The Federal Development Solution™ Model

Through an innovative approach to property rehabilitation, FHS™ has established a first-in-industry business model that creates efficiencies within the construction and development processes called Federal Development Solutions ("FDS™"). Working hand-in-hand with owners and property managers prior to acquisition, the FDS™ solution implements plans to modernize property structures, systems, and technologies by renovating aging assets and incorporating new technologies throughout the properties. 

Our Federal Development Solutions™ rehabilitation initiative includes performance monitoring, training of site professionals, and customized installation and performance plans - and has proven cost savings from 25-60%.

[See Case Studies Here]

 FDS™ | BUILT ON STRONG RELATIONSHIPS & STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

By pioneering partnerships with the largest US housing manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors, FDS™ has established a first-in-class business model that creates construction and development process improvements.  Through these deep relationships, FDS™ is able to assemble teams of experts who directly assist owners, construction managers, and property managers through each stage of their rehabilitation, from pre-closing assessment to complete project performance monitoring of rehabilitation and future improvements. Owners have the ability to speak  in real-time to product developers and manufacturers during rehabilitation and improvement projects, thereby reducing project costs and ensuring on-time delivery.

Emerson Swan is a nationally recognized, stocking manufacturer’s representative organization serving the northeastern United States and the Greater Toronto Area. One of the largest manufacturers’ representative organizations in the US with expertise in Plumbing, Heating, HVAC/Cooling, Waste Water, Well Water as well as a host of high efficiency and renewable products. Learn More →

LogCheck is a simple mobile tool to help building maintenance staff automate their routine checks, tasks and reporting in the field. Staff log their activities, management checks them as needed, everyone’s kept on the same page without the paperwork. Learn More →

Sparhawk Group provides a range of consulting services aimed at optimizing building performance and comfort. Your team has a diverse skill set and design the most appropriate solution for each challenge faced. A wide range of services can be utilized together or separately – depending on the specific needs of your site or project. Learn More →

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Creating Partnerships to Deliver Results

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Control cost, efficiencies, and service from the beginning to the end of a project with our best in class integrated project design team. We offer a construction team who will collaborate from day one.

  • Best System Practices
  • High E product selections
  • Innovative  solutions  and designs
  • Delivery, service, training and education
  • Cost sensitivity and ROI

FDS™ | Integrated Solutions

  • Understand energy usage and costs in each of their buildings
  • Understand what products can make a difference and to what extent
  • Understand what design and implementation team can and will deliver acceptable paybacks (ROI)
  • Understand how to get their products of choice into their buildings
  • Understand what financial resources (including grants, rebates and incentives) are available to finance their projects
  • Understand how training and education can impact design, implementation, installation and post installation costs

FDS™ | Integrated Benefits

  • Collaborative design build effort

  • Curated, trusted and respected team

  • Valuable partner relationships

    • Architects
    • Energy and Consulting Engineers
    • General Contractors
    • Mechanical Contractors

Energy Consumption in a Typical Multi Family Building

75% in HVAC, Space Heating and Domestic Hot Water Production.

Primary Energy Consumption by Percent by Year for Multifamily Housing

Heating and Cooling Represents about 54% of a Buildings Utility Bill

By surrounding yourself with the right application, design and installation team you will receive:

  • The right equipment specifications
  • Installing contractor training and education in your specification – this ensures proper installation & commissioning and reduces call backs and post installation non-warranty costs
  • Ensures that the preferred equipment ends up in your building
  • Commissioning of new installations
  • O&M Manuals
  • A stock of common parts
  • Training and education of facilities staff and after installation access to equipment and systems experts

Reducing Energy Usage Through Product Design

The largest single contributor to energy reduction are designs that include water usage, Domestic Hot Water generation and space heating!

  • Water and Sewer
  • Gas Domestic Hot Water
  • Hot Water Heat – Hydronic System
  • Steam Heat and /or Domestic Hot Water
  • HVAC Systems
  • Electrical as it relates to HVAC, Domestic Hot Water and Heating Systems

 

FDS™ | RETURNS ON INVESTMENT

  • Innovative products | Higher efficiencies creates reduced energy consumption

  • Pricing | Bundled cost savings to the end user

  • Delivery | Scheduled delivery of product assures no lost time or cost over runs

  • Service | Highly trained and experienced field representatives combined with inside sales support

  • Warranty | Extended warranties on material and labor

  • Training | Certified contractors for the product we select and after installation staff training

  • Start Up | included in bundled cost – additional savings

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Routine Inspections

Whether you require inspections every month, every week, or every shift, we know it can be a pain remembering every single item and area that needs to be checked. And if you’re using paper checklists, you lose the valuable context and trend information that LogCheck puts at your fingertips.

