BOMA Calgary made the move to our BOMA BEST certified 5/5 building late January. We met with Executive Director of BOMA Calgary Lloyd Suchet to learn more about the association and welcome our new Tenant.
BOMA Calgary is a voluntary professional association made up of commercial real estate professionals -primarily property managers, but building operators and brokers too.
BOMA Calgary only has three full-time employees, but upwards of 700 members who are engaged in over 30 events per year ranging from smaller information sessions, to holiday lunches and awards galas.
“There is no shortage of things to do without even talking about the educational programs. We do a lot of advocacy, which is near and dear to my heart, at all levels of government – city and provincial – and professional networking,” says Suchet.
Other popular BOMA Calgary initiatives include:
· Monthly luncheons where 150+ people get together to network and hear an interesting speaker
· Awards programs to recognize industry achievements
· Marketing of the BOMA BEST program
· Training programs for building operators (Strategic Group has had several building operators complete their 5th class power engineering ticket through BOMA Calgary).
“Overall, we try to speak for the industry and the issues affecting it,” says Suchet. “We’ve been really successful in establishing BOMA as the voice.”
While advocacy is a big part of the association’s day-to-day, BOMA BEST – Canada’s largest environmental assessment and certification program for existing buildings in Canada – has become a key program for BOMA across the country.
Suchet says they’ve worked hard on improving content and software and seeing incredible uptake in the Calgary market. In October 2015, Strategic Group BOMA BEST certified 52 buildings across Calgary.
”What our members are realizing is that if it matters, measure it. We can’t improve your buildings’ performance if you don’t own a baseline, so we have been really pushing it locally and getting a lot of buy-in,” he says.
The industry is ahead of the curve on the environmental issue, Suchet explains. “We have been on this for 10 years so when the province came out with their program we said ‘bring it on we have been doing this already.’”
January 28 marked BOMA Calgary’s official move-in date to 5/5 at 550 11 Ave SW.
“It has been a great experience. We are steps away from downtown and it’s not that traditional office setting because it’s not just employees that visit – we want BOMA Calgary members to feel like it is home to them too,” he says.
When asked if they make it a priority to be in a BOMA BEST certified building, Suchet says ‘yes, absolutely.’