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CBRE, Equity Office Properties, Synergy Top TOBY Winners

November 21, 2016 - By Mike Hoban
BOMA Boston TOBY Award Winners 2016 - (L-R): Amy Bush, Matt Brown, Greg Brown and Michael Gill

BOSTON—CBRE/New England was the big winner—really, really big— at the 2016 BOMA Boston TOBY & Industry Awards, as over 550 CRE professionals turned out to honor top performers in property management, building operations and service in the real estate industry. CBRE nearly swept the Property Manager of the Year Awards, taking home three of the four trophies before dinner was served, and then following dessert, the market heavyweight secured half of the hardware for The Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) Awards. Boston Properties and Synergy Investments were multiple winners as well, and Hines Vice President of Property Management Greg Brown was honored as the 2016 Executive of the Year for his outstanding work managing properties and new business over 33 years on behalf of the Texas-based real estate powerhouse.

VIEW THE COMPLETE LIST OF ALL WINNERS FROM THE 2016 TOBY AWARDS HERE

Brown was presented with the award by his son Matt Brown, now an assistant property manager with Boston Properties who spoke of his father’s work-life balance, recounting that “his dedication and commitment to Hines was rivaled only by dedication and commitment to his family,” Brown said of his father who “made sure family dinners, baseball practices and camping trips came first, and he (continues) to give us guidance in our everyday lives . . . Whether it’s related to our personal lives or professional careers, the one phrase that has always stuck is, ‘Never compromise your integrity’.”

Greg Brown, whose experience includes acquisition due diligence, leasing, building operations, sustainability, startup, personnel training, and quality control for over 22 million sf of office and retail space held by Hines, also spoke of his commitment to family, and thanked his wife Linda Brown and sons Mike and Matt for “keeping me grounded on a daily basis so that I never got that big head about where I was going,” and he also deflected much of the credit to co-workers, maintaining, “The success I’ve had is and has been with many other people. I often get the recognition, but it really is the people I work with who contribute the most to the process.”

Highlights of Brown’s Boston career include the startup and operations for 500 Boylston St. and 222 Berkeley St., as well as the acquisition due diligence and property transition for Cornerstone at the time of its purchase of 125 Summer St. and 60 State St. Brown also served on the BOMA Boston board of directors from 2004 to 2013, and was 2014 chair of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s Governmental Affairs Committee.

Brown was joined in the Industry Awards winners circle by CBRE/New England’s honorees in the Property Manager of the Year category, those being Maureen Ayers (Low Rise), Amy Forman (Mid Rise) and Jennifer Twombly (High Rise), while Jill Lazzeri of Equity Industrial Partners was named Suburban Property Manager of the Year, her story among the most inspiring for a professional who rose from office manager in 2009 to overseeing 14 assets for Needham-based EIP.

Other BOMA winners included Ursula Guthrie, KONE, Inc., Affiliate Member of the Year; Siemens Building Technologies, Affiliate Company of the Year; Michael Fitzgerald, Boston Properties, Executive Engineer of the Year; and Daniel Fitzgerald, Able Engineering Services, Engineer of the Year.

CBRE/NE’s spectacular evening included TOBY wins in a fistful of TOBY categories, including Historical for 501 Boylston St.; Renovated involving 177 Huntington Ave. and Retail honoring 350 Washington St. in Downtown Crossing. ONE Marina Park Dr. in Boston is winner for buildings of 250,000 to 499,999 SF, and CBRE/NE is also manager at 10 St. James Ave. in the Hub’s Back Bay, that asset victorious for buildings between 500,000 and one million sf. Jason Walega is CBRE/NE’s professional on the ground there, whereas Shawn Carroll manages ONE Canal Park.

Other owners recognized were Synergy Investments with wins for Corporate Facility on 100 Hancock St. in North Quincy plus the firm led by David Greaney triumphed in the 100,000 to 249,999 SF category on 294 Washington St. in Boston’s Financial District. Dan DesRoches is Synergy’s in-house manager at 100 Hancock St., while Jim Higgins handles duties at 294 Washington St., an 11-story, 200,000-sf structure leased to a diverse tenant base.

TIAA-CREF is landlord of 501 Boylston St., a 610,000-sf mid-rise building it bought a decade ago next year then guided the Neoclassic-style property through the harsh 2008 recession and made it a popular alternative for small- and mid-sized tenants from within the Back Bay and beyond. Its history dates to 1940 when it was constructed for an insurance company headquarters.

Equity Office Properties persevered in the Over One Million SF with 100 Summer St,, Boston Properties made Mother Nature proud in the Earth category for 100 Federal St. where Stacy Cawley is property manager, and Lincoln Property Co. secured top prize among Laboratory entrants regarding 200 CambridgePark Dr. in booming west Cambridge.

EOP’s Patricia Walsh is property manager at 100 Summer St., a 32-story, 1.1-million-sf tower dating to 1974 which the REIT has refreshed during its stewardship in order to improve efficiencies and remain competitive against younger competition arising on all sides.

King Street Properties was landlord credited for 200 CambridgePark Dr.’s turnaround of a surplus Pfizer building into 221,000 sf of modern laboratory product now occupied by such firms as Amgen and Celgene. Kelly Oyekoya is LPC’s property manager on that listing. Invesco Real Estate owns 350 Washington St., a Downtown Crossing structure featuring 150,000 sf of multi-level retail where CBRE/NE’s Lauren Nappi is the manager. Beacon Capital Partners was recognized for its upgraded 177 Huntington Ave., the Christian Science Plaza tower managed by CBRE/NE’s Faith Farnham.

The TOBY Awards are an official recognition of best-performing buildings at home and across the globe, with BOMA Boston annually hosting the prestigious honors event for the Greater Boston real estate community. Tuesday’s winners will go on to compete at the Regional TOBY AWARDS Competition at the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) to be held in Hershey, PA in early April for a chance to advance to the worldwide stage in Nashville in late June when the final TOBY Awards will be presented at the BOMA International Conference.

Following this week’s event, current BOMA Boston President (and director of building operations & services for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) Mike Gill told Real Reporter, “It was just a fantastic event. Boston is home to some wonderful buildings, and (the TOBY Awards) give us an opportunity to have them not only recognized locally, but to compete at the regional and international level.” Gill was effusive in his praise for Executive of the Year winner Brown. “Greg does a tremendous amount of work for the Greater Boston Real Estate Board in his role on the governmental affairs board—much of it behind the scenes—that really has a positive impact on all of the commercial real estate property and property managers here in Boston.”

CBRE/NE principal Mark Tassinari, who heads up the firm’s Asset Services Division, praised BOMA Boston for the event that “honors the best buildings and real estate professionals in the Greater Boston area” while citing his team’s victories as “a true testament to all of the outstanding professionals we have working with us at CBRE/NE” and an outcome that “reaffirms our company’s position as the premier property management firm in Boston.”

Tassinari also applauded the various clients whose assets will now level up in the spring competiton. Liberty Mutual owns 10 St. James Ave., although it is presently on the market for sale, while Fallon Co. is developer with Barings Real Estate Advisers on ONE Marina Park Dr. in the Hub’s Seaport Disrict. TH Real Estate is landlord for 501 Boylston St.