Success Stories
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) UPOP Program(2016)
- Gloria Nino was selected to mentor students during MIT’s Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (UPOP) 2016. UPOP is designed to be a “career success accelerator” assisting and helping prepare sophomores, regardless of major, to integrate and thrive in their future careers upon graduation. Read more https://upop.mit.edu/about-upop .
- Ms. Nino co-mentored with a “seasoned” UPOP mentor and MIT Alum during a one week intensive course of experimental learning taught by former MIT faculty, industry professionals and MIT alums. This phase is considered to be the cornerstone of the UPOP training. Former UPOP mentors include the CEO of DropBox, other CEOs. CTOs, COOs, entrepreneurs, VCs, government officials, scientists, Wall Street investors and bankers and more.
- The training session gives points to the TEAM who has achieved successes in learning the objectives and modules and exercises. MIT workshop room is broken up into 14-25 teams with 100-200 students each week. Each team consists of 7-10 students and is an intensive full 5-day week which include daily assignments, presentations and points awarded subjectively by all mentors for each team’s presentation on a daily basis.
- After 7 straight 12 hour plus days of intensive training Ms. Nino and her TEAM won the competition!! The experience is one that was priceless and the training carries over to our business every day.
ExxonMobil World Headquarter Relocation (2014/2015)
- This move was the world’s largest point to point employee relocation and corporate move. All service providers were challenged with the expectations to perform at the highest levels, add value and insure program success. It was made very clear that there were back up suppliers/companies and back-ups to the back-up, etc. in place ready to take over for all facets of this move. EXCEPTIONAL and seamless expectations for performance were assessed daily. Nino Properties performed exceptionally and back-up was not exercised during any point of the transition. Each criteria measured for our metrics were perfect scores!
- Nino has worked with Exxon and Mobil and ExxonMobil since 1984. We were client directed to work with Cartus (ExxonMobil’s Relocation Management Company) to facilitate rental assistance to XOM employees. ExxonMobil allowed their employees to choose the real estate company to sell them homes in the Greater Houston Area and Nino successfully sold many of the employees homes and was the sole provider for
rental assistance during this move. We knew we needed to ramp up, sponsor and train agents for this move. We grew to 50 agents in December 2014, 6-months prior to the major move in June 2015. We needed to ensure training was executed seamlessly 6- months ahead of the actual move to succeed. Our staff and agents successfully managed the volume of incoming employees during a two year period of the move. Nino met that requirement and was able to assist all employees referred by Cartus/ExxonMobil. - The Rental Assistance was projected to be several hundred employees. Nino assisted more than 1100 renters during the group over a two year period of 2014/2015. Additionally, Nino assisted more than 600 college summer interns over the same time period which included both unfurnished and furnished housing options.
- Intern housing continued and Nino provided a great deal of value for the overall intern program success during the world’s largest employee relocation. Nino consulted and collaborated for many months with a variety of ExxonMobil recruiters and business unit managers to have complete buy in for the better good of insuring this new ventures success. The success was demonstrated and appreciate by Cartus and ExxonMobil.
- Nino Properties was able to perform at the highest customer service delivery levels and as such was nominated for the global “Cartus Masters Cup” award at the Global Employee Relocation Council Meeting attended by the global Cartus service provider network. There are approximately 400 plus global providers of service to Cartus that could be nominated and Nino Properties, while not the winner, made it to the Top 10 Finalists. Nino has received a Platinum Award for customer service delivery for 3 of the last 4 years and one gold award.
Disaster Housing – Hurricane Katrina/Rita (2005/2006)
- Nino secures 150 plus apartments immediately for Whitney Bank which is quick to respond with authorization.
- Nino finds that after the Whitney Bank deliveries all furniture and housewares with furniture rental companies are committed to within the first several days of the disaster. The furniture companies are waiting to have furniture shipped in from all over the country and also China.
- Most retail stores are also out of furniture and household goods. Hurricane victims will be resorting to blow up mattresses to sleep on and a few pieces of furniture and minimal housewares/linens as they can find them.
- Nino’s staff of housekeepers and warehouse field services employees work 16 hour days to furnish the apartment units with housewares/linens.
- Nino orders 200 sets of linens/housewares and electronics from our providers outside of Texas within days of the disaster for rapid delivery and apartment set up.
- One of the largest relocation management companies, called Nino Properties to inquire about the potential for sourcing more apartments for one of their energy clients, as Oakwood had just informed them of price increases and longer term leases as a requirement to find and supply more fully furnished apartments. Nino found a solution with a brand new never lived in apartment community turned condo development during construction. Having many years of previous working relations with the owners of the apartment community (The Valencia) in the Texas Medical Center, we approached both existing and new ownership to utilize 90 plus units of 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms on a short term basis, within expected price points while the converted condominium units were being delivered by construction and sold to new home owners.
- Nino secures 90 apartment/condominium units but there was no furniture available to be delivered for 3 weeks. Nino negotiates with Cort Furniture to have 90 units of furniture cut and boxed for delivery by a local furniture company. Nino arranges for the pick up by 18 wheeler box trucks to deliver on site to The Valencia and drop off furniture in the condominium garage parking area.
- Nino hires day workers from local shelters to be trained by Cort staff to assemble furniture as CORT has no more manpower to deliver furniture. Nino assembles and delivers furniture to each of the 90 units to meet a schedule of set up within 10 days. Nino also helps manage the construction make ready team for final punch out and delivery. No other corporate housing company has ever proposed such a solution nor implemented anything like what was done during Katrina/Rita in the history of Cort Furniture anywhere in the United States.
