Lime Ads Evoke a Mission Beyond Renting Out Scooters

The scooter-rental startup Lime has started a campaign meant to associate its brand with a higher purpose as its fledgling niche continues to encounter controversy. One video in the campaign follows a woman who became a “juicer,” the company’s term for the independent contractors who roam cities recharging and repositioning its scooters, after a car accident kept her from returning to more regular work. In the video, she says becoming a juicer on the side enabled her to spend more time with h…

Revitalizing Retail Recruitment with Enhanced CRE Tenant Services

There are approximately 16 million retail positions across 11.4 billion square feet of commercial real estate in the U.S. While this may be fantastic news for the youth workforce who play an integral role in filling local retail openings, finding staffing isn’t so easy for retailers. It’s one of the biggest and most expensive business challenges they face, as retention becomes a long-game strategy throughout the industry.

The We Company wants to cash in on “the WeWork effect,” too

Today, WeWork’s parent company, The We Company, announced a new real estate acquisition and asset management platform called ARK. Canadian real estate investor Ivanhoé Cambridge, a subsidiary of institutional investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, has agreed to invest $1 billion into the $2.9-billion fund that will be used to place ownership stakes in buildings. The announcement is notable because, up until now, WeWork has taken an asset-light approach to its business,…

Building Engines, Inc. Acquires Real Data Management

Combined Solution to Enable Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Owners to Maximize Asset Value, Improve Leasing and Asset Management and Help Property Managers Spot Trends through Data Visualization BOSTON — May 16, 2019 Building Engines, the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) industry’s innovation leader in intelligent building operations software, today announced its acquisition of Real Data Management (RDM), pioneer of best-in-class building measurement and space visualization software and solutions….

Hello Alfred, app-based personal assistant for renters, announces major U.S. expansion

Hello Alfred, an app-based personal assistant service for apartment dwellers, announced today that it’s partnering with Greystar, the nation’s largest apartment operator, to provide its services to tenants. Hello Alfred is betting that its high-end service will appeal to Greystar’s high-income, time-starved renters. Hello Alfred employs professionally trained home managers to take care of daily tasks, including home cleaning, laundry, and pet care. The service will become available to all of Gr…

MetaProp Announces Applications Are Now Open for 2019-2020 Accelerator Class at Columbia University

Pioneering NYC-based PropTech Accelerator Launches 7th Program New York, NY (Thursday, May 16, 2019) — MetaProp announced today the launch of applications for the 2019-2020 MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University, the world’s premier PropTech accelerator program based in the heart of New York City. The 22-week boot camp connects up to eight PropTech startups from around the world to award-winning investors, venture capital and industry mentors and diverse real estate, technology, and …

REITs Showing Increased Receptiveness to PropTech

The latest edition of the Nareit REIT Report podcast explores the topic of real estate-targeted technology, commonly known as PropTech, with Blake Liggio, a partner in the law firm Goodwin’s Real Estate Industry Group. PropTech has seen significant acceleration in recent years due to the growth of technologies targeting real estate and the increase in capital supporting those platforms, according to Liggio.

These gorgeous tiny houses can operate entirely off the grid

WeWork Continues to Lose Money Ahead of Potential I.P.O.

WeWork’s primary business mission remains maintaining its heady growth rate, even as it continues to lose money, according to its latest quarterly financial results.

The Office of the Future Is No Office at All, Says Startup

GitLab Inc. is extreme, even for Silicon Valley: It has no headquarters and everyone works remotely, even the CEO. The software-development startup, which has more than 600 employees in 54 countries, plans to raise its headcount to about 1,000 by year-end. Its far-flung workers rely on internal tools and cloud-based services to collaborate, communicate and contribute to projects.