Amenities vs. Services: Property Managers and De-escalating the Amenity War

For the last several years, developers have been pushing the envelope in terms of physical amenities and coming up with new and innovative features that make their communities stand out amongst the competition. That is, until recently.

Leaving Tracks: How Malls Track Shoppers Inside and Outside Its Doors

As you set foot inside, the mall knows where you’ve come from. Once you leave, the mall knows where you go next. The mall knows where you live. The mall knows where you work. The mall knows the kinds of shops you visit. The mall knows if you tweeted about that shirt you bought. The mall probably knows where you’ll eat lunch.

Extreme Makeover: Rich Barton Has A $700 Million Stake In Zillow And Plans To Turn It Into A Home-Flipping Machine

Every night for five months before the launch of Zillow’s website in February 2006, employees gathered their Dell desktops on Ping-Pong tables, connected them to harness their combined processing power, and strung together extension cords to get them all running. To avoid overloading the circuits, they unplugged the office refrigerator and banned Christmas lights. Then, while most of them slept, this jury-rigged supercomputer analyzed a decade of property records and American housing market data…

Waypoint CEO Diane Vrkic on Her Platform and the Evolution of Proptech

Diane Vrkic is going on four years since founding technology platform Waypoint, which provides performance analytics for the commercial real estate industry.

The company’s chief executive said she conceived of Waypoint’s model to cut out the tedious traditional methods of gathering, implementing, using and executing on real estate performance analytics while in her five-year tenure at brokerage house JLL.

Home-Flipping Unicorn Opendoor Shuffles Staff, Ends Free Lunch

Opendoor popularized a new way for consumers to sell homes online, raised $1.3 billion in equity backing, and forced companies across the residential real estate industry to rethink their business models. But now, as it targets more growth in an increasingly competitive industry, the company is reshuffling staff and scaling back on a time-honored startup perk: free lunch.

Part I: WeWork + Waltz = Validation

The Commercial Real Estate (CRE) sector has one more reason to care about Access Control — WeWork, who has been a growth catalyst and sometimes thorn in the side of many CRE players has validated the importance of Access Control Technology with their acquisition of Waltz this week. Waltz is an access control company that sells systems to large buildings — selling a visitor management and building access system into skyscraper property owners basically. Their system leverages mobile and aims to b…

How The Gig Economy Is Shaping The Commercial Real Estate Sector

Urbanization is upon us. Millennials and Gen-X’ers are finding that life in the city is simply more attractive and convenient than their parents found life in the suburbs. And big urban metropolis are responding by forging out green space, adding more residential real estate and improving overall infrastructure….

Why Interior Designers Are Turning to AR for CRE

Interior designers are implementing augmented reality tools to tackle the large and expansive commercial spaces. Thoughtful and experiential spaces have become the trademark of commercial real estate assets this cycle, and technology tools and augmented reality to create more intimate spaces.

Lightbox Acquisition Gives Real Capital Markets Tech Boost

Technology and data company Lightbox has acquired Real Capital Markets. The acquisition will give the company and instant boost to its data and technology platform. The acquisition also includes Digital Map Products, a location intelligence and mapping platform. C-III Capital Partners formerly backed RCM and Silversmith Capital Partners formerly backed DMP. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Office Of Tomorrow Focuses On Amenities And Wellness

The Texas Tower is going to be as grandiose as the state it resides in. Hines and Ivanhoé Cambridge are developing the 47-story, 1M SF office tower in Houston and its features could be described as amenities on steroids. Tenants and their employees will have plenty of natural light coming from 10-foot, full-height windows. There will be a high-performance fitness center, access to plenty of food and beverage options, cold storage lockers for groceries and Amazon lockers.