Attendees at Bisnow's Los Angeles Future of the Valley Summit got a rare look at 4500 Park Granada's five Bloom Energy Servers. Rising Realty president Chris Rising says the natural gas generators have reduced operating expenses by nearly 85%. Fun fact: The building's basement contains a safe room; if President Reagan had been on the West Coast during a nuclear war, helicopters would have whisked him to the property.
We also got a look at Concord Real Estate Services' new mobile property management offices: Fiat 500E electric vehicles, tricked out with a printer, scanner, copier, and sliding desk. (We keep telling you office footprints are getting smaller... well, now they're office tire tracks instead.) Director of management services Aric Ohana, flanked by mobile managers Chris Aguirre and Avi Kram, says the cars are aimed at increasing efficiency. They provide the managers with the tools they need to take care of tenant, maintenance, and vendor issues while out in the field, without having to go back and forth to the office to do the administrative work.
Aric showed us the inner works. The machines run off the vehicle's electricity, and a wireless router allows Avi and Chris to stream movies, er, print and scan from their iPads minis. Since the mobile manager cars were introduced, they've been able to lease units faster, too. They now can show units to prospective tenants, have them fill out an electronic application, and pull up their credit info on the spot. The cars run 100 miles on a single charge and cost about $34k each, Aric says, but state and federal rebates make it economical for small management firms.
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