Blog

*Synced from the Seattle and Real Estate blog

Seattle, known as a progressive leader in information and technology, houses established companies and growing start-ups alike. As Amazon expands, Facebook moves in, and numerous start-ups take up stake in Seattle’s burgeoning technology hub, it is evident the commercial real estate industry, a sector some would say is lagging on the technological front, is a major player in helping these innovative companies set up shop. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, in 2014 high-tech tenants accounted for 45 percent of leasing activity in Seattle. That’s a good chunk of business coming from a client base who appreciates system innovation – it would be wise if the real estate sector jumped aboard the techie train and geared its marketing strategy toward its forward-thinking client base. That is exactly what co-founder of Hightower Brandon Weber and Floored CEO Dave Eisenberg are hoping to capitalize on. Seattle-based Hightower takes commercial leasing to that magical place everyone seems to love – the cloud. Allowing for full business execution in the palm of your hand, Hightower allows commercial owners and brokers to manage their entire portfolio, leasing documents, and collaborate with their leasing team all in real time. Joining forces with New York City-based company Floored, a fully interactive 3-D visual tool for the real estate industry, Weber and Eisenberg have created a full-bodied leasing platform like no other. “Tenants struggle to visualize how space might look, landlords spend billions of dollars on speculative space construction,” Brandon Weber, explained to Commercial Observer. “Floored greatly reduces this need by delivering a virtual tour experience showing the tenant exactly how their space will look once built out. We believe this can save landlords billions in spec build out costs.” Between Hightower’s mobile app technology and Floored’s 3D visual sophistication, brokers and building owners have the ability to virtually walk clients through available properties and provide a robust example of what the space could look like, and the platform is unmatched with anything else out there. What a refreshing game changer – but it is changing the game? According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, Weber says Hightower is tracking more than 10,000 vacant office spaces, and that figure is growing by 20 percent per month. Hoping to streamline his business for bi-coastal clients, Weber is excited at the prospect of assisting a Los Angeles tenant find property in New York via the Hightower application. Thanks to new kids on the block, such as Hightower and Floored, infusing life into the commercial real estate industry, perhaps some of the biggest names in the business will step into the 21st century.