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Nuveen Real Estate, TIAA Become Fitwel Champions, Commit to Healthy and Safe Office Spaces

Nuveen Real Estate, TIAA Become Fitwel Champions, Commit to Healthy and Safe Office Spaces

NEW YORK – Nuveen Real Estate, a leading global real estate investment manager, and its parent company TIAA, a leading financial services provider, announced today they have become Fitwel Champions, further advancing their efforts to create office environments that encourage health and wellbeing among employees and tenants. Nuveen Real Estate and TIAA, whose participants utilize Nuveen Real Estate asset management services, have committed to certifying eight U.S. offices, including TIAA’s New York City headquarters.

Operated by the Center for Active Design (CfAD), Fitwel was created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. General Services Administration and serves as the world’s leading certification system committed to building health for all®. Fitwel Champions are companies that have committed to certifying six or more projects over a 12-month period. Fitwel streamlines the certification review process throughout a portfolio, making it more efficient for companies to integrate health-promoting design and operations strategies across multiple projects and a range of typologies.

“Nuveen and TIAA understand the importance of investing in spaces that provide safe, productive environments for our employees and tenants,” Chad Phillips, Head of the Office Sector and Portfolio Manager for the Americas at Nuveen. “Making these investments now, especially as we consider how to safely reopen offices following the COVID-19 pandemic, not only supports our building occupants, but also protects and enhances the value of our investments on behalf of our clients.”

“With the COVID-19 pandemic altering the way we live and work, it’s critical to provide an environment that prioritizes health and wellness,” said Phil Nickolenko, Vice President of Corporate Services for TIAA. “We look forward to working with Fitwel to implement these changes across our sites to help improve the health and well-being of our associates when we welcome them back to the office.”

As Fitwel Champions, Nuveen and TIAA will join a network of industry-leading firms committed to optimizing their workplaces for wellness and safety.

“Office owners have recognized the role the built environment plays in the health and wellness of building occupants, and they are looking at measures to address these issues similarly to how they have worked to advance environmental sustainability in recent years,” said Joanna Frank, President and CEO of CfAD. “Nuveen and TIAA understand that investing now in spaces that are resilient in the face of environmental and social changes is not just a trend in real estate, but a business imperative.”