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CRE Firms Go Toe to Toe with a Prized Tenant: WeWork
WeWork and other shared-space providers have presented commercial real estate’s major players—from landlords to service firms—with both a boon and a challenge. The boon, naturally, is the prospect of tenants that are eager to expand their footprints. WeWork, for example, is now the largest private-sector tenant in Manhattan, surpassing JPMorgan Chase.
The challenge is in confronting what often represents an encroachment on their own turf.
“The beer-loving coworking startup that landlords once welcomed has grown into something much more complicated and powerful, in part through technology,” Fast Company reported recently. “The company has developed both consumer-facing tech, like an app for booking conference rooms and checking out events in its co-working spaces, as well as operational analytics that makes its offices and overall business more efficient.”
In some instances, the industry has responded by going head to head. Tishman Speyer, for instance, introduced its own coworking brand, Studio, last fall.
“We’ve seen great demand for flexible office space from our enterprise clients and prospective tenants, and we understand the importance of agility and the need for companies of all sizes to be able to move quickly and scale as needed,” Tishman Speyer’s Thais Galli said last September.
More often, though, CRE firms have devised complementary solutions to the question of introducing tenant-facing tech into the mix. A year and a half before it introduced Studio, for example, Tishman Speyer unveiled an app known as Zo that’s tied to onsite amenities ranging from health and wellness facilities to floral delivery.
Although WeWork will be a sizable presence—and not only with coworking space—at Dock 72, a new-construction office project being developed by Boston Properties and Rudin Management at the Industry City complex in Brooklyn, Rudin is putting its own stamp on tech at the property. Rudin’s technology subsidiary, Prescriptive Data, has developed a mobile app that will serve as the tenants’ main portal for interacting with the building.
Fast Company reported that the app will allow tenants and their employees “to enter the building, register guests, book fitness classes at the in-house studio, order and pay for food at the cafeteria, book shared conference rooms, and submit work orders for maintenance issues.
“Data from the app will also provide the property’s operators and managers with real-time insights into the patterns of users, helping to improve building services and performance,” according to Fast Company. “With the app, Michael Rudin, SVP of Rudin Management, says he wants the building to be cashless.”
Pictured: Tishman Speyer’s Studio at Rockefeller Center
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny
