Citycare Property and Urban Plus take a Partnership Approach
July 1 marked the start of a new contractual relationship for Citycare Property as we commenced our partnership with Urban Plus limited, a property management and development company owned by Hutt City Council. Urban Plus was established in July 2007 and operates as a Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) under the Local Government Act 2002. They own a portfolio of rental housing for the low-income elderly, all located in Hutt City, and they provide full tenancy management services for the properties. There are close to 200 units in total, located within 26 complexes.
"In addition to our expert delivery in the social infrastructure space we were able to offer Urban Plus several other benefits. We are committed to taking a partnership approach with our customers and our team will be embedded and work closely with the Urban Plus delivery team."
Citycare Property will be providing full facilities management services; including reactive response and planned preventative servicing, as well as vacant unit assessments which may include a refurbishment or deep clean in between tenancies.
Our existing expertise and delivery of facilities management within the social housing sector was a significant factor in our contractual success within a competitive tender environment. Citycare Property already holds the contract for grounds maintenance and has been delivering the Healthy Homes upgrade project for Wellington City Council social housing as well as the delivery of the retrofit programme for Kainga Ora in Wellington region. This new contract will further build on that portfolio of work.
“The tender process for Urban Plus was managed externally by Spire which ensured a well-run and truly independent process,” says National Facilities Maintenance Lead for Citycare Property Steven Pearce.
“In addition to our expert delivery in the social infrastructure space we were able to offer Urban Plus several other benefits. We are committed to taking a partnership approach with our customers and our team will be embedded and work closely with the Urban Plus delivery team. Our Wellington operations are in the Hutt Valley, so we can remain close to their operations and our experience and expertise in delivering services to an elderly social housing portfolio was important.
“Our bespoke asset and job management tool, EventManager, offers our customers a level of service, visibility and transparency that is quite unique. At any one time our customers can use the work portal to access insight into the number of jobs on the go and details about the work including job status and cost. We know that this is a game changer for our customers. We also took a flexible approach to bringing on board existing sub-contractors which provides familiarity among elderly tenants who take comfort from seeing regular faces on site,” says Steve.
Citycare Property looks forward to building on this new relationship with a customer that is committed to improving their portfolio of rental housing through targeted re-generation and expansion projects.