Office Landlords Discover the Consumer
October 11, 2017 | Konrad Putzier | The Real Deal
The office market has seen plenty of innovation in recent decades, from the rise of real estate investment trusts to online databases like CoStar. But landlords have made little progress in one arena: using new technologies to appeal to tenants.
“We spend a lot of time on the analysis of our assets, a lot of time on how well they are performing and I think really little time on the end user,” Lisa Picard, who manages the Blackstone Group’s office portfolio, said at the MIPIM Proptech summit Wednesday. But now that is starting to change.
Ric Clark, Brookfield Property Partners’ real estate head, argued that the industry has been innovating for two decades. “The thing that I think is new is the customer-facing innovation,” he said. In one recent example, Clark said, a major tenant called him with a proposal. Wouldn’t it be more efficient if the landlord made common meeting rooms or hospitality space available to all tenants, which they could rent on a short-term basis? “They connected me to Convene, and next thing you know we’re an investor in Convene,” he added, referring to the meeting-room and common-space startup that raised $68 million in a Series C round earlier this year.
