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The Facilities Management Division for the City of Columbus, OH, is seeking data on operational costs per square foot in office buildings. How would we determine operational costs that incorporate custodial, trades, energy, etc.?
Kelley Brickey
Facilities Management Division
City of Columbus, Ohio
KDBrickey@columbus.gov

James Elledge replies ...

A. The best resource to use for getting the type of data you are seeking is the Experience Exchange Report (EER) from BOMA International. The organization has several versions available; personally, I would recommend the CD-ROM version over the more traditional formats because of its great search properties. The price is $215 (members) or $390 (non-members).

This format will allow you to take advantage of some special interactive features. Some of the functions include the following:

• Export EER data to PDF or Excel reports to perform quick and easy data manipulation;

• Select special customized reports from 18 custom modules;

• View data based on popular EER modules including: Medical Office Buildings, Class A, B, or C, and type of ownership; and

• Generate reports for specific income and expense line items for cross market comparison.

Loaded with eight income and 12 expense line item categories and 65 detailed subcategories for U.S. and Canadian cities, the CD-ROM version of the EER will allow you to run queries based on ranges that you actually select. Breakdowns for private and government, downtown and suburban, and building size can be sorted by zip code to generate up to four different report types. Pricing and order details are available from the BOMA Store at www.boma.org.

Also, the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) offers its 2006 Income/Expense Analysis: Office Buildings. Complete details are available online from the publications section of the IREM Web site located at www.irem.org.

Thanks for your question

Jim Elledge

Elledge, facility/office services manager for Dallas, TX-based Summit Alliance Companies, is the recipient of the Distinguished Author Award from the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), is an IFMA Fellow, and is a member of TFM's Editorial Advisory Board. All questions have been submitted via the “Ask The Expert” portion of the magazine’s Web site. To pose a question, visit www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/fm_viewexpert.asp.

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