February - March 2008
Aaron Chaney Property Manager
of the Year
presented by BMH Magazine
first property manager of the year
Local
boy, artist, admitted people person, Malcolm Ching doesn’t look
like the kind of guy you hire as an enforcer.
But that’s how he got into the property manager game.
He had been the head of the graphic design department of a local architect engineering firm when Hawaii’s boom construction industry went bust. His wife encouraged him to try something new.
He was hired as Covenants Specialist for Waikele Community Association, which consists of 12 townhouse complexes, nine single family subdivisions or close to 9,000 people.
A covenants specialist is the one who goes around telling people they’ve broken the rules.
They’re more like a cop that passes out tickets. The first thing Ching innovated was the use of a digital camera. He would include a picture of the infraction with a copy of the rule.
‘My theory was the job wasn’t just enforcement but education.
People
choose to live in a planned community and in exchange they agree to live
by a set of rules.
‘People get very creative, they put things in their backyards where they think people can’t see. We had a person with a urinal in the backyard.’
Ching, now general manager of Waikele, was recently voted the first ever Property Manager of the Year award. The award is a joint effort of Building Management Hawaii magazine and six industry associations: IREM, CCIM, BOMA, IFMA, CAI and MRMA.
The judges included Faith Freitas, Steve Nikkola, Sue Savio, Liz Palmer, Gifford Chang, George Benda, and Bruce Thompson.
One of Ching’s accomplishments that made the judges take notice was his involvement in the formation of TAAG in 2004.
Taking Action Against Graffiti was the first fast response graffiti team. It started with the Pearl City police district and the Moanalua junior class painting out graffiti in Waikele.
After the first paint out, vandals struck back with a vengeance.
Ching formed TAAG with five residents and a bucket of paint. It became a battle of wills. But since then, the rest of the community has joined in.
Police
have made graffiti a priority. The news media has increasingly featured
anti-graffiti campaigns. The Honolulu City Council honored Ching. Ching
began giving anti-graffiti presentations to other groups in Honolulu.
Fast response was a key.
‘One lady went out at 4:30 a.m. Before that TAAG had gone out after work, giving vandals at least the satisfaction of seeing their junk all day. She took that away from them. They finally got frustrated and stopped.’
Ching also takes pride in community events he’s coordinated such as the Easter Egg Hunt in April, a Water Park event in August, and a Winter Wonderland Ice Skating event held in December. He gets up to 1,000 people at these shindigs.
His biggest project was completely redoing all the common area landscaping in Waikele.
‘After 15 years, the original plant material had reached the end of its useful life. We worked along with landscape contractors to develop a five year long range plan to redesign and eliminate ongoing problems, bring in plants more acclimated to the environment, and implement water conservation.’
The effort brought Waikele’s 20 acres an Outdoor Circle Beautification award in 2004 and the Betty Crocker Landscape award in 2006.
Waikele also reduced overall water useage by 16 percent in 2007.