 

Preventative Maintenance

Most preventative maintenance software is incredibly complicated to use, which is why getting your staff to use it “correctly” is a constant struggle. We designed LogCheck to be different.

Meter Readings

If you’re still doing meter readings on paper checklists, you’re probably wasting countless hours on data entry and correcting simple errors made in the field. End the madness once and for all with LogCheck.

Security Rounds

LogCheck helps security teams and managers gain greater visibility from the basement to the roof. Replacing paper log sheets with our digital logbook keeps security teams organized. Management gets a view into what their security personnel are doing, and guards get the historical context to identify recurring problem areas. Know that your buildings are fully covered, easily and at-a-glance.

Ongoing Commissioning

Even high tech buildings with fancy equipment and automated sensors all over the place inevitably fall out of tune. Protect your investment and give you staff a simple tool to ensure the systems are running as expected.

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The Federal Development Solutions™ team has driven energy efficiency into over 25,000 units of multifamily housing, commissioned over $1 billion in new construction projects, and provided energy efficiency leadership across the U.S. and in Europe. Our engineers, licensed in eight states, have the expertise to deliver successful projects on time and on budget.

Utility Cost Control

Since 1990, our focus has been on maximizing energy efficiency in buildings and mechanical systems. We understand construction and know the importance of delivering results.

To control utility costs we start with:

  • Cost & Consumption Benchmarking
  • Energy Auditing
  • Utility & Tax Incentive Identification

Operations & Maintenance

Commissioning provides continuity throughout the process of design, construction, start-up and training of staff. We offer a unique service with our systems-based approach so staff understands “why” as well as “how,” enabling them to take control of the building’s performance and minimize costs.

Operations & maintenance services include:

  • Commissioning & Retrocommissioning
  • Operation & Maintenance Manuals
  • Training

Implementation

The intent of the energy savings program is realized through engineering design. Integration of energy audit, design services and construction monitoring by our independent team of commissioning agents reduces risk and safeguards the success of your project.

To deliver results our team provides:

  • Professional Design
  • Construction Administration
  • Commissioning

The New Reality

Demanding design and construction schedules, coupled with complex codes and shortages of skilled construction staff, raise the bar to success in today’s economy. The new landscape requires doing more with less, making every expenditure count in multiple ways.
Building systems are more complex, and finding and retaining qualified staff has become even more challenging. The cost of turnover is magnified as the complexity of building systems increases, with new staff requiring a lengthier training period in order to get up to speed.

The New Approach

We engage and empower staff so the time they devote to building operations and management is used to maximum efficiency. Our process captures the institutional knowledge of the commissioning agent and staff—the team with the longest history and deepest involvement in systems and controls that impact building comfort, health, and efficiency. We train staff and equip them with documentation that
provides the information they need in a user-friendly presentation—visual, schematic, and in plain English.
With high-level overviews and detailed instructions, staff are equipped to operate and maintain the building’s systems and have the necessary submittals and manufacturer manuals to take the occasional deep dive.
In construction and commissioning, our team of mutually-supporting experts bring real value to your project. We communicate and document thoroughly to enable success in an environment of trust and accountability.

Five Steps to Peak Multifamily Building Performance

1.

Energy Assessment

Start with an assessment of your current energy consumption and costs. Move into an energy audit to define a capital planning road map that identifies all available utility, government and tax incentives for energy efficiency measures.

Benefits

  • Benchmark utility consumption compared to similar buildings
  • Define context-appropriate upgrades for building and budget
  • Leverage incentives to minimize capital outlays

2.

Retrocommissioning

Transition staff to a new operating paradigm – comfort at the lowest cost. Bring existing equipment to peak performance and document all operations and equipment settings. Identify simple low cost/no cost measures to enhance financial performance.

Benefits

  • A comfortable, healthy building
  • An energy efficient building
  • Staff is engaged and understands the systems

3.

Systems-Based Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Manual

The O&M manual captures accurate institutional knowledge of building operations. Information is presented the way the users need it: graphically in schematics, visually with photographs of actual equipment, and written in plain English with building specific sequences of operation.

