid of urgent care centers and traditional hospitals. They provide more specialized services with specialized doctors in a more convenient footprint.”
Late last year, Stirling Properties announced the development of a new mixed-use medical facility in LaPlace, Louisiana. Phase I of this development included a lease to Ochsner Medical Complex-River Parishes for a roughly 20,000-square-foot freestanding Emergency Room & Imaging Services clinic. The micro-hospital concept opened to the public last week. The adjoining property is available for additional commercial development.
Earlier this year, we announced the acquisition and redevelopment of the shuttered Louisiana Heart Hospital property in Lacombe, Louisiana, and the subsequent lease to Ochsner. With its local partners, St. Tammany Parish Hospital and Slidell Memorial Hospital, the company plans to redevelop and repurpose the building to open a Post-Acute Care Hospital including long-term acute care, skilled nursing, and inpatient rehabilitation services in one central location.
We’ve also recently announced the development of a new medical facility at The Grove in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, planned near the Mall of Louisiana fronting Interstate 10. The project includes a five-story medical office building and an ambulatory surgery center amongst other uses that in total equals 260,000 square feet. Anticipated completion is scheduled for early 2019.
Dentists of Slidell at Fremaux Town Center
In addition to these development and acquisition opportunities, our brokerage and asset management teams are also adapting to the emergence of healthcare in the retail environment. Many of our agents are already leasing local retail space for medical office uses such as dental clinics, physical therapy, eye clinics, and dermatologists. These healthcare providers in some cases are even helping to fill vacant space left by shuttered retailers. Because of this increased diversity of tenants and needs, more and more property owners are outsourcing their asset and property management services to companies that can effectively maintain and operate them.
Stirling Properties handles the management and leasing of Lakeview Medical Office Building, a 5-story, 75,000-square-foot, class-A office building located in Mandeville, Louisiana. The office is attached to Lakeview Regional Medical Center, one of St. Tammany Parish’s major hospitals, providing an opportunity to bring in various medical tenants that cater to and support the healthcare industry and its patients—a built-in customer base.
As the delivery method of healthcare continues to evolve, so should commercial real estate companies. Those of us in real estate can (and should) use the valuable lessons that we have learned through retail to help us adapt and respond to the needs of medical service providers. When retail and healthcare intersect, many opportunities emerge.
Marty
Stirling Properties To Manage and Lease Hardy Court Shopping Center in Gulfport, Mississippi
Stirling Properties commercial real estate company has assumed the property management and leasing contract for Hardy Court Shopping Center located at 105 Hardy Court in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Hardy Court Shopping Center is a 225,400-square-foot neighborhood center situated at Pass Road and Courthouse Road, across the street from Gulfport High School. It is a historic retail hub that has provided goods and services to the Gulfport community for more than 50 years. The Center is currently 70% leased. Tenants include a great mix of national and local retailers including Big Lots, Froogel’s Cost + Foods, Badcock &more, Dollar General, Goodwill, Hibbett Sports, Cricket Wireless, and Subway.
Over the last couple of years, the Shopping Center has received a facelift to enhance the value and appearance of the Property. The building exterior was painted, the parking lot was repaved and restriped, and LED lights were installed to improve lighting in the parking area. New signage and additional improvements are in the works.
Stirling Properties manages more than 18 million square feet of commercial property with 120 million square feet of property and land for sale of lease. Other Stirling Properties management projects in the area include Handsboro Square and Orange Grove Shopping Centers in Gulfport, Choctaw Plaza in Waveland, Parkway Plaza in D’Iberville, and the Gulf Coast Non-Profit Center Building in Gulfport, just to name a few.
For leasing information, contact Melissa Warren, CCIM, at mwarren@stirlingprop.com or (504) 620-8148. For asset & property management information, contact Donna Taylor at dtaylor@stirlingprop.com or (985) 898-2022.
Expanding Commercial Real Estate Services in Southwest Louisiana
Stirling Properties is pleased to announce that it is expanding its commercial real estate services in Lake Charles and the Southwest Louisiana region. Seth Citron, Sales and Leasing Executive, will lead the company’s growth efforts in the area.
Citron, a former Lake Charles resident, has led brokerage services remotely in the area over the last couple of years, and will now be returning to establish a physical presence in the market beginning Monday, August 14th.
Southwest Louisiana has seen a considerable economic boom over the last couple of years. Population growth, increased job opportunities, and rapid business expansion is making Lake Charles one of the fastest growing regions in the state. The progression is also spurring commercial real estate development that is quickly attracting new retailers and business tenants.