- With this success Nino picked up another almost 100 apartments for Entergy in other business locations such as Jackson, MS., Monroe , LA., Beaumont, TX., Lansing, Michigan.
- Nino has a hurricane weather consultant working each summer to provide information to our valued customers for evacuation recommendations.
Army/National Guard – Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg Mississippi (2004 – 2010)
- Nino partners with two other corporate housing providers to set up 350 apartments within a 3 week time frame for off base housing for Camp Shelby training of soldiers being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Issues are many including Hattiesburg, MS being a college town with limited availability, all older properties, logistics for furniture and houseware delivery by providers, maintenance issues, property managers that do not have to perform well for their customers/tenants, no previous relationships with owners/management companies, resistance of property owners based on historical early terminations by the Camp Shelby soldiers and terms and conditions requested by Nino Properties.
- Nino takes the lead for the partnership and travels to Hattiesburg numerous times to source apartment communities, develop property management relationships, furniture rental relationships, hire an employee to assist with the logistics and daily corporate housing needs of the
soldiers, assisting with utility provider selection and management to insure delivery of services, lease several warehouse spaces for houseware/linen inventory and sign apartment lease agreements. - Nino hires several part time workers to assist with the travel/delivery and set up of apartments with housewares/linens/electronics, utilities/cable/internet are all working for bulk move-ins of soldiers.
- Nino worked with the City of Hattiesburg for public relations as 350 apartment being utilized for the Camp Shelby soldiers took most of the available apartments from the Mississippi State University students and causing many parent/student and infrastructure discussions of how to address the shortage of housing. This project created a resurgence of new campus housing apartments benefiting the City and University. Nino helped transform the City of Hattiesburg with this long term government project.
- Nino oversees the property management relationships and apartment turns/cleaning/resets between soldiers moving in and out of apartments or individual rooms for the remaining 6 years of the contract on behalf of the partnership.
Toyota North American Manufacturing Plant (San Antonio, TX) (2004-2012)
- 2004 Toyota (TEMA) built a Tundra manufacturing plant in San Antonio for which Nino Properties was selected as the corporate housing provider of choice. Prior to completion of construction Nino housed the first 8 top level executives of TEMA
- Nino is selected to property manage Toyota’s President’s home for the next 6 years on a daily basis. This required 24 hr customer service for all regular home maintenance issues and company generated functions at the home.
- Nino provides corporate housing for approximately 180 TEMA management staff to train new plant/assembly line employees for 6-12 month terms.
- Various training projects of 60 – 120 units are managed by Nino throughout the 8 years we supplied property management and corporate housing services to TEMA.
AT&T and Accenture Project in San Antonio (2000-2003)
- Nino is sought out by Accenture via the supplier diversity management staff with AT&T to assist Accenture with meeting their supplier diversity contract goals. Accenture was utilizing a larger national company for their corporate housing needs in San Antonio.
- AT&T preferred a diversity supplier who could manage the temporary housing needs domestically and a company who could financially succeed with the demand and volume of their needs.
- Nino and Accenture negotiate a transfer of all leases, utilities and furnishings from the existing provider to Nino with a 30 day notice to vacate contractual term time frame.
- Nino is able to keep pricing at the same levels and Accenture captures almost $2.5 million in supplier diversity spend each year.
- Accenture then requests Nino to supply rental cars for additional minority supplier spend and that also becomes part of the contract.
- Nino then also becomes a national provider to Accenture as one of two minority owned corporate housing supplies.
Tenneco Oil and Gas/El Paso Gas Merger (1994-1996)- Anderson Consulting Project
- PHH Home Equity (now Cartus) contracted Nino Properties to set up a little more than 100 apartments for the transition management consulting team of Anderson Consulting. This was a cost sensitive award that had to have complete turnkey set up of furnished apartments within 7 days of award.
- Nino hires extra day workers from shelters to assist with the setup of housewares/linens and electronics owned by Nino with work hours of minim 12 hour days for 7 consecutive days.
Inception of The Houston Furniture Bank (1992)
- Nino is supplying furniture to the Mental Health and Retardation Association of Houston (MHMRA) as a charitable assistance company endeavor. This blossoms into another social nonprofit entity known as the Houston Furniture Bank (HFB) to help support more than 80 organizations assisting low income and the transitioning homeless with furniture and household items.
- While this endeavor was not corporate related nor a business opportunity it nevertheless is one of our proudest accomplishments and came as a result of our relationships with many of the furniture rental companies and their owners. The initial furniture companies that stepped up to the challenge included Hoffer Furniture, Cort Furniture, Certified Furniture and General Furniture Leasing.
- The HFB has been an inspiration to many as one of few non-profits that is self- sustaining, employees ex-convicts in a work program for integration back into society as a productive member, is now the City of Houston’s mattress recycling go to company trying to put a small dent in the 600,000 mattresses being sent to the Houston landfills each year.
- In addition, the HFB is working on a program to utilize all the off loaded lumber from the Port of Houston incoming cargo ships to make wooden furniture with the prison system again for the better good of giving the prison population a trade to have upon release back into society. This would also alow the HFB to partner with the YES Prep and KIPP charter schools for the sole purpose of having no child without a mattress nor a desk to do their homework raising their self-esteem, allowing for a good night’s sleep and both translating into better grades at school.
