After a brief, unsuccessful stint as a real estate agent, Lillian Tummonds – senior commercial property manager for Cadillac Fairview Corp. – went back to what she knew: retail.
But after being robbed twice while working at a jewelry store, she decided it was time for a career change.
She ended up in commercial property management and has never looked back.
With a major expansion underway at Pacific Centre, which has the same corporate owner as Cadillac Fairview, she will soon have a host of new tenants to look after.
"Eventually, I will be the property manager for the office component of that building," said the 40-year-old Vancouver native.
Born and raised in Vancouver, Tummonds went to the University of British Columbia, earning a degree in psychology, which qualified her for nothing career-wise, though it sometimes comes in handy when dealing with tenants or contractors, she jokes.
With no real career prospects, she decided to try her hand at selling houses.
At the age of 22, she took a broker's course and spent nearly a year trying to sell houses.
She sold one.
"It was tough because I was just out of university," she said.
"Who's going to buy a house from a green, desperate 22-year-old?"
Discouraged, she went back to retail – something Tummonds had been doing since she was 15.
"I went back to selling jewelry, got robbed a couple of times. One time I got robbed, I was showing a ring and somebody pointed a gun at me and took off with the ring."
Three months after that experience, the store was robbed again, and Tummonds decided it was time for a career change.
She got a job working as a receptionist for Dodwell Realty. She steadily worked her way up to executive assistant and assistant to the property manager, and then got a job at Oxford Properties Group as a property administrator.
In 2001, she became senior property manager for Cadillac Fairview, which had been acquired by Ontrea Inc. (owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan board) and which owns several commercial office buildings in Vancouver, including Pacific Centre and the HSBC building.
"We're one of the biggest [commercial property managers] that own and manage our own properties," Tummonds said. "We're not third-party managers. The buildings that Cadillac Fairview manages are owned by our parent company."
Tummonds is responsible for about 200 tenants in seven office towers totalling 1.9 million square feet: TD Tower, 701 West Georgia; Canaccord Financial Place, 777 Dunsmuir, 700 and 750 West Pender; and the HSBC building, 885 West Georgia.
"My job is basically to make sure my tenants are happy," she said.
That means responding to emergencies like burst water pipes and power outages. Currently, her job includes working with contractors working on the Pacific Centre expansion to minimize impact on current office tower tenants.
The retail side of the expansion will see Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE:JWN) occupying three floors of the old Sears Canada Inc. (TSX:SCC) building. On the commercial side, there will be four levels of office space. Tummonds is not responsible for retail tenants – just the commercial tenants.
She said it is an exciting time to be in commercial property management because of the boom underway in new commercial office tower construction. Several downtown office towers totalling more than one million square feet are under construction, including Telus Garden, the SwissReal-Credit Suisse tower, and Bentall Kennedy's 745 Thurlow tower.
"They haven't had a new office building, I think, since Bentall 5," Tummonds said. "Now there's a lot going on. It's very exciting for the city. It definitely opens more office space for new tenants."
But that also presents a challenge for people in Tummonds' line of work.
The current vacancy rate for commercial office space in Vancouver is around 2.5%.
Derek Page, director of real estate management at Oxford Properties and president of the Building Owners and Managers Association of British Columbia (BOMA BC), said the amount of occupied commercial office space decreased last year as some companies shrank in size.
Combine that with several shiny new office towers, and large tenants could find it tempting to move into new digs, which makes Tummonds' job all the more important, because the key to keeping existing tenants is keeping them happy.
"It's a new generation of product with more efficient systems and better amenities, and if you're not careful, you can lose tenants to these exciting new opportunities," said Page, who worked with Tummonds when they were both at Oxford Properties and now serves with her on the BOMA BC board. "So now more than ever it's important to retain your tenants."
Page said Tummonds is up to that task, which is just one of the reasons she was brought on BOMA BC's board of directors.
"She's built herself a nice career taking on positions of increasing responsibility and has a great approach to the industry," Page said.
"We wanted that kind of mindset on the board. She's kind of a rising star in the industry." •
