JANINE R. PADIA, Vice President, Winthrop Management

In a market where some commercial buildings have vacancy rates of 20%, owners of the Park Place complex in Irvine are pleased with its 95% occupancy. Behind the success is Janine R. Padia, a vice president of Boston-based Winthrop Management, who has managed the eight interconnected buildings since 1986. She said retaining tenants is all-important and discussed ways her company does that with free-lance writer Anne Michaud. Padia also tells of Winthrop’s struggle to change the complex’s image from “the Fluor building.”

What are those odd-looking towers around the building?

The mechanical towers. They house the mechanical systems of the building, the heat and air-conditioning systems. The building was designed that way so the mechanical systems were not on the roof, but they were separate. That’s so that there wouldn’t be vibrations from the systems when they turn on and off.

When your company and Trammell Crow Co. bought the building in 1985, you said you needed to change its image. Why was that?

One of our challenges early on was to change the facility from single-tenant to multi-tenant. This building has always been a landmark, and it was always known as the Fluor building. There were guard gates up and a guard, so there was a perception that it was a fortress. Our challenge was to open it up to the community, to open it up to other tenants.

I think we’ve achieved that by bringing in a whole host of different companies to Park Place. We’ve also held special events such as the summer concert series and the annual Taste of Irvine, which is the fund-raiser for Irvine temporary housing.

We’ve had some filming opportunities here as well. The building was featured in “Defending Your Life,” which starred Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks. As recently as last week, a German company filmed a commercial here where they stacked plates three stories high. It was a commercial for dish soap.

Has your effort to change the building’s image worked?

I think so. In this market, we’re 95% occupied, so we have been successful in our challenge to get the building leased.

Do people still call it the Fluor building?

Yes, they do. Fluor is a premier company in Orange County, so we don’t want to disassociate ourselves from Fluor. They’re our major tenant. But as time has gone on, with the moving in of all the other tenants, the image has changed.

Who are some of your other tenants?

We have Denny’s, AT&T; Business Information Systems, United Pacific Insurance Co., Avco Financial Services. Those are the major companies.

Fluor occupies how much of the space?

About 60% of the project.

Why do you think your 95% rate is so good? Did you have agreements with these tenants before the recession?

We did a lot of leasing in 1989 and ‘90, but we’ve had a lot of activity since then. In fact, as recently as last week, we signed three leases.

We’d like to think of our success as due to a couple of things. For one, we have amenities such as meeting rooms and classrooms, a health club, a dry cleaner, a barber and beauty shop. All of us are pressed for time, and we need to have convenience, and that’s what we feel like we provide.

We also try to be responsive to our tenants.

Do you think the fame of the building works to your advantage?

Some of the smaller companies that have leased space in the tower want to identify with the building because it is such a landmark, so that has added to our success. But I think in this market you have to retain your tenants, and that’s where our management has helped us.

You have some space available, though?

We still have about 75,000 square feet available. There’s about 1,500,000 square feet of office space here.

Do you know how many football fields that is?

Well, in the atrium building, what’s been attractive to some of the larger tenants is that (each) floor is very large; each is over an acre in size. Each floor has about 45,000 square feet of useful office space, whereas a typical high-rise building would be around 22,000.

So, that’s been advantageous to some companies because you can have all of your employees on one floor, and you don’t waste a lot of time going up and down elevators. That has attracted some of the larger tenants, such as the insurance companies.

Do you ever get nervous when you hear stories about how other commercial buildings are doing? And do you do anything to make sure you don’t end up having similar problems?

A key is to stay on top of the market. It is a very competitive environment out there, and it’s easier to retain a tenant than it is to get a new tenant. So, we want to keep our tenants happy and provide the services they want.

Another thing we do to differentiate ourselves is to control our operating expenses. In fact, this year our tenants are getting back a refund of operating expenses because we were able to control expenses at the property.

Is this the first time you’ve done that?

We did it one other time, in 1987.

Do you have an example of how you saved money?

We’ve installed some light sensors in offices. If we were to sit still in here for three minutes, the lights would turn off automatically. And when you walk in a room, the lights go on. That was an issue for some of our tenants. There’s a real resistance to not having that light switch.

We’ve also had some consolidation of jobs to keep our payroll costs down.

On keeping tenants happy. . .

“Tenant retention is becoming more and more important as we go through these times.”

On her successful effort to cut operating costs. . .

“Because of the economy, everyone’s watching the bottom line. So we felt it was important to the tenants to get a rent reduction. That’s what it amounts to. They get a credit to their rent for the expenses we saved.”

On the benefits of the acre-size floors. . .

“If you don’t have to have your employees riding up and down the elevators or going up and down stairs, that only adds to your productivity.”

On the building’s design. . .

“Welton Backet & Associates was the original architect, and Fluor worked with them to design the building. We were fortunate to have purchased the building from Fluor because it was designed with every thought in mind. This was their home.”