The BOMA 360 Performance Program sets the standard worldwide for operational best practices in the commercial real estate industry. For more information, click here.
M: Luke, tell us a little bit about yourself.
L: Hi, I’m Luke Johnson. I’m with The RMR Group. It’s a property management company that is involved with REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). I’ve been with that company for about seven years now. Started off as an admin assistant – that’s kind of how I got involved with the BOMA 360 process. Joined BOMA by year two, which was maybe 2017, 2018. I work now in the more management side of insurance, but I’m still very much involved in the processes for tenants and the tenant space and all of their fixings. So even though I’m doing insurance, it’s still very applicable to 360. So about 2016 when I started, I was handed a BOMA 360 application and my property manager at the time said, I don’t have time for this. This is going to expire. Can you take it on? I said sure! I was eager to please and I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. And I kind of just worked it through. I tried to figure out who I should talk to for different engineering aspects, where to go for sustainability, and tried within my company to understand about the BOMA 360 process and what was needed for the application.
From there, someone who worked at RMR served on the BOMA International 360 committee. He was getting ready to leave RMR (and eventually the committee), and once he stepped down from the company, he pointed to the assistant property manager and myself, and said, “Hey, I’ve been running point on trying to get RMR to do more BOMA 360 with our buildings. Do you guys want to be the flag holders?” My assistant property manager looked at it and pointed to me and basically told me to go for it. So I went for it. I started understanding what I did and I enjoyed the process. As I started to go through all the information, I found that I could kind of synthesize it. My thought process at the time was, well if I didn’t know what the heck any of this was, I’m brand new to property management and there must be other people who don’t know what to do with all of this stuff. So I created my own, what I call, the handy dandy walk through and I basically passed it out to our property management teams across the nation. RMR is a nationwide company, and I basically became the point person where if anyone had any questions about BOMA 360, I’d done it once or twice so maybe we talk through it. And that became Luke is the official BOMA 360 person. BOMA 360 International Council took notice. I became pretty good friends with Joe Corley, the Director of the BOMA 360 Program. When that initial individual who introduced me to 360 finally left RMR and the 360 Council, he had been chairing it for a while. He stepped down and there were vacancies, and that’s when Joe called to ask me to join the committee. I said absolutely.
I was able to platform my company a little bit more. We kept pushing for designations until eventually and currently, we are the second largest holder of BOMA 360 Designated Assets in the nation. It’s crazy from where we started, which was around 18-20 properties and now we have 70 with designations.
M: Wow – so the 360 designation is only good for three years. Is RMR Renewing?
L: Yup. Renewing. If a person has done it once, the BOMA 360 process is pretty simple. It doesn’t change drastically from year to year. There are even renewal points. You get an extra point for each section just for doing the renewal, so it’s an easy way to accumulate points.
But I always tell people, if you’ve done it before, just continue to save your documentation because the chances that you’ve changed processes completely are pretty slim, in my opinion. So in some cases it’s as simple as – hey we’re still following these processes, so update the date and resubmit. Because the application itself is not hard at all. It’s just time consuming and you have to pull everything together. If you already know where you are pulling everything together from – the first time is always the hardest. But once you have your system going, it’s easy to renew that designation every three years. And now that BOMA 360 is the predecessor, stepping stone to getting a TOBY (The Office Building of the Year Award), or being nominated for an award there, it’s a great first step for putting together the documentation that you need for TOBY, it’s just a little bit less.
M: So, could you tell us why RMR Group has been such a big proponent of their buildings obtaining your 360 Designation?
L: It’s good for investments. I think it’s good for a number of different people, not just the investors. But investors always like to see that this is a good, well-functioning building. I think that sustainability plays a part in that as well. There are so many investors, and as America in general and just the world is looking for ways to become more sustainable and have greener practices that are better for the environment and better for our own buildings health, BOMA 360 is just a starting block that gets you thinking about some of the processes involved to start having better sustainability efforts, even if you’ve never thought about it before. Hey, maybe you don’t even get the designation, but if you look at the application and tell yourself, this is the stuff I need to be thinking about in regards to having a well functioning, well run, sustainable building, then you can pull that together and it just gets that ball rolling. And again, what BOMA 360 does, TOBY does even more so. It increases the likelihood that tenants are not only going to want to lease space in your building, but they’re also going to want to stay. People enjoy feeling like they contribute to better sustainability or assisting in creating a more sustainable world. People feel like they need to contribute to a more sustainable world. We’re part of the global mission to continue to protect this planet that we love. BOMA 360 is the yardstick and the measurement for: is your property management team running at its most efficient? It’s not a measurement of the building so much as it’s a measurement of the property management team that runs it. So if you have a great team and you want to show off how well your team is managing your building, then absolutely, BOMA 360 is a designation that you want to promote. It’s the first step to telling the world that we are a well-run, oiled machine. We’re thinking not only about our tenants’ security; we’re thinking about sustainability; we’re thinking about tenant relations. It also measures your policies for education in real estate. It measures across different competitors. We have a property management team that is continually bettering their knowledge. We’re not only updating our processes, but we have plans in place for employees that want to be trained and have continuing education classes. All of that is measured by BOMA 360, which is to say, this is a property management team that is a cut above and are prepared to take care of not only their tenants, but the building and the employees. And that’s where we really shine.
M: Your own tenure with RMR speaks to that employee engagement! Well that brings me to my next thing. I was very delighted and surprised to find out while we were in Philadelphia that you have officially taken on the role as Vice Chair for the BOMA International 360 Committee.
L: Yeah, it’s a huge honor. I was not expecting it. I just got the call and said absolutely. I love BOMA 360. It’s a great step into TOBYs and even being involved with BOMA Best. It’s a huge honor and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
M: Good – and we’re looking forward to seeing you at more conferences in the future! On behalf of the Board of Directors, we wish you the best of luck on that journey. One last thing for you Luke, why is it important, outside of 360, for you to have this extra volunteer effort? What drives you to be a leader?
L: People. At the end of the day, we’re not just dealing with buildings. Yes, we’re selling a building and we’re selling space, but we’re selling peoples’ livelihoods. We’re giving them a place to come where they can feel secure, where they can feel safe, to earn a living and to procure, not only the career portion of their lives, but their personal aspect of their lives. And so, being a leader in BOMA 360, i’'s a matter of wanting to support teams that are supporting other people and supporting their tenants well. Yes we’re here to make money, for sure, but we want to be recognized as people who do things excellently. We do things because it’s the right thing to do and because we want to promote people. At the end of the day, that’s what I think 360 offers. It showcases property managers that care.
M: Thank you for that recap, Luke. Let’s hit the lightning round next!
Favorite color? Blue
Cats or dogs? Dogs
Sweet or Sour? Absolutely sweet. Unless it’s sour gummy worms.
Texting or phone calls? Phone calls
Reading a book or watching a movie? Book. It’s more intentional. I’ve been a reader all my life and that’s something I take pride in.
Any good professional book you’ve read recently? This is kind of out of pocket a little bit. It’s called: Never Split The Difference, but Chris Voss. It’s a book about negotiation from an international hostage negotiator with the FBI. If you’re going to win negotiations, how do you understand human psyche and negotiation tactics? I’ve done some of the tricks myself to understand how people work, and it’s helped me come to solutions that both people are happy with.
M: That sounds awesome! I ask a lot of people that question and this is definitely the most unique answer I’ve heard in a while.
L: It may not be a business book…no, it really is a business book. It’s a little unconventional.
M: Definitely unconventional, but probably totally necessary for all businesses! Thanks again for your time and your leadership, Luke!