Regal Real Estate selects Virtual Doorman for its entire portfolio of Manhattan Bldgs.

Regal Real Estate, a New York City-based owner of residential apartment buildings, has selected Virtual Doorman, the leading remote doorman service that provides traditional doorman services remotely, to provide service in four of its Manhattan properties.Ranging in size from 11-35 units, the buildings are 21 Maiden Lane, 33 Union Square West, 9 East 16th St. and 112 Fulton St. "We are extremely impressed with Virtual Doorman's performance," said Bill Punch, a principal of Regal Real Estate. "In fact, we are so pleased with the cost savings, 24-hour round-the-clock service, and incredibly patient and efficient command center staff, that we plan to install Virtual Doorman throughout our entire 22-building portfolio." "We are thrilled that Regal has opted to install Virtual Doorman in its entire residential portfolio of properties," said Colin Foster, vice president of sales and marketing for Virtual Doorman. "We are continually improving the system, and the latest new upgrade includes an interactive web portal that now also allows tenants to instantly alert the command center of incoming visitors or deliveries directly from their handhelds and computers - an added advantage over the standard email or phone alerts." According to Punch, Regal decided to start working with Virtual Doorman at 21 Maiden Lane six months ago when the costs to employ front door reception staff, partially due to the recession, became prohibitive. After the one-time Virtual Doorman installation cost, Regal is now saving approximately 75% per month on monies that formerly covered doorman/security guard salaries. "Another factor that drove our decision to install Virtual Doorman is that it became exceedingly difficult to find reliable, good-quality doormen and security guards," said Punch who added that although many of his tenants were initially resistant to experimenting with Virtual Doorman, once they did, they enthusiastically embraced it. "We were even able to pass along some of the security costs (approximately 2 1/2 percent) to some of our rent stabilized tenants," said Punch who said he was also impressed with the patience and efficiency of the Command Center staff, based in Ocala, Florida, who are perpetually bombarded with a plethora of tenant requests and demands. Regal's remaining portfolio of 18 properties, primarily in the Flatiron and Union Square neighborhoods, will all soon be equipped with Virtual Doorman technology in the next 18-24 months.