Facility design as a new asset in the 'war for tenants': This is how D&B activates the office building

Over the past ten years, D&B The Facility Group has developed into a professional partner for large corporations, real estate developers, property owners, and property managers. The focus has increasingly shifted to Facility Design —a kind of facility services 2.0, so to speak. Jeroen Peters, Director of Marketing & Communications, and Anouk ter Meulen, Manager of New Business, explain what that entails and why it's so important.

D&B The Facility Group is one of the few in the Netherlands to offer a full range of facility services, including cleaning, catering, security, and hospitality. But it also goes much further than most other service providers, partly due to its strong focus on a niche: high-end offices in the G5 cities. Jeroen Peters explains: "In recent years, we've seen an increase in requests from clients who want to engage with us early in the process. Previously, we were engaged once a building was complete and furnished. We'd then be asked, for example, to provide a receptionist, handle security, and organize catering."

Jeroen Peters, D&B The Facility Group: "We offer a new form of real estate management that helps tenants be successful in their housing and investors in their returns."

"But these days, we're increasingly asked to think about the type of flooring material, sightlines, how people enter, the route to the restaurant, and how the restaurant is used. Because while a restaurant used to be used only between twelve and one o'clock, we now ensure it becomes an important part of a kind of community and plays a role throughout the day. In short, we activate the entire base of a building.

High-quality operating model

D&B doesn't just do this for corporate organizations like Danone or TotalEnergies—organizations that need a place that connects employees. It also works for real estate developers who want the ground floor of a building to become a vibrant hub appreciated by all tenants, making tenants willing to pay more and retain them longer. Jeroen: "We're happy to brainstorm with you about that. We develop white-label concepts, taking a true Design and Build approach to operations and vice versa. That's why we like to sit down with developers early on to explore how we can optimally organize all facility services and integrate them into a single concept. Such a concept can be a huge help in a property's rentability. I like to call the process of getting a property rented effectively 'The War for Tenant.' Developers sometimes sit down with us a year before the property is occupied, where we contribute ideas on the layout, materials, fire safety, cleaning. In short, the entire process. We're happy to advise you upfront to develop the most efficient, integrated, and high-quality operating model."

Beautiful and functional

Anouk adds: "We bring beauty and functionality together. In practice, these often seem like two separate worlds. We examine the entire customer journey. We can do this because we have specialists from all disciplines in-house." D&B goes much further than simply providing traditional facility services, as Jeroen explains: "We have an in-house advertising agency that develops a concept for a real estate company with its own corporate identity, signature, and communication tools. So we take care of the entire branding and see marketing as an integral part of the operation. This can be done for both multi-tenant and single-tenant buildings. For Samsung, for example, we developed a concept called SeoulMates. That concept is fully implemented. I like to call it 'mileage,' meaning you can do a lot with it and go a long way with it. We also devised a similar concept for the TotalEnergies headquarters: Totally Us. It fits not only the name, but also the idea that people of different blood groups are brought together there to become a single entity." Anouk adds: "You can roll out a good concept across all the things you want to do afterward. At Samsung, for example, we started offering dinners that employees can order in the afternoon and take home in the evening. It's called Seoul Food, pronounced like soul food. This way, it becomes a cohesive story for a building or for a corporate entity. It's not just a name, but a clear concept that can be used in various ways."

Fantastic experience

Next, we address the inevitable question of how much D&B's solutions can contribute to better utilization of an office building and thus its value. Hybrid working has certainly gained ground since the pandemic, but fortunately, the physical office remains an indispensable place for meetings, brainstorming sessions, training, and education. Jeroen: "Research shows that average office occupancy is stuck at a mere 40 percent. This is due to the zeitgeist, but also to increased technical resources, which make it easier for people to work from home. When these people come to the office, we want to provide a fantastic experience and a sense of connection. This also increases employee productivity. This enhanced experience, so to speak, also makes people more loyal to their employer. Companies are willing to pay a little more for this excellent service."

Focus

D&B also makes clear choices in this regard. For example, it focuses exclusively on high-end offices. Jeroen: "We want to distinguish ourselves with our services in office environments where the user also demands this. That creates focus, and thus we create a specialization. We certainly don't cater to everyone, and within 5G, we focus on high-quality real estate, such as Valley in Amsterdam and the various World Trade Centers. But we also target ambitious corporates, who find it easier to find and retain employees by creating a high-quality work environment." According to Anouk, this also has a very clear correlation with the well-being of tenants and/or users of a building. "We are also increasingly advising in this area, for example, on BREEAM and the WELL Building Standard, which addresses themes related to the health of a building. That clearly represents the added value of our services."

Finally

In summary, the key themes in D&B's services are: flexibility and modularity (Jeroen: "Smart thinking about shared facilities like meeting rooms and parking"), community & branding, health & well-being, sustainable & impactful, and hospitality & experience. Regarding the latter, Jeroen explains: "We have 1,200 employees who have been selected and trained in hospitality, whether it's cleaning, mobility, security, catering, or hospitality. Moreover, starting this year, clients will have a single point of contact who is knowledgeable about all five areas. There will also be a single manager responsible for a specific location, who already oversees five services. All this is to ensure that real estate companies can count on higher returns. We offer a new form of real estate management that helps tenants achieve success in their housing and investors achieve their returns."

This article previously appeared on Vastgoedjounaal.nl .

About D&B The Facility Group

D&B The Facility Group is a multi-service facility services provider based in Amstelveen. The company provides a wide range of services for corporate offices and high-end real estate environments, aiming to create an experience that positively impacts people's well-being. D&B solutions are always customized, because no organization or building is the same. D&B employs approximately one thousand people.

For more information:

Anouk ter Meulen

Manager New Business

anouk.ter.meulen@db.nl