Prestige Office Building Case Study

Global real estate leader protects prestige office building and its tenants against damage and downtime

About the Company

A global real estate leader, with more than 150M sq ft under ownership and management. Holdings span flagship and high-end office, hospitality, retail, and residential properties in over 30 markets worldwide. Renowned for global reach, local expertise, and properties that offer innovative and sustainable design.

The challenge: Protecting premium office space and its tenants against damage and downtime

The Company was renovating a multi-story prestige building that was both a prime example of local architecture, and was historically significant. The sensitive renovation aimed to preserve and celebrate the architectural heritage, while simultaneously creating a modern office environment.

Attracted by both the architecture and the Company’s stellar reputation, the tenants were equally as prestigious as the building, and planned custom Class A++ fitouts to complement the space.

The Company already knew that water leaks posed a threat in any of their assets, but even more so for a building and tenants of this calibre. Any tenant disruption had to be minimized. Damage and downtime simply wasn’t an option.

While leak sensing ropes and pucks were considered, the Company was dissatisfied with their performance, particularly high false positive rates that led their facilities teams to distrust them.

And with access to the most likely leak points severely limited by the new design, the Company needed a solution that would accurately detect genuine leaks, without sounding the alarm if small droplets of water or dust motes escaped.

The solution: Water leak detection that accurately detects leaks before damage is visible

The Company selected LAIIER’s Severn WLD™ sensors as their water leak detection solution. The multi-floor deployment provided detection across a number of use cases, including HVAC, water tanks, and riser cabinets.

The initial deployment was completed in the latter stages of construction, which was most convenient for the Company. The initial fleet of sensors was augmented several months later, just before tenants’ fitouts were completed.

Once installed, the fleet of Severn WLD sensors immediately began monitoring for water, and sending data to LAIIER’s cloud dashboard.

Prestige office interior

The result: A solution that accurately detects leaks, and builds trust by minimizing false positives

The first water leak was detected within 1 week.

The leak was located under an HVAC unit with limited access due to tenant furniture placement. The water leak sensor made it clear that there was more water than expected condensation, and sent a leak alert. Without the device, it is likely the leak would only have been detected when water travelled and damage became visible on lower floors. 

Similar areas in the building have experienced leaks, which have been caught in the early stages, and again limiting damage.

The Severn WLD sensors have also detected small amounts of water in a number of areas where it was anticipated. Whereas pucks or rope sensors would have interpreted these as leaks and sent emergency messages to the facilities teams, LAIIER’s sensors successfully registered that the presence of water was below the leak threshold, and refrained from sending emergency messages.

Not sending leak alerts erroneously - or reporting “false positives” - built significant trust with the Company’s facilities team. Investigating the false positives would have been time-consuming and disruptive for tenants; instead, the Company’s facilities team can focus on mission-critical activities, knowing that if a leak alert is sent, there’s a genuine problem.

The Company is now considering further expansion for flagship buildings, both domestically and internationally.

 

Full contract payback within 3 months

The Company achieved payback for the full 5-year contract within 3 months:

  • Early leak detection ensured that small leaks were repaired and remediated before significant damage was caused, creating time and materials savings.

  • Accurate leak detection avoided false positive callouts, creating facilities time savings vs what would have been spent if traditional water leak sensors had been installed.