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Your Nova News Source: Keeping You Informed And In The KNova

Introduction

We are excited to introduce the new and improved internal newsletter - Nova Navigator - in an effort to improve internal communication and help keep everyone informed and “In The KNova.” This is a collaboration between the Communications Committee and the Creative Committee.


Here’s to future growth and new heights!

Meet Nova Group, GBC's Corporate Leadership Team

We are excited to announce the appointment of the following Nova Team Members to the Corporate Leadership Team! We look forward to the new and innovative ways this collaborative team will bring their diverse perspectives to driving Nova's strategic and operational decisions.



We would also like to extend a special shout-out and congratulations to Meagan Dunn, Joannie Hennen, and Keely Felton for their well-deserved promotions to their respective roles of Chief Operating Officer, Chief People Officer, and Chief Sustainability Officer!


Next Editon - we will feature the Strategic Advisory Team - stay tuned!


If you missed the "Exciting Future!" team meeting on November 3rd, you can watch the recording here: Exciting Future! - hosted by Ben_Jack-20231103_100115-Meeting Recording.mp4

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Welcome to the Nova Family, New Team Members!

New Hires

...and welcome BACK:

Internal Promotions


Congratulations to the following Nova Team Members who have recently been promoted! Your hard work and dedication to the success and future of the Nova Family are applauded and appreciated.


Strategic Advisory Team

  • Chuck Easley - Senior Vice President, Director of Technology, Data & Training
  • Neil Archibald - Senior Vice President, Director of Account Management


Construction Services Group

  • Rebecca Frecks - Senior Project Manager


Energy

  • Jan Duller - Senior Project Manager, Technical Team Lead
  • Gabriel Palacios – Energy Senior Project Manager, Field Team Lead
  • Jenny Oraskovich - Energy Project Manager, Feild Team Mentior


Industrial Hygiene

  • Thomas Fiorentino-Strawn - Vice President, Industrial Hygiene Services Group Leader
  • Ben Jungers - Vice President, Industrial Hygiene Services
  • Kristopher Sutton - Senior Project Manager


Sales/Marketing

  • Tanner Johnson – Associate Business Development, Chicago Area (relocating)
  • Caroline Bach – Vice President, Marketing & Branding

Happy Work Anniversary!


Congratulations to the following who celebrated a milestone work anniversary in September/October.


25 Years: Paul Micari (Carlson)


15 Years: Christine Kozuch (Carlson), Kerri Roiniotis (Carlson), Ray Hutchison


10 Years: Jessica Oxford

Welcome to the World!


Naushad Amlani and his wife, Amreen, welcomed their baby daughter on August 22, 2023.

In the KNova - Let's Chat | Episode 1


Listen in as Jack Cummings kicks off our In The KNova...Let's Chat Leadership Series with a Market Update.


PT Homepage

Market Snapshot from Nova Sales Team


With reference to the rest of the 4th Quarter, most clients are expecting transactional deals to remain slow, with a few exceptions, but no “end of year rush” is anticipated. That said, other service areas, like energy audits, decarbonization strategies, and climate risk/resiliency services, as well as the steady flow of balcony inspections in CA, construction monitoring, and Phase II site investigations, appear to be remaining steady. Diversifying our service capabilities has been a great strategy for us and is a big reason that Nova Group remains strong and successful.


Looking more towards the different types of debt in commercial real estate deals, the floating rate (bridge) is still a bit volatile but is generally sought for short-term refinance needs, hoping rates will be lower in late 2024 and 2025. Other positive developments include:


  • The 10-year treasury topped out at 5% a few weeks ago, which really halted transactions across the board. In the past week, it has fluctuated but tightened a bunch, more than 40 bps (currently at 4.57%). As a result, we have seen an uptick in CMBS deals (particularly in 10-year loans), with the 10-year treasury coming back down.


  • The October Jobs Report, labor wages have cooled, which suggests that the Federal Reserve Board’s ambitions to cool the economy are working; thus, it is a good sign that the Fed will not increase rates in the near term.


