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Battle Creek team wins award for improving communications, partnering, customer service

The Battle Creek Field Office took top honors for Excellence in Building Management and four others in R5 won honorable mentions in the 2019 GSA Facilities Management Award competition.

The Battle Creek team of Joseph Curtis, Jordan Dykstra, Peter Noot and Robert Potter (shown l-r, top-bottom in photo) manages the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center,  a 26-acre campus with 21 buildings (926,000gsf). The center serves as headquarters to two Dept. of Defense agencies and houses 1,800 tenants. The Battle Creek team also manages a 109,000gsf Courthouse and U.S. Post Office and several leases. 

The team dramatically Increased communications with DOD via project bulletins, an electronic display screen and mass email notifications. They offered tours to tenants on the history and operations of the campus and created DOD-specific project reports and tenant rep briefings using raw ePM data.

To help the DOD with employee morale and welfare, the Battle Creek team’s supervisor crafted an MOU allowing the property managers to help DOD obtain OSHA Voluntary Protection Program recertification. With this innovative approach DOD achieved full VPP recertification within a year, meeting a mission critical objective to enhance workplace safety and health.

The team also implemented an ESPC contract and used continual monitoring of contractor and system performance to reduce energy 23% since 2014. Over the same period, they reduced water consumption at the courthouse by 81%. 

The Battle Creek Field Office also had the fifth highest overall satisfaction score in the nation on the Tenant Satisfaction Survey at 76% (vs. 60% for GSA nationally). Recognizing the team’s expertise, DOD even requested one of the team’s  members to serve on the hiring panel for a DOD facilities position.

R5 honorable mentions included:

  • Scott Day, supervisory property manager, Columbus, Ohio, for building management.
  • The 2020 Decennial Census Team (Jeanette Lopez-Torralba, LaTonya Jackson, Selena Haavig, Steve Basic, Jermaine Wiley and Gina Carter) for customer service.
  • The Northern Ohio O&M Contract Team (Elizabeth Pena, Nancy Mercer-Haines, Maureen Michael, Kathy Lease, Evan Shooltz, Allen Fritz, Paul Lentini, Megan Gannon, Karen Weaver, Phillip Moore, Brittany Morrow, Brad Short, Phil Ramos and Chris Fleming) for innovation.
  • The 610 Lead Abatement Team (Eric Firestone, Scott Gordon and Brad Short) for partnering.
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Last updated: Feb 4, 2022
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