Imagining a day in the life of a property manager might conjure scenes of someone scurrying through a building to investigate issues and meet face-to-face with tenants. However, that’s far from a typical day for retail and industrial property managers, who often oversee many properties from a central office.
The lack of onsite teams leaves vendors and tenants responsible for handling day-to-day maintenance, and they may not provide property managers with sufficient information about what’s happening on the ground. With many real estate owners expanding their retail and industrial portfolios, these property managers have more to juggle than ever.
“There’s a perfect storm of problems happening right now,” said Kyle Maikath, Vice President of New Business for Building Engines, at the recent Building Engines Connect virtual conference. “Retail and industrial property management teams are seeing this rapid growth while trying to maintain profitability, meet tenants’ increasing expectations and cope with limited information.”
One key challenge is that many properties lack technology tools or have multiple systems that don’t talk to each other. Forward-looking companies are finding that investing in a property management system can boost operational efficiency and lead to more informed decisions.
Metrics that matter for retail and industrial property management
No matter what challenges your property management team faces, the solution is likely hidden in your property data. Centralizing all critical data in a property management platform supports decision-making, reveals opportunities to improve performance and enhances returns on investment.
Metrics are the foundation for strategic planning and operational improvements, allowing property managers to benchmark performance against industry standards, set realistic goals and demonstrate value to stakeholders.
“A property management system like Prism allows everyone to operate from the same set of metrics in the same platform, sharing information and data,” says Maikath.
Industrial and retail property management teams benefit from tracking a variety of industry-specific metrics alongside standard real estate data. Here is a sampling of key metrics for both types of properties.
Industrial property metrics
Energy is one of the largest cost drivers in industrial buildings, so property managers often keep a close watch on energy-related metrics, such as consumption per square foot. Other numbers to watch in industrial buildings include environmental and safety data, such as the environmental incident rate and safety inspection scores. Additionally, specific industrial property types have unique metrics to monitor, such as the dock-to-square-footage ratio and truck turn time in warehouses and logistics properties.
Download our comprehensive guide to discover more CRE metrics that matter for industrial property management.
Retail property metrics
Retail property management teams keep tabs on a variety of tenant- and customer-focused metrics to guide decisions and ensure their shopping center stays competitive. For example, analyzing foot traffic patterns helps managers identify peak hours, seasonal trends and the impact of marketing initiatives so they can create more targeted and effective property management strategies. And looking at metrics such as parking utilization, click-and-collect performance and dwell time reveals insights into how the property is performing and whether improvements may be needed to create a better shopping experience.
See more CRE metrics that matter for retail property management by downloading our comprehensive guide.
Three ways technology solves industrial and retail property management challenges
1) Improving equipment management and tenant compliance
Offsite industrial and retail property managers often lack a clear view into the condition, service history and warranty status of expensive building equipment, especially when tenants are responsible for maintenance per the lease. Getting better visibility into maintenance activities is essential to know if tenants are meeting their obligations and to take action if they aren’t.
Adopting a property management platform like Prism can help. After digitizing all equipment information, the platform can send reminders to tenants when maintenance tasks are coming due.
The end result? Better capital planning, improved budgeting and more insight into tenant compliance. Additionally, more regular maintenance leads to better equipment performance and a longer usable life.
Learn more about how leading property managers are using Prism to solve critical challenges in their industries.
2) Enhancing risk management
Retail and industrial properties carry unique risks. The likelihood of an injury is much higher in a manufacturing plant than in an office building, for example. And, retail buildings bring the prospect of significant customer foot traffic.
Staying on top of inspection schedules and insurance documentation is essential to reducing risk, but it can be challenging in a large portfolio. A property management platform like Prism enhances risk management in several ways, such as:
- Certificates of insurance: Prism provides a central place to store certificates, sends reminders when updated documents are due and creates reports to track compliance.
- Inspections: Using Prism’s mobile app, the inspector can provide a summary of any issues found during a building walkthrough. Then, you can easily dispatch work orders for any issues requiring attention.
- Incident tracking: If an incident occurs, such as a theft or injury, Prism helps you store photos, important details, police reports and related documents.
3) Simplifying vendor management
Managing an extensive industrial or retail portfolio typically requires working with many vendors. Using a property management platform to track all the details helps you know whether vendors showed up for service appointments as scheduled, completed work satisfactorily, invoiced accurately and have been paid.
Prism provides a simple, efficient way to hold service providers accountable, with tools to help you check that tasks were completed correctly and on time — and invoiced appropriately.
“Many property managers find that Prism meaningfully reduces vendor costs because it holds service providers accountable to do the work that they’ve promised to do. It gives you much better control on what your vendors are up to and the associated costs,” says Maikath.
Streamline industrial and retail property management
Managing industrial and retail properties comes with unique challenges, but a property management system can help you improve efficiency, extend the life of equipment, reduce risks and lower costs.
Learn how Prism can help solve some of your biggest industrial and retail property management challenges. Contact us to schedule a demo.
