With investors flooding billions into Los Angeles real estate, the City of Angels is seeing a wave of developments popping up all across the skyline, but many of the city’s historic buildings are in need of a touch-up. And while big LA names like Wayne Ratkovich are making it their life’s work to bring these buildings back to their former glory, not everyone has the time or the capital for total overhauls. But, as Campbell Window Film founder Brad Campbell points out, these owners can still bring their offices up to modern standards of aesthetics and performance by working over the building’s existing materials with window films and other improvements.
Brad tells Bisnow there are numerous advantages to taking less invasive methods to updating your properties. Not only can it save you money—reducing your operations expenses and increasingyour NOI—but it can also make your building more attractive and energy efficient. By installing an exterior film on dated glass, for example, a building can not only look modern and attractive to prospective tenants, but also bring the windows up to Title 24 standards, make your HVAC units more effective, and even make the ground floor windows safer and less likely to shatter in a break-in attempt. And, since these changes are noninvasive, any changes made to the buildings’ interior or exterior structure can be made overnight or without disturbing your building’s tenants.
“People can completely remodel an elevator car and spend $40k to $50k per car,” Brad says “or we can come in overnight for only a few thousand dollars. And since it’s over the existing materials, there’s no mess, no dust, no landfill, none of that.”
Furthermore, Brad says the noninvasive modernization process has no limit on what you can change: “It’s not just window films. It’s wood surfaces, metal surfaces, all sorts of different kinds of surfaces can be changed and modified. With over 1,400 types of architectural finishes to choose from, a person could change the whole building inside and out, from mullions and spandrel to elevators and lobbies.”
Brad’s company has hopped on the building modernization wagon hard, starting their own building modernization initiative. In Ontario, CA, for example, Brad and his company were asked to find a way to upscale a major building that found it was paying out the nose for its energy bills because its HVAC system wasn’t adequate to cool the building with all of the convective heat coming off the glass. After testing several films with Campbell, the client decided on a silver premium exterior film that not only looked much better than the dated Greylite 14 glass, but could also reject up to 81% of solar energy. The HVAC system was finally able to cool the building properly with the film installed, and the owner is able to save $24k annually in energy bills, making the ROI in six years. But the true success, Brad says, was with how happy the tenants were with the simple change.
Brad says there’s a “huge demand” for these noninvasive, cost-effective modernization techniques (“We’re finding we’re doing this more and more,” he says) and, due to available rebates, SoCal, LA and OC have become the prime markets for the modernization movement.
To learn more about Brad and our Bisnow partner, Campbell Window Film, click here.
Campbell Window Film believes in the power of the team. There is no better way to bring about great customer service than to invest in, train, and retain the best and brightest staff. When you contact us you’ll know right away that you are in good hands, and we continue that level of service throughout the process. Campbell Window Film was founded in 1988 by Brad Campbell, who originally started his window film career as an installer. Determined to bring a higher level of professionalism to the industry, Brad developed a simple philosophy to build the business on – delight the customer by learning about their needs and providing a solution that exceeds expectations. In his current role as CEO, Brad continues to spend much of his time working with clients as well as training our team to provide consistent customer service throughout our organization.
Confirmed! You are subscribed to the Bisnow Los Angeles E-Newsletter.
Upcoming regulations in the European Union require us to show this pop-up and ask you to agree to keep using Bisnow.com. We want to take 15 seconds to tell you what's going on:
We need you to be cool with us holding onto your email address (if we already have it) and for us to email you about commercial real estate news and events.
We need you to be ok with our use of information like your general location or reading habits to personalize your experience, so we can suggest the right stories to read or events for you to attend.
We need you to know that security is our top priority and that we hold any information we have about you under lock and key.
Sound good? Just hit yes and continue on your way.