Background
Brookfield Properties is a leading real estate management company specializing in commercial and residential properties. From office to retail, logistics to multifamily, and hospitality to development, Brookfield work across sectors to bring high-quality, sustainable real estate to life around the globe every day.
Over the past 10 years we have successfully recruited for a wide variety of mid to senior positions with Brookfield Properties. Building on this prior relationship, Brookfield recently approached Maxwell Stephens to act as the exclusive recruiter to appoint a General Manager.
The Challenge
Brookfield Properties has recently secured a further 200,000 sq ft of leases across its City of London developments as corporate occupiers continue to gravitate towards prime office space. Amongst this flurry of leasing opportunities, One Leadenhall, a new 35-storey development due for fit-out in 2025 has seen a significant uptake in leasing contracts, hence the requirement for a General Manager.
Reporting to the Director of Operations, the General Manager is responsible for managing, promoting, and ensuring the efficient operation and maintenance within their assigned Brookfield Properties portfolio.
The main responsibilities for the role include but are not limited to:
1. Tenant Relations: Maintaining positive tenant relations by facilitating effective communication and addressing day-to-day building operation issues. They also chair and lead tenant meetings, ensuring the timely release of meeting minutes and actions.
2. Staff Management: Overseeing the Brookfield staff located within the designated buildings, monitoring and assessing their performance and taking necessary actions to address shortcomings. They work with the company's human resources department to optimize staff recruitment, training, and motivation.
3. Safety: The GM promotes a "safety-first" culture within the building, acting as the Responsible Person during emergencies. They also ensure that safety, evacuation, and disaster recovery plans are properly organized and supervised in collaboration with statutory authorities and tenants.
4. Financial Oversight: Financial responsibilities include setting specifications for contractors, reviewing service levels, and negotiating terms of instructions. Maintaining records of expenditure and spending commitments, manages the building's budget, and controls car parking operations to ensure lease agreement compliance.
5. Systems & Processes: Supervising day-to-day inquiries related to building operation, coordinates and approves proposed tenant work or alterations, and ensures compliance with industry best practices. They also maintain up-to-date procedures and regulations and report incidents with insurance implications.
6. Liaison and Communication: Establishing and maintaining relationships with statutory bodies, neighbouring developments/buildings, and senior personnel to support leasing and asset management initiatives. They attend various meetings both on-site and at the company's London Head Office as required.
7. Safety Commitment: The General Manager plays a crucial role in embedding safety and health principles into the organization's culture, demonstrating a commitment to safety excellence, and proactively identifying and mitigating hazards in the workplace.
The Result
Acting as exclusive recruitment partner on this project, we utilized our well-established and extensive network and 50,000+ strong candidate database to gain access to the best candidates the industry had to offer. In addition we utilized appropriate advertised search activities to ensure we found the ideal person to fill the role. We spoke to a wide range of both active and passive candidates for the role, followed by direct screening videos interview with over 50 candidates. From here we were able to produce an extremely high quality longlist from which the successful candidate was found.