NEWTON, Mass. and QUEENS, N.Y. - July 31, 2003 - St. John's University has selected UNICCO® to provide a range of services, from mechanical maintenance to housekeeping, at three of its metropolitan New York campuses.

UNICCO began its relationship with a mechanical contracting agreement covering the main Queens campus. Servicing 2.2 million sf in 26 buildings on the 100 acre campus, UNICCO took over all mechanical services, including call service dispatch, boiler and chiller operation and maintenance, garage mechanics and plumbing, among other services. It has since extended its relationship with the University by adding housekeeping services at both the Manhattan and Staten Island campuses and handyman repair services at the Staten Island campus.

Innovative approach to preventive maintenance

As part of its overall maintenance relationship, UNICCO brought in facilities assessment expert VFA Inc. to develop a comprehensive campus review and report. The work includes examinations and assessments of building infrastructure and mechanical systems on the University's three campuses and integrating the data into a Web-enabled database that will be used by UNICCO and the University for on-going, preventive and predictive maintenance, and serve as a capital budgeting tool.

"This Web-based system is a whole new approach for us," says Dom Lavin, director of facilities services at St. John's University. "They've evaluated over 9,000 major mechanical systems, as well as our building finishes and facades, and HVAC, electrical, plumbing and fire alarm systems. In just a few months they've already completed the preliminary report. This is tremendously valuable as we do our capital asset maintenance planning."

UNICCO worked the VFA assessment into the overall maintenance contract to amortize the cost over the life of the five-year contract. "St. John's is a small city unto itself," commented Ken Gomulka, UNICCO regional operations director. "They need to have an up-to-date, accurate picture of their capital assets. By working in partnership with VFA, UNICCO was able to structure a deal that gives St. John's the baseline assessment they need and a road map for capital improvements without carrying the full financial cost in the first year. We're all in this for the long haul."

About UNICCO
UNICCO Service Company is one of North America's largest and most successful Integrated Facilities Services companies with over $600 million in sales, 20,000 employees and a 95 percent customer retention rate. The company has over 50 years of facilities outsourcing experience, including maintenance, operations, engineering, cleaning, lighting and administrative/office services for 1,000 educational, commercial, corporate, industrial, government, and retail customers. UNICCO's advanced facilities technologies include its proprietary myUNICCO.com customer portal and the UNI-QR palmtop inspection system, best-of-breed computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), eProcurement, and 24x7x365 call centers. For further information, call (888) 751-9100 or visit http://www.unicco.com.