President’s Message: A dog and a birthday celebration.
No, this is not the punchline for a corny joke. These two things have special significance in 2018. They are both symbolic of an exciting and momentous year to come for our company, our region, and our industry. Let me explain.
According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2018 is the Year of the Dog. The Chinese regard the dog as an auspicious animal, and even more encouraging is its characteristic word: Action! Being proactive is essential in keeping up with the change of today’s fast-paced landscape.
As for the birthday, the City of New Orleans is celebrating its Tricentennial Anniversary this year. In typical New Orleans style, there are many festivities planned throughout the year. (More to come.) However, the 300th Anniversary is more than just a party. It’s a celebration and reflection of the past, present, and future of New Orleans and our region as a whole. The Crescent City has quite a unique and colorful history and has undergone tremendous transformation to reestablish itself over the years. Recently, New Orleans has become one of the most remarkable comeback stories in our nation.
Stirling Properties is entering our 43rd year in business. (In dog years, that’s 301 years.) Much like the City of New Orleans, we too have transformed dramatically from where we started to where we are today. The speed of change—mostly resulting from technological advancements—is tremendously affecting not only our business but our entire lives. To me, the pace seems to be moving in dog years. It’s accelerating 7x over what we’ve witnessed in the past! We must learn to adapt to keep stride.
As evidence to our transformation and evolution as a company, last year, we celebrated many major achievements, including our expansion into the healthcare real estate sector, increasing our portfolio to more than 17.8 million square feet of property, and growing our footprint in the Gulf South region.
In 2017:
Stirling Properties acquired the shuttered Louisiana Heart Hospital in Lacombe, Louisiana, out of bankruptcy. We partnered with Ochsner, St. Tammany Parish Hospital, and Slidell Memorial Hospital to repurpose the 205,000-square-foot facility as a post-acute care hospital offering a variety of services including long-term acute care, skilled nursing, and inpatient & outpatient rehabilitation. Anticipated reopening date is in the 3rd quarter of 2018.
We are developing a new Ochsner medical facility at The Grove in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The $105 million project includes a new 5-story, 206,510-square-foot medical office building and ambulatory surgery center. Stirling Properties is also overseeing a $15 million off-site infrastructure package as part of the project. The clinic will be located along the 1-10 Bluebonnet/Siegen corridor and is expected to open in early 2019.
Stirling Properties served as the landlord representative in the lease with DXC Technology for multiple floors of office space at the Freeport McMoRan Building in New Orleans, Louisiana. The company will initially occupy two floors of the building beginning in January, with future options to lease up to 10 floors representing a total of 178,000 square feet.
The Freeport McMoRan Building will be the permanent operations for DXC Technology’s new Digital Transformation Center in New Orleans, where the company will eventually employ 2,000 professionals. This is the largest economic development deal in the history of Louisiana, and #2 “Deal of the Year” nationally by Business Facilities magazine. The project has been in the works for more than 18 months and was heavily competed for, but New Orleans emerged as the front-runner beating out great cities across the country.
We completed the first phase of the Offices at River Chase in Covington, Louisiana. Located at the southwest corner of Brewster Road and Stirling Boulevard, Phase I includes a Class-A, two-story, 45,000-square-foot office building positioned on 3.5 acres. We also welcomed our first tenants to the space, including Duplantis Design Group and Liberty Mutual.
Just a few weeks ago, in a joint venture with Ochsner Clinic Foundation, we closed on the acquisition of a new rehabilitation hospital in Jefferson, Louisiana. The five-story, 129,875-square-foot medical building will house long-term acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, and a skilled nursing facility.
All of these ventures represent new milestones for Stirling Properties, which we were able to achieve because we altered our strategies and adapted to meet the demands of our industry. This allowed us to take advantage of innovative opportunities that presented themselves. We managed to translate our more than four decades of experience, combined with our talented team, to be successful.
In the same vein, the commercial real estate industry is currently undergoing a radical transformation. The bulk of this change can also be attributed to the fast-paced advancements in technology and digital platforms. Undoubtedly, as we move forward, technological innovation will continue to play a huge role in reshaping our business. Again, we must adapt to survive. As they say, old dogs need to learn new tricks!
2018 is going to be an exciting year. We’re eagerly anticipating the Tricentennial Celebration and the Year of Action (Dog). Stirling Properties is looking forward to new projects in the pipeline, and I’m confident that even more unforeseen prospects will arise that will require the same type of action and flexibility.
Happy New Year,
Ryan Juneau Earns Certified Retail Property Executive (CRX) Credential
Stirling Properties’ Asset Manager, Ryan Juneau, has earned the ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) Certified Retail Property Executive (CRX) credential.
With designees in 50 countries, ICSC’s certification programs raise the industry’s professional standards globally, and distinguish retail real estate professionals who demonstrate the highest levels of competency in their specialty as proven through solid professional education, experience, ethics, and the passing of a rigorous examination.
ICSC grants CRX certification in recognition of mastering retailing and retail property knowledge related to the performance, profitability, and executive leadership of industry organizations. Only a select group of senior executive leaders are awarded CRX designations each year.
