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Investors Jump Into Proptech Designed To Make Buildings Greener

Originally published on April 19, 2021, by Larry Getlen for CommercialObserver.com.

Clockworks Analytics makes building software that, among other benefits, helps to build owners optimize energy performance and improve indoor air quality.

It’s little surprise, then, that for Clockworks, like for many other product makers in the environmental prop-tech space, business is booming.

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City of Charlotte Non-Residential Building Code Ordinance Update

Public Input Sessions

The City of Charlotte’s Great Neighborhoods Committee is in the process of reviewing and evaluating the city’s current Non-Residential Building Code (NRBC) Ordinance. The NRBC Ordinance addresses interior, exterior, and property maintenance standards for commercial businesses. The NRBC ordinance was created in 2009 and has not been reviewed since it was originally passed by Charlotte City Council. 

Violations to the NRBC Ordinance can range from buildings open to vagrants and criminal activity to broken windows or major structural issues. If commercial buildings are not properly maintained, they can have a negative impact on surrounding neighborhoods and businesses. Therefore, the City of Charlotte is seeking community input for the review and evaluation of the ordinance through four virtual meetings and an online survey.

MEETING DATES/TIMES

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CLT Development Center Announces Digital Plan Room Launch and Training

Join the CLT Development Center for the launch of our new Digital Plan Room! 

The CLT Development Center has partnered with ePermitHub to launch the Digital Plan Room, a new electronic document review solution that is seamlessly integrated into the Accela Citizen Access environment. The Digital Plan Room is the next generation of electronic plan review. This solution will introduce many new features to optimize the plan review process, making it easier and faster for design professionals and plan reviewers to communicate so reviews can be approved faster with greater efficiency.

The Digital Plan Room system includes:

  • Simple file uploads and automated versioning at the sheet level
  • Collaborative issue/condition communication for plan review comments
  • Seamless user experience within Accela Citizen Access

Join the CLT Development Center for our virtual customer training session Friday, March 5th from 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM to learn more about the enhancements and latest features, ask questions and get answers. Cate Marshall, ePermitHub Project Manager will be moderating with a live demo/walkthrough conducted by our project consultant, Seth Axthelm. Those unable to attend the virtual training session will also be able to watch the session recording on our website!

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COVID-19’s Impact on CRE: What We Know Today (and Don't)

Join NAIOP Charlotte on Tuesday, March 24th at 2-2:30 p.m. ET for The Advantage Series is an exclusive member benefit, delivering expert insights into the latest research to help you make informed business decisions.

Repercussions from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are far-reaching and still quite unknown, but one thing is for certain: the impact on commercial real estate will be substantial. A week ago, CRE fundamentals were solid; will that improve our recovery timeline? What do experts see for the potential future of the industry? How do you recognize a deal today, and know whether it’s better to act quickly or hold? The questions are numerous, and NAIOP is here with guidance to support you today and get you thinking ahead for tomorrow. Have a question for our speakers? Submit it now.

Speakers:
Larry Lance, Executive Vice President-Asset Services, EverWest Real Estate Investors, and 2020 NAIOP Chairman
Al Pontius, National Director of Office & Industrial, Marcus & Millichap
John Chang, National Director of Research Services, Marcus & Millichap

Click Here to Register

Service Resiliency is Make-or-break for Today's Tenants

Posted on August 22, 2019

By Linda Strowbridge

Strategically parked over a manhole on a downtown Manhattan street, John Meko spent months working inside a 20-foot storage trailer and learning about resiliency the hard way.

Meko was wrestling with the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. His employer at the time was an internet service provider (ISP) that supported about 200 office buildings in New York City, primarily in the Financial District. The massive storm and flooding had destroyed electrical and internet infrastructure throughout large sections of the city, and businesses were desperate to regain service so they could resume their operations.

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The Future of 5G in the Commercial Real Estate Industry

Posted on August 9, 2019

By Jeff Gudewicz

According to the Pew Research Center, 95 percent of Americans own a cellphone, with 77 percent owning smartphones. As traditional broadband usage has dropped in recent years, keeping tenants connected through a cellular signal has become more important than ever for those who want to stay competitive in the commercial real estate industry. And with 5G on the horizon and poised to become a disruptive threat to traditional Wi-Fi and wired internet systems, as well as a key force behind the rise of smart cities, connectivity is going to become more integral to daily life than ever before.

What is 5G?

5G, or the fifth generation of wireless technology, is a standard designed to deliver data speeds greater than 1 gigabit per second and low latency of less than 1 millisecond. This means much faster data speeds (100 times the speed of 4G LTE) and less delay between the request for a data transfer and the start of the data transfer in a cellular environment.

