NorthMarq Corporate Solutions Acquires National Facilities Management Business
Industry veteran Bob Dickhaus to lead new NorthMarq Facility Management division
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (June 10, 2008) NorthMarq Corporate Solutions, formerly a division of United Properties, today announced the acquisition of a national facility management business from Work Oasis, an Atlanta-based company. The business offers a national facilities service delivery platform for maintenance, energy management and vendor management, which is powered by exclusive technology.
With the acquisition, Bob Dickhaus, the founder of WorkOasis, will join NorthMarq Corporate Solutions as president of the Facility Management business.
This acquisition adds a national platform for NorthMarq to deliver outsourced facility management and offers a new solution for businesses that have multiple locations, said Kevin Farrell, executive managing director-NorthMarq Corporate Solutions. The most exciting part of this acquisition is that the web-based vendor network provides easy-to-use, reliable and cost-effective service to locations across the country.
An important part of the service delivery platform is an elite vendor network. The vendor network coordinates services though a proprietary web-based technology designed to streamline costs and processes related to facilities management. Traditionally, when a customer encounters a maintenance issue, the onsite building management team will contact their assigned call center, which will then reach out to a contractor to perform the requested service.
Through this new network, NorthMarq will offer clients a solution that reduces cost, billing and response cycle times by tapping into a network of over 30,000 pre-negotiated vendors. By transacting all maintenance requests through an online platform, clients will experience increased responsiveness and a reduction in miscommunications.
We now have the infrastructure to support client needs around the country as we offer them game-changing technology that provides the lowest cost solution with the highest quality service for any location in any market, said Farrell. NorthMarq clients may see a 75 percent reduction in administrative costs by employing this new system.
The facility management industry continues to rely on costly labor-based models for delivering facility services, said Dickhaus. Customers will now have an innovative alternative to their current outsourced providers.
Dickhaus developed WorkOasis in response to the operational risk and costly layers of mark-up on direct labor and materials traditionally associated with facilities management. Prior to launching WorkOasis in 2002, Dickhaus served as president and chief operating officer of Johnson Controls global facility management business.
About NorthMarq
NorthMarq offers a full range of commercial real estate solutions across the country from its headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn. NorthMarq Corporate Solutions works nationally with mid-sized corporate users to manage their real estate needs. The NorthMarq Capital group offers commercial real estate investment banking, investment services, real estate debt and equity financing, and commercial loan servicing in 29 offices coast-to-coast, with more than more than $13 billion in annual production volume and services a loan portfolio of more than $36 billion. NorthMarq Real Estate Services provides brokerage, property management, healthcare services and construction to investors and space users in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market. For more information, please visit www.northmarq.com.
About WorkOasis
WorkOasis is a facility management technology company specializing in serving national accounts. The companys services include web-based service management systems for in-house maintenance groups and service contractors. WorkOasis was founded by Bob Dickhaus in 2002 to provide innovative facility management services and technology to owners and operators of large portfolios of distributed property. Prior to WorkOasis Bob served as founder and CEO of Service Resources and President and COO of Johnson Controls global facility management business from 1990-1997.
Contact:
Martha Nevanen
952 893 7539
martha.nevanen@marquetteRE.com
Heather Schwartz
612 337 0087