JLL Wins 4.3 MSF Management Contract from Principal Financial

August 25, 2011
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Principal Headquarters in Des Moines

The trend continues. Non-real estate companies with large commercial portfolios have been doling out real estate services contracts all summer, and Jones Lang LaSalle has won yet another assignment. The firm recently emerged victorious form a heated bid for a facilities-management contract for the Principal Financial Group’s 4.3 million-square-foot portfolio of employee-occupied properties.

JLL’s history as a longtime leader in property and corporate facility management, a service provided through its Integrated Facilities Management platform, certainly helped the firm come out on top in the competition. The 150 owned and leased Principal sites span the U.S. and roughly 15 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America. The portfolio includes the financial services provider’s 2.4-million square-foot headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa. The campus consists of 12 office buildings, a warehouse facility, a childcare center and several parking facilities. As of the close of 2010, Principal occupied 92 percent of the multi-structure compound, with the remaining space leased to outside tenants.

There’s a trend afoot. Over the last few months, real estate investment and development companies have not been shy about outsourcing. IndCor Properties has been particularly active of late, awarding a handful of major assignments, including two to JLL. In July, IndCor tapped the firm to oversee leasing of a nearly 5.7 million-square-foot group of properties in the Atlanta, Charlotte and Miami areas, and in August, the company turned to JLL once again to manage a 15.4 million square-foot portfolio encompassing industrial facilities in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

However, it’s not just the real estate companies that have been bestowing gargantuan services contracts. Last month, financial services provider HSBC Holdings PLC made a deal with JLL to renew the real estate services contract for its 8 million square-foot U.S. portfolio and expand the scope of the arrangement to include 2 million square feet of assets in Canada. HSBC also called on another firm to serve as exclusive global strategic-property portfolio manager for the financial concern’s 72 million-square-foot international portfolio. Also in July, Union Bank N.A. awarded an outsourcing services contract for a group of properties encompassing five million square feet, and the U.S. Postal Service chose a firm to act as the exclusive provider of strategic corporate real estate solutions for the agency’s 300 million-square-foot group of owned and leased properties. And May brought news that British Airways had awarded a management assignment for its 8.5 million square-foot global portfolio.