“Stirling Properties has been active in Southwest Louisiana for many years, but the recent economic growth has provided us an opportunity to expand our services and put boots on the ground in the market again,” said Marty Mayer, President & CEO of Stirling Properties. “Having previously lived in Lake Charles, Seth is familiar with the area. He understands the local industry and will be a huge asset to the community.”
“As part of our overall company growth strategy, Stirling Properties continues to expand and diversify our brand and footprint in Southwest Louisiana—in all facets of commercial real estate opportunities,” said Citron. “Growth in this region has reached unprecedented heights and we look forward to serving its developing real estate needs.”
Citron joined Stirling Properties’ Commercial Brokerage Division in 2007. With a focus that includes representation of both landlord and tenant needs, he has a diversified portfolio of transactions in multiple facets of commercial real estate. He has knowledge and experience in numerous fields, including industrial, land, office, retail, and specific site selection needs. His particular geographical areas of expertise include Southwest Louisiana and specific markets of Lafayette, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, Houma, and Alexandria. Citron is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Retail Brokers Network (RBN).
Seth Citron can be reached at (337) 572-0273 or scitron@stirlingprop.com
Stirling Properties Expanding Portfolio
Stirling Properties’ Asset & Property Management Team has recently secured several new management contracts, adding nearly 700,000 square feet to our commercial real estate portfolio. As part of our company-wide growth plan, Stirling Properties is expanding and diversifying our footprint into new asset types and geographic regions—and our asset & property management services continue to play a major role.
Earlier this year, Stirling Properties partnered with New Orleans-based PMAT to manage the company’s newly acquired shopping centers located across the Southeast, Sunbelt, Carolinas, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. As part of that ongoing partnership, we have added three new properties—Legacy Crossing and North Heights Plaza in Ohio, and Pavilions At Hartman Heritage in Missouri.
North Heights Plaza in Huber Heights, OH
Legacy Crossing is a 134,389-square-foot Kohl’s-shadow-anchored community center located at State Route 95 and US Route 23 in Marion, Ohio—across the street from Ohio State University’s Marion campus. The retail center includes a strong mix of tenants such as Hobby Lobby, MC Sports, Dollar Tree, AT&T, Starbucks, and Petco.
North Heights Plaza is a 295,348-square-foot retail center located at Troy Pike (SR 202) and Executive Blvd. in Huber Heights, Ohio (Dayton MSA). National tenants include Bed Bath & Beyond, Big Lots!, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Five Below, Hobby Lobby, and Party City.
Pavilions At Hartman Heritage is located at Interstate-70 and Little Blue Parkway in Independence, Missouri (Kansas City MSA). The 223,473-square-foot retail center included tenants such as Bed Bath & Beyond, buybuy BABY, Party City, Cost Plus World Market, David’s Bridal, and Half Price Books.
Stirling Properties also recently assumed the management and leasing contract of Ambassador Plaza, a 29,405-square-foot Albertsons-shadow-anchored retail center in Lafayette, Louisiana. We will also be taking over the management of Handsboro Square, a 156,500-square-foot Rouse’s Food Market-anchored center in Gulfport, Mississippi, which Stirling Properties currently leases.
Ambassador Plaza Lafayette, Louisiana
Once a management contract is secured, Stirling Properties will assign a customized team of professionals to create a strategic business plan specific to each asset to help accomplish the client’s goals and objectives. Asset and property management services are becoming more complex in today’s industry due to the challenges facing commercial real estate and the ever-evolving retail landscape. Additionally, we see a significant growth in diverse asset types, especially among office, industrial, and medical properties and tenant uses. As a result, more and more owners are outsourcing the responsibilities.
At Stirling Properties, we understand the intricacies of commercial real estate. Our experience spans multiple property types, including retail, restaurant, office, industrial, medical, and mixed-use. We have local market knowledge, and we stay apprised of shifts in the industry, especially consumer shopping habits and retail trends. As the demand for diverse property types is increasing, so are our service lines. Our team has extensive experience in office properties—in fact, this sector makes up nearly 20% of our overall portfolio. We have also recently partnered with several high-profile medical and industrial projects, helping to shape Stirling Properties into one of the most comprehensive asset & property management teams in the Gulf South.
Our management services go far beyond providing day-to-day operations. We work hard to create the best return on investment for our clients. Our team strives to create value through cost efficiencies, economies of scale in our markets, vendor relationships, insurance, crisis preparation and response, leasing, and project/construction management to give each asset an operating advantage. We look forward to working on these new properties, while also continuing to build upon the relationships and progress that we are making across our entire asset portfolio.
Stirling Properties manages more than 18 million square feet of commercial property, with 120 million square feet of property and land for sale or lease. Click here to view a comprehensive list of our managed and leased portfolio.
For asset & property management questions or information, please feel free to reach out to us. Our team would be happy to assist you.
