August 21, 2009—TIAA-CREF Global Real Estate group’s 601 Tower in Minnetonka, Minnesota, was recently honored with The Office Building of the Year (TOBY) Award from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) in the 250,000 to 499,999 Square Foot category. The International TOBY Award recognizes excellence in office building management and operations.
To win the International TOBY award, 601 Tower first won both local and regional competitions. Judging was based on community impact, tenant/employee relations programs, energy management systems, accessibility for disabled people, emergency evacuation procedures, building personnel training programs, and overall quality indicators. A team of industry professionals also conducted a comprehensive building inspection.
601 Tower, a 15-story Class A+ high-rise consisting of 288,000 rentable square feet, is considered a local landmark and can be seen for miles in the Minneapolis metropolitan area. ENERGY STAR benchmarking and a proprietary building management system are utilized to watch for trends and inefficiencies in building energy usage. These management tools have allowed 601 Tower to reach an ENERGY STAR performance rating of 90.
In addition to property management, active involvement in the local community is important to the management team and the tenants. TIAA-CREF and property manager, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) have donated more than 10,000 pounds of food to Second Harvest Heartland Food Shelf, the Upper Midwest’s largest hunger-relief organization.
In addition, Parkway Corporate Center in Montvale, New Jersey, also owned by TIAA-CREF, was awarded the first-ever BOMA360 award. This honor is granted to those properties which implement and execute industry best practices in property management and operational excellence on a holistic basis. BOMA360 is a new standard that BOMA has created to provide tenants and owners with an independent validation of these best practices and to encourage their spread across all properties. Parkway Corporate Center is managed by Grubb & Ellis.
One Boston Place in Boston, a third TIAA-CREF property, was a finalist for the BOMA Earth Award. It is the first LEED EB: O&M Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance) certified property in the country. LEED EB: O&M is a rating system applicable to building operations, processes, systems upgrades, and minor space use changes. One Boston Place is managed by CB Richard Ellis.
For more information, see the BOMA Web site.