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Expanding Applications for Modular Construction

Posted on July 18, 2019

By Shawn Moura

Modular construction has come a long way since a 2010 issue of Development magazine profiled the building process in “First Look – The Skyscraper’s New Look.” Commercial real estate developers are adopting modular construction – in which building components are manufactured at a facility and then transported to a construction site for assembly – for a broader range of applications and for larger projects. The process is best suited to projects that primarily consist of repeated and uniform spaces. For these projects, modular construction can substantially reduce construction time and improve quality control.

The extent to which modular construction relies on prefabrication varies from project to project. Writing for the New England Real Estate Journal, architect Henry Wheeler explains that projects can range from incorporating prefabricated electrical and plumbing system kits to partial modular construction (where portions of a room are assembled as a pod that is placed into a building) to full modular construction, where entire rooms are manufactured offsite and installed on-site. In the case of hotel rooms that are assembled using full modular construction, “every room element is pre-fabricated and replicated including the walls, windows, carpet, fixtures, accessories, and even artwork.”

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Commercial Real Estate and the Big-Data Deluge

Posted July 11, 2019

By Trey Barrineau

Awash in granular digital information, companies are diving headfirst into high-tech solutions so they can make more deeply informed business decisions.

The technological advances shaking up nearly every aspect of modern life are starting to have significant impacts on commercial real estate.

“The biggest trend we’re seeing is this whole digital disruption in our industry, from ubiquitous linked sensors to the technology that’s going into smart buildings,” said Dale Dekker, AIA, AICP, principal with Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, during a recent NAIOP event. “It’s truly driving commercial real estate in a whole new way.”

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NAIOP Insights: Trending in Commercial Real Estate

Posted on April 23, 2019

 

The biggest thing happening in commercial real estate is digital disruption.

Traditionally, construction and CRE have lagged behind other industries, but technology is changing so rapidly it's setting the framework for how we look at CRE. It's no longer a 40-50 year asset – it's a dynamic process continually being reshaped by the convergence of technologies.

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Big Data in Office Buildings Holds Promise Despite Privacy Worries

Posted on March 29, 2019

By Margarita Foster

Property managers are using “dynamic and multidimensional” information for operations but not yet for tenant engagement.

A white paper published by the NAIOP Research Foundation titled “The Office Property and Big Data Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Together”found that office building owners are capturing, storing and analyzing data to operate building systems but not to recruit and retain tenants.

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CRE Must-Reads

Posted on January 21, 2019

  • Debunking The Three Myths Of Commercial Real Estate Technology - Forbes (Jan. 2, 2019) Read more
  • Google's Take on Co-Working and Sharing Spaces - GlobeSt.com – Subscription required (Jan. 7, 2019) Read more
  • In 2069, Your Food Will Shop for You - Medium (Jan. 3, 2019) Read more
  • Opportunity Zones: Navigating A Path to Investment - Newmark Knight Frank (December 2018) Read more
  • The surge in online-shopping returns has boosted the warehouse sector - CNBC (Jan. 4, 2019) Read more
  • Why developers are offering 'experiences' to attract suburbanites - Washington Post (Jan. 3, 2019) Read more
  • The Year Ahead: Down But Not Out - GlobeSt.com – Subscription required (Jan. 7, 2019) Read more

How Technology Will Change the Brokerage Business

Posted on January 16, 2019

Written by Joan Woodard

Commercial real estate is in the midst of a digital revolution, and some of the biggest upheavals will affect professionals who work closely with property owners and tenants.

Technological innovation is accelerating in the commercial real estate space, and it has the potential to disrupt a large segment of the brokerage business.

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Using Big Data to Curate Personalized Experiences

Posted on December 18, 2018

By Brielle Scott

If you’re familiar with the movie Moneyball (based on a nonfiction book of the same name), you know that in the film, the Oakland Athletics general manager and assistant manager take a unique approach to building their baseball team within the constraints of their limited budget. Instead of relying on the more subjective information often used by their competitors, like the way a certain player runs or wears their uniform, the two used a sophisticated analysis of multiple empirical data sets to track players’ in-game activity and statistics to guide their decisions.

At CRE.Converge 2018 in Washington, D.C., Brookfield’s Global Head of Corporate Development/Executive Vice President Kevin Danehy likened the Athletics’ evidence-based approach to the way building owners and operators could leverage big data.

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Assistance with Green Roof Requirements

Posted October 26, 2018

Green roofs have been slowly catching on in the U.S., but more municipalities are encouraging or requiring their installation to reduce energy costs and absorb stormwater. According to an article from Governing.com, two companies are helping to guide green roof installation. Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate and Green Roofs for Healthy Cities advise companies and municipalities on the best way to adopt green roofs. Additionally, The Living Architecture Performance Tool is a “rating system and best practice guide” to achieve “measurable and replicable performance benefits” when building green roofs.

San Francisco’s Better Roofs Ordinance and Denver’s recently adopted Green Roof Initiative require newly built buildings to dedicate a portion of their rooftops to vegetation or solar panels. Approximately 25 cities in North America have programs to encourage green roofs.

