New Holland Residences

New Holland Residences (NHR) is a New York City based property management firm serving over 25 market-rate multifamily buildings and over 800 units in Manhattan and Brooklyn. NHR is passionate about elevating the living experience through innovation and sustainability for its 1500 residents. In 2014, NHR spent over $1.6 million on its annual utility expenditures.

Data-driven energy efficiency projects are key to NHR’s mission to create economic value for building owners through reductions in operating costs. “We believe that data empowers us,” says Juan Herrera, Director of Field Operations at NHR. “By taking a measured and pro-active approach to the efficiency of our buildings we are able to be more competitive in the marketplace.”

We believe that data empowers us. By taking a measured and pro-active approach to the efficiency of our buildings we are able to be more competitive in the marketplace.

- Juan Herrera, Director of Field Operations, New Holland Residences

NHR utilized WegoWise to:

• Reduce utility costs to enhance asset value and lower operating expenses
• Reduce the amount of time required to track utility usage
• Identify the buildings and retrofit projects that delivered the best return on investment (ROI)
• Report emissions to the New York Carbon Challenge to position the NHR brand as sustainable and innovative

Reduced Water Use by 40% and Utility Costs by 15%

By using WegoWise to analyze energy and water consumption, NHR identified the most significant resource-draining issues across its portfolio. After identifying these opportunities through the data presented by WegoWise, NHR tackled the issues head-on by making repairs and installing retrofits across its portfolio of properties. NHR reduced water costs by 40% and energy costs by 15%, year-over-year.

WegoWise’s reports made it easy for NHR to discover which buildings in its portfolio were most inefficient and allowed them to tackle them with retrofits and other repairs.

By benchmarking the buildings in its portfolio against similar buildings in the WegoWise database, NHR discovered several recently acquired buildings that were underperforming, costing the building owners money and reducing comfort for building tenants. NHR quickly installed crucial retrofits and made building repairs. These updates included:

• Repaired window gaps in several of their buildings
• Replaced water fixtures in many units
• Installed energy management systems across 100% of the buildings

WegoWise helped NHR forecast utility expenditures, identify anomalies generating unnecessary water and gas usage, and understand overall building performance. As a whole, NHR’s upgrades paid for themselves in less than a year.

Innovative Technology Saves Time, Improves Branding in a Competitive Market

Integrating the latest technology at our properties has given us a real competitive edge in the New York apartment market. [Before using WegoWise], we had to dedicate exorbitant staff time to manually enter utility data into spreadsheets. We simply didn’t have the tools to effectively analyze that data.

- Paul Tennenbaum, Director of Energy Management, New Holland Residences

Differentiation is more important than ever in the competitive NYC real estate market, and with the multi-family sector being spurred by rapid urban growth, innovative property management firms like NHR are rising to the top of the pack. For NHR, this drew them to incorporate technology like WegoWise into its day-to-day operations as well as focusing on sustainability initiatives that make their properties attractive to today’s green-minded renters. "Integrating the latest technology at our properties has given us a real competitive edge in the NYC multi-family market," said Paul Tennenbaum, Director of Energy Management at NHR. "[Before using WegoWise], we had to dedicate exorbitant staff time to manually enter utility data into spreadsheets. We simply didn’t have the tools to effectively analyze that data.” The switch from manual processes and spreadsheets to automatic tracking in WegoWise saved Juan’s team hundreds of hours each year: time that can now be used to focus on bringing additional value to the portfolio.

In addition to making use of technology like WegoWise to enhance their reputation as an innovative property management firm, NHR aims to attract residents who consider sustainability and green features important in choosing an apartment. NHR is one of 17 of New York City’s largest property management firms participating in the New York Carbon Challenge (NYCC), which aims to reduce building-based emissions in New York by 30 percent in the next 10 years. WegoWise helped NHR more easily verify that building emission reductions meet NYCC goals — an ongoing initiative for NHR that boosts their sustainability credentials and solidifies NHR’s brand as innovative and green-minded.

Key Results

After signing on with WegoWise, NHR saved 15% in utility costs across its portfolio. NHR used WegoPro to:

• Easily identify low-performing buildings to repair and upgrade, creating improved tenant comfort and decreasing operating expenses
• Participate in the New York Carbon Challenge through a seamless integration between WegoWise and ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager
• Limit staff time spent on energy analysis, freeing up resources to improve tenant experience
• Evaluate the performance of retrofits, upgrades and repairs, validating expenditures and tracking the success of NHR’s investments

More about NHR

New Holland Residences (NHR) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sugar Hill Capital Partners (SHCP), an investment management and operations firm with a scalable and repeatable business model of acquiring, operating and profitably exiting multi-family buildings in New York City. To learn more about SHCP and its wholly owned subsidiaries visit sugarhillre.com.