German residential specialist Grand City Properties has emerged as the winner of EPRA's inaugural Outstanding Contribution to Society Award. UK REIT LandSec and Helsinki-listed retail specialist Citycon were the two runners-up.
The winners were announced on Wednesday afternoon at the annual conference of the European Public Real Estate Association in London. Commenting on the winners, PropertyEU's editor in chief Judi Seebus who acted as jury chair, lauded EPRA for the initiative and said: 'I found it really inspiring to see how some of the EPRA members are not only doing their job but at the same time making a difference in society.'
Grand City Propertie: Social Tenant Manager programme
Grand City Properties won the award for its Social Tenant Manager programme which it launched in 2013. The company claims it is the only German real estate company with a 24/7, free of charge service centre for its residential complexes. The social tenant workers liaise with the company’s tenants (which may include immigrants, unemployed people, handicapped individuals etc) and try to cut through language and cultural barriers.
Based on the feedback of the social workers, Grand City extended the programme and initiated other social projects like children’s soccer clubs, language schools, homework initiatives for and other educational projects and cultural events.
LandSec: Community Employment Programme
LandSec was runner-up for its Community Employment Programme (CEP) which it launched in 2012 to address the social challenge of unemployment in the UK. The UK has one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in the developed world, but the country’s construction industry is struggling to fill a severe skills gap, with more than 182,000 construction jobs that need to be filled by 2018.
The CEP enables individuals from some of the most vulnerable sections of society, including ex-prisoners and the homeless to find meaningful employment. The programme has helped reduce the number of re-offenders and increased economic contributions from a more active workforce. The reoffending rate for this project is less than 12% vs 50% nationally.
Citycon: Citycontest
The second runner-up Citycon harnessed its own shopping centre expertise and network to addresses a social issue – the need for greater entrepreneurship in Finland - in a creative and stimulating way, the jury said. Entrepreneurship has traditionally been seen as a big risk in Finland and young people in particular have been reluctant to start their own businesses.
Through Citycontest, Citycon contacted a large number of vocational schools and universities and the company’s Leasing Director and Commercial Directors visited 12 higher education institutions to talk about entrepreneurship and encourage budding entrepreneurs to take part.
Both the runner-up and the winner of the first Citycontest were able to try their concepts in real life and both now have stores in one of Citycon’s centres.
18 qualifying submissions
In total EPRA received 24 submissions, out of which 18 projects qualified to enter the competition. The jury, which was chaired by PropertyEU editor in chief Judi Seebus, evaluated the submissions according to three criteria: the extent/scale of their impact; their innovativeness/uniqueness; and corporate endeavour to make the project happen.
The 18 projects fell into one of two categories. The first category included a type of construction, refurbishment or repurposing of a building; while the second category_x000B_comprised corporate initiatives, for example projects aimed at educating or raising awareness on a social challenge in a community. Without exception, the winner and the two runners-up were all from the second category.
The other members of the jury were: Saira Choudhry, Director, PwC UK Real Estate; Jon Lovell, Co-Founder & Director, Hillbreak; and Matthew Ulterino, Member of UNEP FI Property Working Group. UNEP FI stands for United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, and the working group is charged with integrating sustainability into investment management.
