The First Facility Management Blog

The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM®) has awarded its first Accredited Commercial Manager certification to Emma S. Hoyer, a real estate manager for Liberty Property Trust Company, based in Columbia, MD. The Accredited Commercial Manager certification is IREM’s first new credential in over 30 years and was launched in December 2006. Designed for managers of small- to mid-size commercial properties, it requires applicants to manage a commercial portfolio of at least 20,000 square feet and have a minimum of 12 months of commercial real estate management experience.

“We are pleased with the quick response of Ms. Hoyer and others to the opportunity for professional recognition and career advancement offered by our new Accredited Commercial Manager certification,” said IREM President Robert Toothaker, CPM®.

“Moreover, many employers of managers with whom we’ve talked welcome the Accredited Commercial Manager concept. It enables commercial managers whose portfolio does not yet meet the minimum size for IREM’s CPM® designation to gain training, skills, and industry knowledge using the new credential as a stepping stone to the CPM®,” Toothaker added.

Those who earn the new credential must complete IREM courses, pass a certification exam and adhere to the IREM Code of Professional Ethics. This ensures current and prospective employers and clients that they have professional, financial and analytical expertise. Moreover, those who earn Accredited Commercial Manager certification become members of IREM, guaranteeing them access to tools, information, networking experiences, and other member benefits.

As part of the change the manufacturer of electric submetering technology is welcoming its former president who will focus on further strengthening customer support and continuing development of its technology.

E-Mon, which produces the E-Mon D-Mon® product line, announced yesterday its sale by Hunt Power, L.P. to the E-Mon management team backed by private equity investor Branford Castle, Inc. The transaction closed the 12th of this month for an undisclosed amount.

The management buyout, marked by the return of former company president Don Millstein, is seen as a positive move both by E-Mon employees and outside sales representatives, many of whom knew Millstein during his 1991-2004 tenure as E-Mon president. Current employee levels and facilities will remain intact within the newly formed EMon, LLC.

“We’re very excited about re-establishing E-Mon as an independent company,” Millstein said. “This transaction allows us, with Branford’s help and resources, to meet the challenges of our expanding international base of commercial, industrial, and institutional users.”

Long-time E-Mon employee, engineering VP Dave Bovankovich, added, “We’re thrilled at the prospect of rededicating our full engineering resources to maximize our core submetering business by accelerating the development and sale of innovative new projects like our recently introduced wireless system.”

As President and CEO, Millstein’s focus will be on the company’s traditional submetering business. Elements of the strategy will include identifying new markets for existing products and improving the company’s manufacturing and operational efficiencies. In parallel, Millstein will spearhead development of new technology, both metering and non-metering, that will leverage E-Mon’s extensive international sales distribution channel.

As a “hands-off” behind-the-scenes partner, Branford will leave responsibility for daily operations to EMon management. Branford will add value by providing strategic advice and capital strength, by managing “bolt-on” acquisition initiatives and by providing door-opening relationship opportunities to facilitate growth. Branford is a family-run, New York-based investment firm whose successful “buy, grow and hold” strategy has worked with numerous established, small-to-medium-sized businesses for more than 20 years.

Contrarian Metal Resources‘ InvariMatte® stainless steel finish played a role in the construction of the recently dedicated United States Air Force Memorial in Arlington, VA.

Considered long overdue, the $50 million memorial serves as a national place of reverence and remembrance for America’s youngest military branch and the last to be so honored. The new memorial, located on a promontory just west of the Pentagon, features three curved spires that arc up to nearly 300 feet in the air.

The memorial also includes an engraved glass wall saluting those who have died and a Guard House at its entrance, designed to provide security to the memorial. Contrarian’s InvariMatte finish was used for the Guard House in keeping with the memorial’s overriding stainless steel motif.

“The amount of material we contributed to the overall memorial was very small,” said Jim Halliday, president of Contrarian Metal Resources, “but the honor was a huge one for us as a company and for me personally. We are very proud to be associated with this national project.”

The U.S. Air Force Memorial was officially dedicated in October 2006, almost 60 years after the formation of the Air Force itself.

The monument was designed by famed architect James Ingo Freed, who was challenged to capture the concepts of sacrifice, valor and air. Freed, whose credits include the Ronald Reagan Building and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, chose to represent those abstract ideas with three slender spires, each having a different height, rising and curving away from each other. He hoped the image would mimic the sight of Air Force jets performing a “bomb
burst” formation, such as the maneuver carried out by the Air Force Thunderbirds at air shows.

“Stainless steel was used throughout the project to represent material that, in fact, is used in aerospace manufacturing,” said Pete Lindquist, Vice President of the Air Force Memorial Foundation. “The architect was relating the medium in which the Air Force operates, open air and space.”

The Air Force Memorial Foundation, created in 1992 to raise funds for the memorial, says about 54,000 airmen have been killed in action while serving in the Air Force and its predecessor organizations. Until this structure was erected, the Air Force was the only branch of service without any memorial in the Washington, D.C. area commemorating its service to the nation.