Putting Together the Office Property and Big Data Puzzle

Posted on October 15, 2018

By Jennifer Lefurgy, Ph.D.

The use of technology in office building operations has come a long way from motion-controlled light sensors and key card entry systems. Building owners and operators are beginning to use an array of increasingly sophisticated software and hardware to gather more information about how their buildings can not only can work more efficiently, but give them insights into how to attract and retain tenants. The NAIOP Research Foundation’s new report, The Office Property and Big Data Puzzle: Putting The Pieces Together, by Kimberly Winson-Geideman, Ph.D., discusses what defines big data, how it is being used by building owners, and some of the issues those who are working with big data should consider.

Big data is defined as high-volume, high-variety and high-velocity information that is produced in either structured formats (e.g., sensor data) or unstructured formats (e.g., pictures, text). The sheer influx of big data can be overwhelming for many companies; they often choose to sit on the data they collect with no concrete plans to use it. Therefore, some firms, particularly those without the resources to sift through large amounts of data, risk missing valuable information that could improve their bottom line and position them favorably in an increasingly competitive market.

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Supreme Court: States May Collect Internet Sales Tax

Posted on July 2, 2018

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. that states may collect sales taxes from online retailers, even if those sellers do not have a physical location in the state. That reverses a decision the Court had made in 1992 in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota.

NAIOP supports the collection of existing sales and use taxes from online retailers when these taxes are already owed to state and local governments, including backing legislative efforts in Congress that would specifically empower states to do so. Not collecting these taxes puts brick-and-mortar retailers at a disadvantage to out-of-state vendors whose purchasers can avoid taxes, as the Court pointed out in its decision.

“Each year the physical presence rule becomes further removed from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to the States,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the decision. “These critiques underscore that the physical presence rule, both as first formulated and as applied today, is an incorrect interpretation of the Commerce Clause.”

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The Tech-enabled Future of CRE

Posted on June 20, 2018

NAIOP Research Foundation Visionaries and other members of the Foundation’s Industry Trends Task Force had the opportunity to participate in a discussion with IBM Vice President Frank Cuevas, who oversees the company’s global real estate strategy and operations, at the 2018 National Forums Symposium in New York City. Cuevas leads IBM’s global real estate portfolio, which encompasses nearly 80 million square feet worldwide, including data centers, research labs and office space, housing some 380,000 employees.

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Top Office Obstacles: Parking and Technology

Posted on June 11, 2018

According to a new Cushman and Wakefield report, Space Matters: Key Office Trends and Metrics, two important trends in office space include technology amenities and parking. Common amenities – such as fitness centers and cost-effective food options – remain very important but there is ample opportunity for growth in how technology-related amenities are leveraged by occupiers and landlords. Despite advances in technology, researchers found many office building owners continue to struggle with some of the most basic offerings such as seamless, high-speed internet and cellular service.

In many urban submarkets, parking supply is a challenge and high prices have been forcing innovative solutions. According to the report, the predominant reason people utilize ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft is to avoid parking. In some cases, this has led owners to provide valet or shuttle services to connect offices with off-site parking, including garages in different parts of a city.

How Electric Bike Share Will Change the Commuting Game

Posted on May 21, 2018

By: Rachel Karitis

If you live in an urban area like Washington, D.C., or San Francisco, then you’ve probably seen the Skittles rainbow-colored bikes taking over the sidewalks. What you might not know is the specifics of how they work, and how this service could revolutionize the office commute.

Bike sharing as we have come to know it has tended to be city-funded (sometimes in conjunction with private companies) and presented in the form of expensive-to-install docks of bikes. Recently, there has been a veritable boom of private startups looking to make bike sharing profitable. These bikes do not need to be returned to stations, and instead can be picked up and left anywhere within city limits.

Click here to read more.

CRE Companies Prepare for Europe's Data Privacy Rules

Posted on April 18, 2018

According to Axios, U.S. companies are “largely unprepared” for the new European Union (EU) data privacy laws that will take effect this May. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is intended to “give users more control of how their personal data are used and streamline data processes across the EU.” Companies that fail to achieve GDPR standards will face penalties and fines. Europe has taken a stricter stance than the U.S. on protecting consumer privacy and the new regulation will serve as a “litmus test for regulating the data economy.” The effects will be far-reaching for tech companies and e-commerce merchants, but will also affect any company that collects data on customers, including real estate brokers, managers and owners. Any real estate companies dealing with individuals in Europe will have to remain compliant. GDPR will grant the following rights to individuals:

  • The right to be informed that data is being collected.
  • The right to access the data.
  • The right to change, correct or update the data.
  • The right to erase data.
  • The right to restrict processing.
  • The right to data portability.
  • The right to object.
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

According to Inman news, these regulations cover CRE companies that store personally identifying information on potential customers and existing tenants. Property managers, many of whom collect and process data regarding energy efficiency, must gain consent from tenants.