  • As we look at our agency clients, there has been a decrease in requests in Q4, but we expect that 2024 will be robust due to loan maturities. Another thing we are looking at is the investigation into Meridian Capital. Freddie and Fannie are investigating Meridian, a broker, and this will likely impact our agency clients. We expect agency originators to start to work directly with borrowers and not rely on brokers moving forward. 


  • With WeWork filing for bankruptcy, which has a material impact on the already struggling office market, we anticipate this will cause worry and potential foreclosures for the office market. This is not new ‘news,’ however, as pricing, debt structuring, and discounts on buildings have ALREADY been priced in for WeWork. In general, office coworking is the strongest it has ever been, and we believe the other occupiers of this sector (Industrious, SPACES, Studio, etc.) will scoop up distressed WeWork locations.


Looking forward to 2024, the feeling is that if the Federal Reserve Board is done raising interest rates and the price of debt stabilizes, transactional deals will increase in volume and regularity. There are a lot of clients and potential clients that are loaded with cash to pursue opportunities, and generally speaking, there is optimism for Q2 and beyond in 2024. Overall, we expect that 2024 will be another solid year for Nova Group, even if the market remains volatile or slow. Based on the number of maturing loans coming due throughout 2024, there’s a safety net of sorts for business to remain steady for Nova Group due to owners being forced to refinance or sell. We remain very optimistic moving forward into 2024 and 2025.

Building Performance Standards


Nova is tracking existing and new Building Performance Standards (BPS) that require benchmarking and/or energy audit.


Boston, Colorado and New York impose fines for poor performing properties with more to come.


Read more here, a nice article from CBRE.


Connect with your clients and ask whether they are meeting their Building Performance Standards where they have properties.

In The KNova - Case Study


In The KNova Project Highlight - Echo Park - Construction Services Group


This featured case study by Sean Paradine and Joseph DiBernardo outlines the success of over a two-year out-of-ground logistics construction project in which Nova was engaged as the Owner's Rep (plus other Nova scopes) going on 2.5 years and still ongoing.


Read full Echo Park Case Study here.

Carlson Environmental


Carlson has recently been selected again by the Chicago Blackhawks to assist in the redevelopment of environmentally impacted parcels they own near the United Center. Carlson also has been hired by the City of Aurora Illinois to obtain No Further Remediation letters on numerous parcels as part of their master plan to redevelop a large section of their downtown area.

Peak Environmental on the Radio


Peak Environmental’s Rob Edgar, a Managing Principal, and Kassidy Klink, an Associate, appeared on the podcast “All About Real Estate,” which airs every Sunday at 10 am on Fox Sports New Jersey (93.5 FM/1450 AM). The show is hosted by Kenneth Mueller and Jane Mueller, both real estate brokers who serve central New Jersey from their ReMax office in East Brunswick. The show provides insight and information regarding the management and sale of real estate. In “Environmental Issues in Real Estate,” Ken and Jane interviewed Rob and Kassidy about the environmental aspects of commercial real estate transactions. They discussed the triggers and goals of Environmental Site Assessments, the applicable regulations, the qualifications of environmental professionals, the process and goals, and most importantly, decision-making.

Communications Committee


The Communications Committee has been hosting a variety of new communications initiatives this year.


In the Knova...Let's Chat (above) – casual recordings from the leadership team, located on PT and Viva Engage.


Social Hours – we have hosted several social hour events this year, with the most recent a decked out Halloween hour.


Our upcoming social hour will be on 12/20 to celebrate the holiday. Look for more information on contests.


Communication Community

Untitled Design

Community Outreach Committee


One of the perks of being a Nova employee is the opportunity to spend 10 hours of paid volunteer hours per quarter for a good cause.


Those who share their volunteer efforts by posting pictures/details of their activities on PT or Viva Engage will be entered in a monthly drawing to win a $50 voucher to Nova's Company Store.


We encourage everyone to consider volunteering for a meaningful cause that you are passionate about in your community.

This Holiday Season is the perfect opportunity for all of us to be A Force For Good and make a difference around the world!


