Security key to value enhancement.

A well-managed building is a well-maintained building. But as the world changes, and security becomes an increasingly important issue the definition of a "well-maintained building" has expanded to embrace this consistently growing concern.

Of course, security has always concerned real estate owners and maintenance provides as a function of property value enhancement. These days, however, security not only enhances property-it can be the key to a property's survival.

The recent World Trade Center bombing, the "Tuxedo kidnapping," and daily threats to executive safety, property, and corporate security have made it clear that increased measures must be taken to prevent potential "copycat" crimes. This presents owners and their maintenance companies with what I like to call the "Challenge of the '90's.

Security manifests itself in many forms. It can be as simple as stationing guards at the entrances to small buildings, or as detailed as providing tailored security for entire complexes: residential, commercial or industrial.

"The |90's ushered in brand new security demands, exacerbated by the current wave of both foreign and domestic terrorist-pattern crime," Robert Laino, president of On Guard Security and Investigative Service observed recently. "Personal vulnerability of celebrity tenants and highly placed executives is currently a key theme, requiring appropriate professional responses."

Laino elaborated further, that "a whole new area is also opening up regarding computer-based corporate espionage. Corporations now require cutting-edge service to keep their secrets ... secrets.

Security and investigative companies are expanding and hiring highly trained technical personnel to provide electronic installations, surveillance equipment, and computerized tracking - not only to ensure security from outside threats, but to prevent internal disruptions of "business as usual."

Perhaps all of this appears futuristic, but in practice, the future is here. In the realms of both foreign and domestic security leaks and breaches, most American companies don't have the slightest idea what's going on - foreign intelligence agencies are eating them alive," Henry Clements, a noted corporate security expert noted in The Chicago Tribune, August 29, 1993.

Shrewd business competitors are now less of a concern than highly sophisticated foreign intelligence agencies seeking technology and classified information.

The entire security area is not only an expanded obligation for owners to address, it also presents "Opportunity Zones..." Opportunities for owners to distinguish their building services on the market. Opportunities to enhance existing tenant services. Opportunities for maintenance companies to redefine the "Concept of Clean."

The all encompassing new "Concept of Clean" must be taken very seriously. I do, and to this extent have introduced security services within my maintenance group.

It's safe to say that security in all its varieties is the value-added maintenance issue of the 90's.