A recent article from Opinion of Value discussed some new commercial real estate technology showcased at the CRE Tech Intersect. CRE technology is an impossibly broad term that touches really every facet of a complex industry. Occupier services. Search. Data Exchange. Analytics– and more. The CRE Tech Intersect conference pulled these diverse items together in a setting that provided attendees with some great cutting-edge information, but still reminded everyone that personal interaction was still our industry’s most important tool.
COMPSTAK: Brokers have been using data on recent completed leases in the marketplace as currency forever. A lot of veteran brokers have regular meetings with colleagues from competing firms to trade lease comparables. We’ve been crowdsourcing comps for years, and pretty effectively at that.
CompStak CEO Michael Mandel says that they have close to 100% of lease data in New York, the first market in which they rolled out the service. Compstak’s comps are available to brokers essentially on a barter system– you give comps, you can get some. Again, not terribly different from how brokers operate amongst themselves already. Mandel sees a strong market for their data with institutional investors and major developers. CompStak’s aggregated data could supplement information that these entities now get for free from their broker.
This brings up a new take on a conversation that’s been going on in commercial real estate circles for a long time. Not the case everywhere, but it has been a very, very long time since information on something as mundane as available spaces has been considered proprietary. Brokers that base their business model on hoarding information at their desk are going to be forced to change. This applies to lease comparable data, too. Commercial real estate data is a commodity, and it’s getting cheaper and more readily available. Knowledge, information, and the ability to synthesize both into a real understanding of the market, though, has value. Smart brokers know this and welcome new players like CompStak.
LIQUIDSPACE: LiquidSpace is focused on booking immediate-need meeting space, short term conference rooms, etc., by taking advantage of an increasingly mobile workforce and the growth of co-working space. CEO Mark Gilbreath has an even bigger vision, though. From a real estate perspective, the biggest challenge facing start-ups is appropriately scaling a young high growth operation. What if these early stage players had an efficient method of ordering their office space à la carte instead of in bulk? Office space needs can be responded to real-time and based on immediate need. A more dynamic team with the flexibility to respond to the immediate needs of key employees. Bottom-up facility planning.
About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.
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