Meet the Property Manager – Holly Sparks of Realty Trust Group
Keeping facilities clean is a priority for every property manager. But, when you only manage healthcare facilities, it’s absolutely imperative. That’s just one of the unique challenges today’s featured property manager faces on a daily basis.
Today, we are pleased to introduce you to Holly Sparks, CPM, Senior Operations Manager for Realty Trust Group, a healthcare real estate company in Knoxville focused on “helping create places for healing.” We are honored to call Realty Trust Group a client of DPM Care. And we are excited to feature Holly and the great work she is doing on the blog today.
Meet Knoxville Property Manager Holly Sparks, CPM
What is your role at Realty Trust Group?
I oversee the property management department for Knoxville and Johnson City offices of Realty Trust Group.
How much space do you manage?
I manage approximately 3 million square feet between the two offices.
How did you get involved with facility management?
I received my real estate license in 1994 and worked for a local Knoxville developer and handled leasing and property management services from then on. I actually took that job on through a staffing company on a temporary to permanent basis. I guess property management stuck with me.
What is the biggest challenge you face in your current role?
Keeping operating costs down for our clients (we are mainly a third-party management firm) while continuing to give that excellent customer service.
What has been the biggest success story in your current role?
Growing the property management department to over 1 million square feet managed in Knoxville in a five year period. Also, we have never lost a property management contract while I have been overseeing the department. We have retained all of our clients and added new ones.
What is your best piece of advice to others in property management?
Be professional, always prepared for anything, and have a good attitude. Commercial property management, especially healthcare property management, is a difficult but rewarding industry. Your job is never the same day to day and there is always something going on to keep you on your toes. But with a professional, positive attitude you can accomplish anything.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
Dealing with so many people on a day to day basis. I love to interact with our clients, vendors and the tenants.
What’s unique about your specific role with your company that may be different from another property manager’s role?
We specifically handled healthcare real estate and property management. We manage hospital MOB’s and off-campus medical buildings. Not many firms are focused on this specific niche.
Describe what a day in your role looks like.
It could be reviewing and approving monthly reports, putting together budgets, overseeing a tenant improvement build-out for a new or existing tenant, or meeting with staff or hospital administration. The next day could be completely different.
How does having a clean building help your customers businesses?
It is a very important part of my job considering we focus on healthcare property management. Physician offices must be very clean and sterile for the patients. It is probably one of the more difficult parts of my job to oversee the janitorial/environmental services.
How does preventative maintenance create value for you or your business?
Preventative maintenance helps to prolong the life of your facility and keeps operating and capital costs down.
How has DPM Care’s service impacted your business?
DPM does an excellent job on our floors that benefit both our tenants and patients. I use DPM instead of my daily janitorial vendors to take care of the floors because it is their specialty and they are able to provide a better product and service.
What is the biggest facility management trend you are seeing right now?
We recently built a new medical office building and we made sure to put more energy efficient products into our facility, i.e. all LED lighting, solar panels on the roof, electric charging stations in the parking lot, etc. Buildings are moving forward with these and more energy efficiencies in order to keep the operating expenses lower for the building owners.
Thank you for sharing with us, Holly!