PROJECT DETAILS
Client
Allianz Real Estate
Year of Completion
2021
Size of Project
Smart Workplace Technology.
Location
Madrid, Spain
Allianz Real Estate is the captive investment and asset manager for real estate within Allianz Group. They develop and execute tailored investment strategies for clients, focusing on direct and indirect equity globally and commercial real estate loans.
Part of its long-term asset digitalization strategy and smart building capabilities is to deliver assets that meet the needs of the post-pandemic office user and, consequently, talent retention for its tenants. At the same time, the organization aims to meet its decarbonization targets as one of the world’s largest real estate investment companies.
Allianz Real Estate has supplemented its in-house expertise with smart engineering, smart services, and data asset management. Arne van Delft from Deerns provided smart building consulting expertise, while the GPA regional offices in Spain and Germany, ICAP Global, and GMS carried out the implementation.
The Paseo de la Castellana building in Madrid was an ideal candidate for a smart upgrade. It was multitenant, mixed-use with retail outlets, a recent construction, and featured a young tenant demographic.
The first scope of this project included integrating new technology and products specific to IoT installations that are not necessarily used in AV rollouts. There were several complex levels with the involvement of many parties and disruptions to tenants had to be kept to a minimum.
The second aspect of the project was the level of IT infrastructure required in the deployment, a fundamental aspect of the success of the installation. Allianz needed a separate data analytics platform for each stakeholders:
- Investors: Data reporting on carbon performance and potential stranding of the building.
- Asset Managers: Notifications on upcoming potential issues in occupancy or on the potential lack of responsiveness from the property manager mending tickets or implementing optimization of the HVAC.
- Tenants: Data on occupancy, productivity, and air quality within their spaces.
- Users: Digital App that connects them to the retail offers in the building and surrounding activities.
More importantly, GPA needed to balance the complexity of the vision and scope of the customer to third-party partners. It was paramount that the customer’s expectations were clearly defined and the deliverables agreed on, as this project would form the blueprint for potential future global rollouts.
Central to the project’s success was appointing a central GPA program manager. The program managers leveraged GPA processes and shared lessons learned with local experts and the customer in open communications. This critical process mapped out efficiencies for Allianz Real Estate for all future building upgrades.
GPA was proactive to compensate for information lags by directly addressing the parties involved (property management/technical coordinators) and quick to report on delays and possible hurdles. – Michele Bruno, Head of Special Projects – Allianz Real Estate
This smart workplace technology installation has improved the overall knowledge of intelligent building outfitting for all GPA offices worldwide. The critical lessons learned and the culture of information-sharing within the organization have been a benefit for Allianz Real Estate and any other global customer looking to integrate smart workplace technologies in their office spaces.
The German and Spanish GPA teams of GMS & ICAP delivered an authentic GPA experience for the customer based on the quality of delivery, communications, methodologies, processes, and, more importantly, teamwork.
