Alvarez & Marsal

Phillips Edison & Company (PECO), a real estate investment and property manager of a $1.6 billion retail portfolio, was poised for expansion. With 113 properties encompassing roughly 13 million square feet, the Cincinnati-based owner and operator of retail strip malls had been anticipating significant growth.

PECO's executive management team recognized the critical need to increase operating efficiency within the organization's Accounting and Property Management functions to facilitate the strategic developments. Because PECO traditionally employed a manual expense recovery reconciliation process, leaders specifically focused on streamlining budgeting, forecasting and expense recovery analysis processes.

Alvarez & Marsal Real Estate Advisory Services teamed with PECO's management and Cougar Software, a real estate technology provider, to implement positive change. A&M and PECO defined organizational and operational issues, and worked with Cougar to recommend systems improvement goals, integrate Cougar with Timberline property management software, and automate the recovery reconciliation process.

Working very closely with PECO on a two-phased approach, A&M and Cougar reviewed current organization, processes, reporting and systems to define future-state reporting and systems requirements. The team then conducted a thorough testing of recommendations to develop policy and procedure documentation, functionality enhancements, customizations, and future reporting requirements.

With A&M and Cougar's assistance, PECO's recovery process was transformed in just four weeks - a significant accomplishment when compared to previous efforts. The newly integrated Accounting and Property Management capabilities now allow personnel to focus on managing market assumptions instead of entering lease-level data.