Early in the Coronavirus pandemic, East Region Chief Operating Officer Sarah Hawkins recognized that New York and other cities in the East Region would be severely impacted by the developing situation. They were warned by public officials that area hospitals would see an unprecedented number of people needing care for Coronavirus and would see dangerous Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supply shortages.
In response, Hines’ regional leadership mobilized operations teams across New York; Washington, D.C.; Boston; and Connecticut to aggregate inventory. VP Property Management Mark Smith (Washington, D.C.) took the lead in creating an onsite tool enabling managers to provide accurate information about supplies. Once that was determined, property management officers in the East started making phone calls to our owners and our large facilities management representatives, and the community came together.
Morgan Stanley donated over 70,000 PPE and in the East, Hines donated 11,670 N95 masks; 37,875 surgical masks; and 52,760 surgical gloves. The Washington, D.C. office donated the pandemic supplies to Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. The hospital is operating a drive-up/walk-up, community-based specimen collection testing site in Washington, D.C., testing for the COVID-19 virus, and was in dire need of these supplies for their frontline medical teams. The New York Office donated supplies to the Medisys Health Network, a two-hospital system in Queens that is in very serious need of them.
Following the East Region’s lead, after being moved by reports of the critical shortage of PPE in California, Senior Property Manger Joni Bozzone, Assistant Property Manager John Chapple, General Engineering Manager Santos Pena and General Property Manager Don Petros banded together to organize a donation of PPE to hospitals (or agencies that support hospitals) in need of assistance. This effort was led by Vice President Property Management Kathy O’Kelley and sponsored by all regional senior leadership.
Following an inventory of the various managers’ current PPE stock, they computed the excess at some Hines-managed properties that could be donated without putting operations at risk, based on guidance from Corporate Operations and Engineering (COES). With the approvals of each property owner (State Street, PIMCO, Goldman Sachs, Heitman and LaSalle), the West Region worked tirelessly to gather and donate over 83,000 PPE items. This included 43,000 gloves, 35,000 masks (2,300 N95), and 5,000 gowns.
“We are so proud of our Regions for coming together to be able to support our local communities and save lives,” said Bozzone.