Juneau is a member of Stirling Properties’ Asset & Property Management Division where he is responsible for ancillary development and construction, property operations, leasing, financing, financial reporting, and investor relations for internally owned, joint venture, and third-party managed assets. His portfolio includes both newly opened and mature shopping centers and office buildings in Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and Slidell, Louisiana, as well as overseeing management of the PMAT Companies’ portfolio of shopping centers across the southeast and mid-west.
“Congratulations to Ryan for earning the CRX certification. He has a proven record of experience, success, and knowledge—and now joins an elite group of executive professionals in the retail real estate industry,” said Marty Mayer, President & CEO with Stirling Properties. “Stirling Properties is proud to have him as part of our Asset & Property Management team.”
Juneau holds a degree in Finance/Real Estate and graduated from the Executive MBA Program at Louisiana State University. He also achieved the designation of ICSC’s Certified Development, Design, and Construction Professional (CDP). He is active in the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce and serves on the Board of Directors for GaitWay Therapeutic Horsemanship.
Ryan Juneau can be reached at rjuneau@stirlingprop.com or (225) 329-0263.
Congratulations to Roger Ogden for receiving the 2016 Times-Picayune Loving Cup!
On behalf of Stirling Properties, we would like to congratulate Roger Ogden for receiving the prestigious Times-Picayune Loving Cup. He is truly worthy of such an esteemed award that serves to honor his lifelong service to our community.
As one of the founders of our company, along with Jimmy Maurin (pictured above), Roger has helped to shape this community and transform the commercial real estate industry—and we are grateful for all that he has done. His passion, vision, and leadership have significantly contributed to the success of our city, state, and the entire region.
As impressive as his extensive business credentials are, even more impressive is what he has accomplished through his commitment and generosity to the myriad of civic, cultural, and philanthropic causes in our area.
“I have had the distinct privilege of working with Roger for many years. I have also shared the opportunity to work with him on several boards and projects throughout the region. I know well the tireless commitment he gives to each and the passion he brings to the table. I also know he is driven to make the world around him a better place through his efforts,” said Marty Mayer, President & CEO of Stirling Properties.
Roger is a remarkable individual and he has definitely earned his place among such an extraordinary list of people who have made a lasting impact on us all.
Congratulations, Roger, on this well-deserved honor!
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.
“TREEmendous” Organizations In Our Region
This past weekend, we celebrated Earth Day, an annual day dedicated to encouraging conversation and engagement around environmental sustainability.
Stirling Properties is a proud supporter of numerous environmental programs right here in the Gulf South region. Their work is critical to our success and makes our communities—where we live and work—stronger. In addition to corporate support, many of Stirling Properties’ employees and agents give their time and resources to charitable organizations that improve our environment.
So even though Earth Day has come and gone, we would like to spotlight a few organizations that make our region a little greener every day.
SOUL Nola (Sustaining Our Urban Landscape)
SOUL, a project of The Trust For Conservation Innovation, is dedicated to driving a resilient and equitable New Orleans through improving its water systems.
According to SOUL, New Orleans is the most deforested city in the United States. The group believes that a healthy and substantial urban forest is critical to New Orleans’ ability to live harmoniously with stormwater. Like gray infrastructure, such as canals and roads, the urban forest and other forms of green infrastructure must be built at a meaningful scale and properly integrated into the city. SOUL is dedicated to strategically reforesting New Orleans, one neighborhood at a time. This year, volunteers have planted 190 large native trees in the Mid-City and Algiers Point/Old Algiers neighborhoods of New Orleans, and are in a planning phase for additional areas.
Nola Tree Project
The mission of Nola Tree Project is to grow stronger, healthier communities through tree planting, community service, and disaster relief programs. Through initiatives such as Greaux Healthy Kids & Community Orchards, Urban Forestry Program, and Big TREEsy Giveaways, Nola Tree Project aims to improve the quality of life for our neighbors and communities. With the help of numerous volunteers, the organization has planted nearly 40,000 trees throughout the greater New Orleans area.
Friends of Lafitte Greenway
The Lafitte Greenway is a 2.6-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail and green corridor that connects neighborhoods from Armstrong Park to City Park in New Orleans, significantly transforming one of the most historic areas of New Orleans into a multi-use transportation corridor and linear park.
The Greenway includes a 12-foot asphalt path for cyclists and pedestrians, new recreation fields, green space, and landscaping improvements including approximately 500 shade trees, native plant meadows, bioswales and stormwater retention features. The path is fully lit with LED energy-efficient trail lighting and includes curb extensions, signalized high visibility crosswalks, ADA-compliant curb ramps at sidewalk corners, environmental remediation, a crushed stone walking path, and a bicycle and pedestrian roundabout. Friends of Lafitte Greenway plans to launch several new initiatives and projects throughout the Greenway that will include art installations, healthy living events, guided tours, community gardens, and much more. The organization and its members are working diligently to build, program, and promote the linear park as a great public space.
We salute these “TREEmendous” organizations for their contributions to our region. And we look forward to supporting and “growing” with them for many years to come.
#StirlingProud
Marty
