The Building in which I spend much of my time is dying, and the
management doesn't seem to care.
The Building in which I spend much of my time is dying, and the
management doesn't seem to care.
About every ten days or so, someone gets stuck in the elevators. I
haven't gotten stuck yet, but I feel them lurch and jerk from floor to
floor, as if possessed. Sometimes, an elevator will stop and linger
for a few agonizing seconds before the doors finally open. Tenants
are starting to notice. A couple of days ago, one of them said,
"Sometimes, it's kind of scary going into these elevators."
Burned out light bulbs in the lobby. Lights flicker and pop, victims
of an underpowered electrical system. A few months ago, there was a
neglected, stopped-up toilet in my floor that wasn't fixed for over a
month. My Building is suffering, and nobody seems to notice.
Scratch that. The tenants do. But grousing in the elevators and the hallways of the Building doesn't seem to help. The Building, once a proud symbol of its owners, is continuing to go to seed.
May I be honest? I love the Building. It's located in Marina del
Rey, right on the seashore, and people lucky enough to have offices on
the opposite side of the Building to me have spectacular views. And
it's right next to its twin, which is a major centre for Internet
connectivity here in Southern California. This means I get fast,
reasonably priced connectivity so my computers fly, even if they don't
think much of the power.
The landlord must feel he has a captive audience here, the people who love the ocean, and the people who love the Internet. And it's true, the Building doesn't seem to lack tenants. This, in my view, makes the malign neglect I see all the more puzzling -- and shameful.
I've put up this web page to tell people that my Building is
suffering, and if they are considering it, or any other building
managed by Trizec-Hahn, to
think twice. My building is sick, and nobody cares.
Except me.
But what can I do about it?
Put up this web page, for starters.
What's this clown David Dennis know about professional, high-buck real estate management? What's he know about the stakes involved in Buildings such as this one? Drop him a line and find out.
My moles tell me sister Building 4676 Admiralty Way is in even worse shape.
29 May 199 Update: On Friday, May 28, 1999, the two burned out
light bulbs mentioned in this page were finally replaced. According
to one of my moles, this happened only because the fact had been
persistently mentioned on incident logs for over three months.
Apparently the bulbs cost $ 45 each and building management was trying
to save the money, not realizing how bad it looked from the
outside. My opinion? If you're worried about $ 45 bulbs, replace the
fixtures with ones that can handle cheaper bulbs. But don't leave the
problem unfixed.
Also, it must be mentioned that the electrical problems in my office
are better, but now the air conditioning doesn't seem to be working
as well as it once did. After brief improvements starting shortly after
I wrote this page, the elevators have once again become as jerky as ever.
Just so you know.
Photography by the author, using a Canon
XL1 MiniDV Camcorder. Page Copyright © 1999 David H Dennis -
All Rights Reserved.