Benefits

  • Knowledge of operations remains with the building
  • New staff have a training guide
  • Common language among site staff, management, consultants and contractors

4.

Maintenance Rounds

Maintenance rounds are the missing link to persistence of savings and a high-performing building. At best maintenance rounds data is hidden on paper with clipboards with maybe an occasional review. Further, rounds protect the building asset with routine inspections. We re-establish the value of rounds using a mobile platform as this is a critical process in building management.

Benefits

  • High-performance systems remain high-performance
  • Building asset is protected through daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal checks
  • Establish pride and accountability as staff and management recognize the value of maintenance rounds

5.

Mobilize

New mobile technology provides a platform to capture the institutional knowledge and have instant feedback and accountability for labor cost and protection of the building assets. Our process combines knowledge with transparency — keeping all parties in the loop and minimizing costs.

Benefits

  • Complete transparency of data for management
  • Real time access to asset performance
  • Accountability of building personnel

Transition to Successful Operation

Our unique process helps clients transition to successful operation. While meeting the goals and standards of “standard” commissioning, we excel at the controls, Operations and Maintenance, and maintenance rounds to ensure building performance.

If our team is commissioning, retro-commissioning, or re-commissioning, we have tools for your staff and our team to succeed with the new building, or new operations paradigm for existing buildings. We capture and record institutional knowledge for continuous improvement with System-Based Operation and Maintenance Manuals and Training.

Institutional Knowledge

Our operation and maintenance manuals capture the institutional knowledge in context appropriate learning style of operations staff. There is clear and documented two-way communication and understanding between management and operations.

The System Based Operation and Maintenance Manual includes:

  • Sequences of equipment operation in plain language
  • One-line diagrams of mechanical systems for ease of understanding
  • Control and operation set points
  • Component descriptions of operation and required maintenance with photos
  • System photos of how components build into a system
  • Trouble sheeting trees

The System Based Operation and Maintenance Manual provides:

  • Common language
  • Escalation paths for problem resolution
  • Training source for staff turnover with captured institutional knowledge
  • Empower and align operations and management with common knowledge
  • Help manage outside contractors for maintenance

Persistence and Accountability with Maintenance Rounds

Maintenance rounds add feedback to commissioning and building operations. Routine checks are documented for high performance systems. Routine checks to protect the building asset and safety are recorded (stair well lights, etc.).

Maintenance Rounds Combined with Knowledge of Operations provide:
• Accountability for routine rounds of the building operation and assets
• Reliability improves with rounds and checks
• Objective performance metrics are provided with completion of rounds

Cross-Organizational Benefits to a New Approach to Building Operations

The new reality demands that every resource — in both capital and time — provide maximum benefit. Federal Development Solutions collaborates with your team over the life span of building ownership, providing a cohesive vision and maximizing value. Our clients entrust their portfolios to our team, and we earn that trust – every day, with every deliverable.

Acquisitions Team

During building acquisition, we help your team evaluate a range of options to improve operation and reduce cost. We help you build a competitive offer, document savings to justify the expense of cost-effective upgrades and increase the size of each transaction while reducing long-term exposure to variations in the cost of energy. Energy and operations become a smaller component of ongoing costs.

  • Competitive offers
  • Larger transactions and transaction fees
  • Responsive support that is timely and
  • context-appropriate to the specific project

Human Resources

Maintenance staff receives a handbook of building operations empowering them with clear expectations, a common language and communication that is written for ease of understanding. Labor is a significant cost, and maintenance rounds become an objective tool for both staff and management to evaluate performance. The maintenance rounds reports are used to continuously measure and improve, so costs are reduced and staff is able to focus on the important tasks.

  • Staff clearly understands job expectations and performance standards
  • Staff and management recognize the value and two-way communication that rounds provide
  • Staff pride is knowing their work is completed,appreciated, and recognized

Operations

Institutional knowledge is captured. Maintenance rounds keep all parties communicating. Accountability improves, and reliability improves as a result, because what is a priority to maintain is easily communicated to all — no clipboard hanging next to the boiler. Costs are controlled as operations improve, reducing overtime and the use of outside contractors.

  • Knowledge is established and captured
  • Documented process of routine checks
  • Improved reliability from routine checks

Finance

We provide a variety of solutions to enhance, maintain and protect our clients’ assets. Maintenance rounds required for insurance compliance are documented, and unexpected costs are reduced.

  • Budgets are more predictable with fewer unseen expenses
  • Reduced exposure to energy cost variations