TIAA-CREF Global Real Estate’s 601 Tower, Minnetonka, Minnesota Wins 2009 International Toby Award

One Boston Place, Boston and Parkway Corporate Center, Montvale New Jersey Recognized for Exceptional Performance
New York.- TIAA-CREF Global Real Estate group’s 601 Tower in Minnetonka, Minnesota was recently honored with The Office Building of the Year (TOBY) Award from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) in the 250,000 to 499,999 Square Foot category. The International TOBY Award recognizes excellence in office building management and operations.

To win the International TOBY award, 601 Tower first won both local and regional competitions. Judging was based on community impact, tenant/employee relations programs, energy management systems, accessibility for disabled people, emergency evacuation procedures, building personnel training programs, and overall quality indicators. A team of industry professionals also conducted a comprehensive building inspection.

601 Tower, a 15-story Class A+ high-rise consisting of 288,000 rentable square feet is considered a local landmark and can be seen for miles in the Minneapolis metropolitan area. ENERGY STAR® benchmarking and a proprietary building management system are utilized to watch for trends and inefficiencies in building energy usage. These management tools have allowed 601 Tower to reach an ENERGY STAR performance rating of 90. In addition to property management, active involvement in the local community is important to the management team and the tenants. TIAA-CREF and property manager, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) have donated more than 10,000 pounds of food to Second Harvest Heartland Food Shelf, the Upper Midwest’s largest hunger-relief organization.

“Our years-of real estate investment experience demonstrates that excellent property management helps maximize value to clients and reduce risk over the long-term, through various market cycles,” said Tom Garbutt, head of TIAA-CREF Global Real Estate. “TIAA’s financial stability allows us to continue to focus on maintaining well-run, high-quality properties that have a smaller environmental footprint. As a result, they can be run at a lower cost, making them more attractive to premier tenants.”

Parkway Corporate Center in Montvale, New Jersey, also owned by TIAA-CREF, was awarded the first-ever BOMA360 award. This honor is granted to those properties which implement and execute industry best practices in property management and operational excellence on a holistic basis. BOMA360 is a new standard that BOMA has created to provide tenants and owners with an independent validation of these best practices and to encourage their spread across all properties. Parkway Corporate Center is managed by Grubb & Ellis.

One Boston Place in Boston, a third TIAA-CREF property, was a finalist for the BOMA Earth Award. It is the first LEED EB: O&M Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance) certified property in the country. LEED EB: O&M is a rating system applicable to building operations, processes, systems upgrades, and minor space use changes. One Boston Place is managed by CB Richard Ellis.

The awards were presented at the BOMA International Conference and The Office Building Show, June 28-30 in Philadelphia.