Tishman Speyer’s ‘Zo’ and the Amenities Opportunity in Commercial Real Estate
Tishman Speyer is a privately-held real estate investment management and services firm and a big player in the NYC commercial real estate environment. Large institutional landlords like TS are not traditionally known for being nimble and ‘up with times,’ but a few months ago, they announced a new program called Zo, set to pilot in the Rockefeller Center. Through partnerships with service providers, TS will offer amenities like health screenings, rideshares, and food + catering to tenants in its buildings.
The investment in Zo reflects the belief that a real estate landlord can aggregate concierge and lifestyle services typically catered to consumers and offer them to tenants in their buildings. Real estate owners can provide the amenity functions large corporates typically offer their employees and create brand value around their buildings and names. Zo also shows that commercial landlords are constantly borrowing ideas from the residential and hospitality worlds, spaces where amenity and ‘on-demand’ services are quite popular.
I believe growing interest from landlords in instituting programs like Zo could be an opportunity for a technology startup to act as a services aggregation platform for a multitude of commercial property owners and asset managers. Right now, the supply of amenities is fragmented, which creates coordination issues for real estate professionals who would rather focus on leasing and building performance.
A startup should own distribution of these local services ranging from health and beauty to food delivery and offer them as a bundled package to property owners. They could also tie in insights and data on how these various services can contribute to tenant retention, ultimately placing a significant impact on NOI.
What are your thoughts? Do you think something like this could work? Drop me a line at aashaysanghvi[at]gmail.com to discuss further.
