| Summary: | Facilities management (FM) is well established in the corporate sector, driven by the big demand for cost efficiencies which has become standard for most FM strategies and plans. On the other hand, there is a new thinking focused on FM's role in the community setting, where a major emphasis has been placed on developing social approaches to FM. This new thinking is outlined by the emerging role of FM in providing the required quality and support that enable community facilities meet their social and economic objectives. In this research, the role of FM in the community setting is defined by stakeholder value rather than shareholder value, and therefore becomes crucial in translating the strategic plans of a community into operational reality. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the role that FM could play in the community setting, focusing on developing a model for a facilities management approach to sustainable community development. This involved investigating new opportunities for FM to reshape regional growth, contribute to the social, environmental, and economic prosperity, enabled by the government's interest in empowering local communities. The research problem necessitated integrated between two multi-disciplinary topics, facilities management and community development, and thus the nature of knowledge creation in this research is conceptualized by theory building and knowledge development. This multi-layered investigation required the researcher to adopt a Grounded Theory approach, in which five Case Studies were explored, representing different types of communities. The data was collected and analysed through a triangulation of different tools. The emergent Codes, Themes, and Core Categories illustrated that the role of FM is an essential factor in the success of organisations and community facilities. The substantive theory of this research maps out the social structure of FM and its nexus with the practical applications. It provides a model for the use of FM in the community setting in order to increase the effectiveness of both Community-based Facilities and Community-based Organisations. Lastly, this model proposes a vision of the relationship between place, people, and process within the context of FM in the community setting.
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