Curated daily by our industry experts. Stay informed on how tech is shaping the real estate industry with these important headlines.
WSJ
A British company that builds and rents out meeting space in office properties is expanding in New York City, challenging hotels and other operators for a slice of the city’s more than $10 billion annual conference business. Etc.venues last month agreed to take 30,000 square feet in a Midtown East building at 601 Lexington Ave. The London-based company plans to revamp the space that was an in-house conference center for Citigroup Inc….
VENTUREBEAT
Osaro, a San Francisco startup developing AI-based solutions for industrial robots, today announced that it’s closed a $16 million series B funding round led by King River Capital (KRC), with participation from Alpha Intelligence Capital, Founders Fund, Fenox Venture Capital, GiTV Fund, and existing and strategic investors. It brings the startup’s total raised to $29.3 million coming after a $10 million series A in April 2017, which cofounder and CEO Derik Pridmore said will bolster Osaro’s hiri…
THE REAL DEAL
For New York City landlords needing a quick fix to fill empty office space, WeWork has been a go-to tenant for years. Now, with the office-space company in turmoil, those property owners suddenly feel a lot less secure. Some are turning to WeWork competitors to line up options in the event they need to suddenly fill space. “Many conversations are high-level,” said Katharine Lau, senior director of real estate at Industrious, an office-space company that enters partnership agreements with landl…
MARK KASPER
Last week I hosted our 17th annual REIT Finance and Tax leadership conference where 330 real estate professionals converged in Austin, Texas to participate in our two-day program. It was fantastic to bring together a roster of speakers from all facets of the real estate sector to discuss many of the latest trends. Director of MIT’s Real Estate Innovation Lab, Dr. Andrea Chegut opened the program, sharing insights on the impact of automation on the built environment – we also recently held a w…
THE REAL DEAL
In 2011, Rodrigo Niño was weighing his own mortality. The real estate executive, originally from Colombia, had been diagnosed with stage three melanoma. After two surgeries, his only choice, he later recounted in a heavily produced video, was to “venture into the unknown.” Niño, who is tall and thin with wavy gray hair, flew to Peru and traveled into the jungle, where he spent two weeks taking ayahuasca, a traditional brew and spiritual medicine known to induce hallucinations. He said he felt h…
BISNOW
Andy Florance has had an eye on Smith Travel Research for over a decade, ever since it bought a relative’s research company. “My aunt owned a similar business in Scotland that covered hotels in Edinburgh and Manchester and Glasgow, and I thought it was a fascinating business,” the founder and CEO of CoStar Group told Bisnow in a phone interview Wednesday. “But obviously I was not going to acquire my aunt’s business.”
NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK
New York, NY (October 2, 2019) — Newmark Group, Inc. (NMRK) (“Newmark”) (the “Company”), which operates a leading, global, full-service commercial real estate (“CRE”) services business, Newmark Knight Frank (“NKF”), today announced that it has acquired the innovative workflow solutions provider Workframe, Inc. (“Workframe”). The Workframe software tool is a workflow solution that was built to address the unique complexity of the CRE project lifecycle. Newmark’s strategic acquisition of Workfra…
CRUNCHBASE
It’s been a year for tech IPOs. Between less-than-stellar debuts for popular companies like Uber and SmileDirectClub, and WeWork’s IPO being shelved, there’s been a lot to write about. Today, both Uber and Lyft’s stocks reached their lowest prices since they began trading earlier this year. Uber’s stock hit a low of $28.65 before closing at $29.15, while Lyft hit $38.68 and closed at $39.57….
HOUSING WIRE
SmartRent, a smart home automation platform for property managers and renters, already boasts some of the biggest names in multifamily real estate among its backers. And now, the company has an even bigger name in its corner: Amazon. SmartRent announced this week that it received a strategic investment from the Amazon Alexa Fund, an Amazon venture capital arm that invests in companies that use voice and other technology, as well as new contributions to the science behind those technologies…
BISNOW
Crowdfunding has not coalesced into the influential force in commercial real estate some may have expected, and is at risk of being decimated by the next economic downturn. Seven years after President Barack Obama passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, allowing for crowdfunded real estate investing, access to investment opportunities has expanded to reach more people. But the industry has already begun a major consolidation phase, and insiders and observers harbor doubts about differ…
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