More detailed than technical due diligence

The Elbkinder Vereinigung Hamburger Kitas gGmbH has commissioned CANZLER, a company of the SOCOTEC Group, to record the condition of 51 day care centres. For each individual building, the necessary renovation and maintenance measures are to be assessed and provided with a cost estimate. Hamburg's largest day care centre operator wants to further secure its maintenance planning.
 

Elbkinder is a provider with about 180 day care centres and an average of 6,800 employees in all districts of Hamburg and neighbouring communities. Around 30,000 children are cared for in the facilities.

The owner commissioned CANZLER to assess the condition of 51 daycare centres. Among them are existing buildings from the turn of the century to 60s functional buildings to the most modern facilities of recent age. These vary in size from 480 sqm to 2,700 sqm with a total gross floor area of approx. 77,000 sqm. Elbkinder plans to develop the property portfolio sustainably and, where necessary, to upgrade buildings to current standards in terms of energy and technology. CANZLER consultants examine the constructive, structural and technical condition of the buildings. They look in particular at the issues of fire protection, occupational health and safety, building law, sustainability and energy efficiency. Necessary renovation and maintenance measures are recorded for a period of up to ten years.

"From the data collected, we create initial renovation concepts, provided with a cost framework," explains Michael Nolte, one of CANZLER's managing directors. "This provides our client with the basis for the strategic further development and optimisation of the buildings." CANZLER also evaluates each property in terms of its expansion/extension potential for additional childcare places. "This detailed consideration goes far beyond the usual scope of a technical due diligence," explains Nolte and gives another example: "We not only evaluate the buildings, but also the outdoor facilities and their fixtures; we record the condition of the playground equipment and create a tree cadastre to evaluate the existing vegetation on the properties and their neighbourly relations."

The object-related inventory serves to enter all master and operating data into a CAFM system to be implemented in the future. The aim is to obtain a complete overview of all properties and their technical facilities and to ensure efficient, sustainable and cost-effective operation of all properties.