We usually talk about tenant-facing office property management like ice cream socials, but there’s so much more going on behind the scenes (with big money involved) that we’ll address at Bisnow’s special Property Management & Office of the Future Summit on Aug. 28. (Not to downplay the importance of ice cream.)

Partner Engineering and Science, Inc. (Partner) principal Bob Geiger, one of our speakers, has noticed a major energy efficiency trend in his world of due diligence and property management. In fact, ComEd just launched a retro-commissioning (RCx) services express program, lowering the size criteria for office buildings to 150k SF (meaning smaller suburban offices are now in play). Why you should care: easy fixes giving buildings at least 5% annual energy savings, ComEd pays the engineer’s fee, and payback in 18 months or less. It’s basically getting your building to “breathe right” again, and it’s a program that makes business sense, Bob says.

Bob is seeing an increasing number of suburban office buyers and property managers looking into retooling and finding bottom line savings, given their sluggish rent growth and spillover demand for creative office from the city (thanks, Sterling Bay). Common situations for Partner include: taking a close look at the ability to reconfigure the HVAC (Basis for Design Evaluation scope) in addition to simply assessing the current condition as part of a Property Condition Assessment; sometimes having an in-house MEP specialist resolve tenant disputes over HVAC; and adding BOMA survey measurements to corroborate property and unit specific square footages against marketing materials. Get your event tix here!