Ottawa’s downtown core will see several federal government properties change hands over the next few years, but a Kanata-based company believes it can help take some of the challenges out of the process.
Horizant managing partner Wayne Liko tells OBJ that the company has worked with the government to gather and centralize data about the assets in its portfolio. Horizant also supports the Archibus enterprise platform, which houses almost half of the government’s real property data.
While the data can help clients such as the Government of Canada make decisions on cost-savings, asset revitalization and improving operational inefficiencies, Liko said the information can also help prospective buyers see the potential in disposed buildings and allow new owners to hit the ground running.
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In this conversation with OBJ, Liko explains the value of real property data, why it’s needed in a changing work environment, and how data can take the pain out of process as the government disposes of several downtown properties.
The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
How does your work help companies reduce costs and better understand their buildings?
It ranges from the idea of what I call base data: what do we have, how much space, what kind of space, where do we have leases, and how long are the leases. Then it feeds into everything that is within that space. That includes the idea of people and could be anything from chairs and desks to IT systems that control lighting and cooling – how people interact with the space. We help (clients) manage all of that data so that they can make decisions on whether that building is underutilized or in need of repairs, or we could consolidate space and eliminate a lease.
How people work has changed significantly. What kind of changes are you noticing when you work with clients? How have their needs changed?
The changing workplace is obviously a hot topic. In this hybrid world we’re in now, (companies) still want people to come in and collaborate. They want people to learn together and work together. Some of that involves the types of spaces they have. Instead of a cubicle that they used to have before, now you’re coming into shared space. It goes back to that point of understanding what kind of shape your space is in and how you can, in some cases, repurpose or improve it to encourage people to come in.
That core data feeds into all of these analytics that then allow a client to say that their building might not be the best building in the best location, or it’s going to cost too much to renovate to make that change in workspace environments. It’s so critical as it involves costing and that helps them make that decision.
You work with the Government of Canada, which plans to dispose of many of its Ottawa buildings over the coming years. How is your company contributing to that process?
It’s a spoke in the wheel. The idea of these data elements that help (the government) get to a better decision. I wouldn’t sit here and say we’re holistically solving the disposal of Government of Canada buildings, but it still plays a significant role.
To pick on two aspects, there’s utilization and asset revitalization. Those terms are just that idea of how people are interacting with the buildings and how do we get them to better interact with the buildings with utilization. Then revitalization drives the idea of what can we sell, what can we get rid of. Our work is kind of day-to-day mundane, just understanding what they have. But that feeds into the idea of what are we going to do with this a year from now, or possibly 10 years from now? What we need in the future starts always with what we have today.”
Can this work in reverse, helping potential buyers decide whether an empty government building is worth buying?
That’s a great question that ties into an aspect of this base data. In our world, we deal with, at its most fundamental level, drawings – understanding the layouts of buildings and things like that. At a more complex level, we get into building information modelling. I’m not going to be the person to talk to a real estate investment company that is looking at a building. However, the work that we do would give them insight into that building.
They could look at that (building information model) and go, we can actually convert that into affordable housing. Or we need to keep it as office space, but it’s a Class A or Class B and it would require this kind of fixing to put it on the market and make it attractive, possibly to the government to lease again or to private entities.
So that information could be passed to the next owners of government buildings?
There’s an element (of the information) that might be proprietary, when you drill all the way down to the idea of who’s occupying the space. But if I paint a picture – say I’m a construction engineering company. I’m putting up a building, whether it’s a government building or a hospital or something. The work that I put into building, designing, all that content and digital information, is extremely valuable to the next person that’s going to be in that building.
So the Government of Canada could definitely hand not only the keys to the building, but an element of the data that allows the buyer to pick it up and run with it, as opposed to having to figuratively and literally walk around the building and figure out what they have.