October Volunteer of the Month Winner is...Chealsea Gittle!


Congrats, Chelsea, on winning volunteer of the month for all your hard work and dedication to serving your community and making a difference!


Community Outreach Community

Creative Committee


The Creative Committee has been working hard to create this new In Nova Navigator Internal Newsletter and looks forward to future issues.


If you have anything to contribute at any time, please submit content through this form or by scanning the QR code.


Additionally, if you have a project that would be a good case study to be featured, fill out this outline and return it to Caroline Bach.


Creative Community

Health & Safety Committee


The Nova Health & Safety Committee is currently revising the project Health & Safety Plans (HASPs) for large- and small-scale field projects. When complete, the documents will be integrated into Quire to assist in creating HASPs for our field projects. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas you would like to share please contact Kevin Arnold or Dustin Mencel.


Health & Safety Community

Wellness Committee


“Take Care of your mind and you body will be thankful. Take care of your body and your mind will be thankful!"


Nova offers 3 virtual wellness classes each week and we encourage you to tune in:


  • Meditation Mondays: 12:00 – 12:15 PM CST
  • Meditation Wednesdays: 12:00 – 12:15 PM CST
  • Power Yoga Fridays: 11:00 – 11:45 AM CST


TAKE CLASS HERE


**If this is your first time attending a class, please preregister at MindBody Online prior to class!


Reminder: In an effort to encourage more people to participate in Nova’s Wellness Activities, we are going to do a drawing for a chance to win a Nova Store gift card. The drawing will take place on Friday, December 1. Anyone who participates in the Yoga or Meditation classes will be entered into the drawing - the more classes you attend, the more times your name will entered.


Wellness Community

Upcoming Holidays/Days off

Tis' the season!


In appreciation for all your hard work and dedication over the past year, all US employees have the following upcoming paid days off:


  • Thursday, November 23rd, Thanksgiving Day (observed holiday)
  • Friday, November 24th, Day after Thanksgiving (observed by Nova)
  • Friday, December 22nd (bonus holiday)
  • Monday, December 25th, Christman Day (observed holiday)
  • Friday, December 29th (bonus holiday)
  • Monday, January 1st, New Year's Day (observed holiday)


In addition, keep an eye out for our Holiday email signatures that will start showing up after Thanksgiving break!


Ben & Jack Visit Europe!


They kicked off their trip by visiting Cologne to meet up with Carmen Dahl and her husband for supper in Rodenkirchen before seeing the cathedral and enjoying some "Kölsch" beers, followed by meeting the German Ambiente Team at the office, where they enjoyed some lively discussions.


They concluded their adventure by visiting the new London office and joining them for beer & pizza.


Carlson Team-Building Volunteer Event


In September, the Carlson Team participated in a wet and muddy group-wide volunteer event at the Sundown Meadows Preserve in Countryside, Illinois. They spent the morning in the rain, cutting out and burning invasive species as part of the Forest Preserves of Cook County's restoration efforts. It was a fun team-building event that helped the natural environment with Friends of the Forest Preserve!

Nova Group, GBC (generally bad curling) Team


Reactions in Microsoft Outlook


Want to send a quick reaction to an email, but don't want to have to create an entire email reply just to send a thumbs up? Reactions in Outlook are the perfect solution!


Simply click the 😊 next to "reply" and choose from the gallery of reactions.


The selected reaction will be sent to the message sender and displayed for anyone else in the conversation.


On the other hand, if somebody reacts to your email, you'll see their reaction below the message controls towards the top right corner of the message window. You can also see these reactions in the notifications feed of Outlook.


Learn more here.


Nova Blog Notifications


Interested in being notified whenever there is a new Nova Blog Post? It's another great way to stay "In The KNova!"


Just visit our blog page on our website here to sign up for notifications.


Additonally, if you're interested in contributing or writing a blog post on a topic of your choice, please reach out to Caroline Bach.


This is a great opportunity to get recognition and share important information to our audience. All blog posts will also be featured on Nova's LinkedIn page to share with all of our followers.


Stay tuned for the next edition of Nova Navigator!

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