WeWork, local partner buy DC office building for $137M

A WeWork-affiliated real estate fund is buying a Washington, D.C. office building in partnership with Meridian Group for $136.5 million. WeWork Property Advisors, which WeWork manages with private equity firm Rhone Group, is contributing 50 percent of the equity, Bisnow reported.

Amazon Planning Bigger Cashierless Stores

Amazon, which has opened a handful of cashierless stores this year, is now thinking bigger when it comes to the concept. Literally bigger, as in cashierless stores much larger than the convenience store-sized 2,500 SF Amazon Go stores now operating in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle.

Bad Landlord? These Coders Are Here to Help

When Dan Kass moved to New York City in 2013 after graduating from college in Boston, his introduction to the city was one that many New Yorkers are all too familiar with: a bad landlord.

Mr. Kass and two roommates rented a cramped basement apartment in Crown Heights in Brooklyn, which they soon found out was riddled with problems and had been rented illegally.

Megalytics Launches SaaS CRE Tenant Monitoring Platform

Megalytics New Product Enables Proactive Tenant Management Chicago IL. (December 2, 2018) – Megalytics, Inc., the leading commercial real estate Business Intelligence and Risk Mitigating Platform, has announced today the launch of its CRE Tenant Monitoring Portal.

How to Budget for Tenant Experience (TeX) Software in Commercial Real Estate eBook

Commercial real estate has been notoriously slow to adopt technology, but for the first time for many CRE practitioners, they are seriously considering building tech & software into this year’s budget. Various market forces are forcing CRE to consider tech. Those who see property as a capital asset are cautious of slowdowns in overall economic growth and a coming markets correction. This caution has led to CRE’s growing interest in tech investments that will improve efficiencies, increase da…

How Drones Are Changing CRE

NEW YORK CITY—Camber Creek’s general partner Jake Fingert sees drones as a CRE disrupter. The venture capital firm solely focuses on investing in real estate technologies. Fingert formerly served as a senior policy advisor in President Barack Obama’s White House and was a senior advisor at the General Services Administration (GSA). In both roles he identified new investments and managed operations for the federal government’s infrastructure and real estate portfolio of more than 350 million sq…

Airbnb May Start Designing, Building Residences For Short-Term Rentals

Airbnb initiated a transformational change in the hospitality industry when it launched, and the San Francisco-based home-sharing giant is now attempting to do something similar with homebuilding. Airbnb co-founder and Chief Product Officer Joe Gebbia announced to Fast Company on Thursday the 2019 launch of Backyard, a new venture cooked up by the company’s futures division called Samara.

Compass hires AI guru from Microsoft

Compass hired an artificial intelligence expert from Microsoft as its new chief technology officer, the brokerage announced Tuesday. Joseph Sirosh will report to Chief Operating Officer Maëlle Gavet and will oversee a roughly 170-member tech team, which creates various tools for the company’s nearly 7,000 agents spread across the country. Compass had been without a CTO since March, when Liming Zhao left to start his own company….

Facilio raises USD 6.4 million Series A funding led by Tiger Global and existing investor Accel

Strong performance, clear vision and a sharp go-to-market strategy underpin VC’s choice to fund Facilio Facilio is the world’s firstunified IoT & AI-driven facilities optimization software offering end-to-end building maintenance, operations, sustainability & tenant experience, across portfolios. The funds will help Facilio further consolidate and strengthen its presence across Middle East, US, and Indian markets, as well as expand into new territories.  Dubai, UAE, 1STDecembe…

Robot Janitors Are Coming to Mop Floors at a Walmart Near You

Robots are coming to a Walmart Inc. near you, and not just as a gimmick. The world’s largest retailer is rolling out 360 autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in some of its stores in the U.S. by the end of the January, it said in a joint statement with Brain Corp., which makes the machines. The autonomous janitors can clean floors on their own even when customers are around, according to the San Diego-based startup….