Tuscaloosa, Ala., (March 22, 2018) – AEI Consultants, a leading commercial real estate assessment and consulting firm, has completed a full facilities condition assessment on the University of Alabama campus, consisting of 168 buildings totaling more than 10 million square feet of institutional properties. The campus-wide project includes academic teaching and office facilities, residential dormitories, and operational buildings as well as sports stadiums and complexes.
The educational institution, which is ranked among the top 60 public universities in the nation, retained AEI to assess and analyze the entire campus and deliver an in-depth capital improvement plan for the university.
“The higher education landscape continues to demand renovations and improvements that align with today’s innovations in learning and campus life,” says Holly Neber, CEO of AEI Consultants. “The challenge for higher education is how to prioritize and budget for capital investment in their facilities and infrastructure. This is the value that AEI is able to deliver. By partnering with the University of Alabama in this assessment, we were able to generate an extensive capital needs plan comprised of estimated costs for necessary investment in facility assets that are categorized by importance.”
The facility condition assessments cover not only the condition of building systems, but also includes the bar coding of key building operation equipment in each building. Each public access building is also reviewed for ADA compliance. AEI also offered energy enhancement recommendations for building envelope and building systems for the university to consider.
This prioritization will be essential in the implementation of a campus-wide strategic improvement plan, according to Neber, who notes that AEI will work closely with the university to launch and implement this plan in 2018. This will allow the university’s facilities department to coordinate system critical budget priorities with the university’s governing bodies to provide funding for these strategic initiatives.
“The key to asset management for university campuses is identifying critical needs for immediate repair as well as outlining specific time frames regarding system refurbishment, replacement, or upgrade,” says Kyle Christiansen, Vice President – Capital Planning at AEI. “By investing first in a comprehensive asset assessment and capital plan, the University will be able to save costs and increase efficiency over the life of their facilities.”
To conduct this comprehensive assessment, AEI used a wide range of resources, including data collection software that collects, transfers and documents all data during the inspections. AEI’ Capital Planning Team reviewed the university’s Computerized Maintenance Management System, maintenance history, available blueprints, historical cost data, and energy audits prior to conducting on-site work, which included gathering field data and geo-coding images. The data was delivered to the university by written report and by transferring all data into a cloud-based database. The data will be readily available to the facility staff for years to come.
According to the University of Alabama’s facilities management team, they expect this comprehensive campus assessment to assist in the implementation of a more proactive planning process, as well as usher in a new link between thought and action for the institution.
AEI’s full facilities condition assessment and capital plan will be complete in July 2018. As part of the report deliverable, AEI will hold a series of meetings with University stakeholders to finalize impact-oriented timeline processes, factoring greatest-need scenarios, budgetary considerations and value-weighted tasks.
About AEI Consultants
AEI Consultants is an employee-owned international consulting firm that provides comprehensive services to commercial lenders, property owners, managers, tenants, and developers, industries, institutions, government agencies, and insurers, including many Fortune 500 companies. These services include environmental, property and facility assessments; zoning and energy consulting; site investigation and remediation; industrial hygiene; and construction risk management. Founded in 1992, AEI is based in the San Francisco Bay Area with offices across the United States and Europe.
