REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Conning and PEARLMARK | November 11, 2022
Conning, a leading global investment management firm, and Pearlmark Real Estate, L.L.C. (“Pearlmark”), a specialist investment manager of commercial real estate debt and equity strategies, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement for Conning & Company to acquire a majority stake in Pearlmark. Pearlmark will continue to operate autonomously with its investment team led by Stephen Quazzo and Doug Lyons.
“Partnering with Pearlmark is the latest example of our strategy to add best-in-class capabilities to meet the evolving needs of our clients, Pearlmark has extensive real estate knowledge and significant experience successfully working with insurance companies and other institutional clients to help them achieve their real estate investment objectives.”
-Woody Bradford, Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board of Conning
We are excited to collaborate with Conning while continuing to work with our industry partners and clients in providing real estate capital solutions, Conning’s investment and client-oriented culture is a perfect fit for our business, and they are the ideal strategic partner to help us strengthen and grow our platform,said Stephen Quazzo, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Pearlmark.
Founded in 1996, Pearlmark is focused on U.S. mid-cap real estate investments in both equity and debt. This holistic perspective enhances Pearlmark’s approach to sourcing, underwriting, and managing its investments, which drives value for investors. Pearlmark is headquartered in Chicago with additional offices in Denver, Nashville, and New York City.
The transaction is expected to close by early 2023, subject to customary approvals and closing conditions. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as a legal advisor to Conning. CenterCap Group, LLC served as financial advisor and Drane & Freyer Limited served as legal advisor to Pearlmark.
ABOUT CONNING
Conning is a leading investment management firm with more than $180 billion in global assets under management as of September 30, 2022. With a long history of serving the insurance industry, Conning supports institutional investors, including insurers and pension plans, with investment solutions, risk modeling software, and industry research. Founded in 1912, Conning has investment centers in Asia, Europe and North America. As of September 30, 2022, represents the combined global assets under management for the affiliated firms under Conning Holdings Limited (CHL) and Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co., Ltd. (SITE). SITE is a separate entity under Cathay Financial Holdings Co., Ltd which is the ultimate controlling parent of all Conning entities. The CHL CEO sits on the Board of SITE and helps oversee the business.
ABOUT PEARLMARK
Pearlmark is a Chicago-based investment firm that targets domestic core, value-add, and opportunistic real estate opportunities via commingled funds, separate accounts, and joint venture structures. Since 1996, Pearlmark has sponsored more than a dozen real estate equity and debt investment programs and completed 565 real estate equity and debt transactions on behalf of investors, representing $5.3 billion in equity capital commitments and over $13.8 billion in gross investment value. Pearlmark is dedicated to creating value for its investors and offers a range of investment opportunities nationwide across various property types (office, industrial, multifamily).
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY,REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
View | November 21, 2022
View, Inc. (Nasdaq: VIEW), a leader in smart building technologies, today announced the launch of the View Partner Marketplace, an app store now available to the customers of the company’s recently launched Smart Building Cloud, the industry’s first, complete cloud-native platform for smart buildings. The View Partner Marketplace enables View customers to deploy popular real estate applications, sensors, and software platforms with a single click, making it easier than ever for real estate owners and operators to quickly and securely digitize their real estate portfolios.
The Smart Building Cloud provides real estate technology teams with all the software components required to connect, manage, and optimize a portfolio of smart buildings with strong cybersecurity protection and maximum flexibility. With the launch of the View Partner Marketplace, View is adding turnkey integrations with platforms and applications that make buildings healthier, more sustainable, more efficient, and easier to operate.
The Marketplace now supports 15 applications and sensors with new partners being added monthly. A few recently added partners include:
Mapped, a fully automated independent data layer platform that fast tracks the data integration and onboarding process down to a few hours, eliminating the need for manual integrations with vendor applications, and further accelerating project rollouts across portfolio;
Nantum OS by Prescriptive Data, a building operating system that enables building owners to manage energy consumption and carbon emissions;
Butlr Technologies, an anonymous people counting platform that includes best-in-class occupancy sensors addressing use cases served by View’s Building Performance and Workplace Experience applications; and
Awair, an air quality monitoring platform with RESET accredited air quality sensors and long-range mesh network technology that helps enterprises cost-effectively measure indoor air quality.
Kevin Cho, Co-founder and CEO of Awair, said: Partnering with View will help us further our mission to improve the health and wellness of workplaces. With our sensors as a preferred option for View’s Smart Building Cloud, we can decrease time to value for customers looking to measure and optimize indoor air quality.
“We are delighted to be chosen by View to be integrated into Smart Building Cloud to enable their customers to drive operational and environmental use cases informed by occupancy and utilization data.”
-Honghao Deng, Founder and CEO of Butlr
Sonu Panda, CEO of Prescriptive Data, said: Partnering with View will help building owners accelerate towards ESG targets of improving energy efficiency and sustainability within their real estate portfolios. With Nantum OS running on View’s platform, customers will benefit from fast data processing at the edge and excellent cybersecurity.
Shaun Cooley, Founder CEO, Mapped, said: We’re thrilled to partner with View and make building data more accessible, actionable, and secure. Mapped is committed to enabling property owners to own their data in a clean consistent format across their portfolio; this partnership will ensure customers deploying our solution also benefit from strong out-of-the-box cybersecurity protection and simplified network and data infrastructure.
The View Smart Building Cloud can be deployed in both new and existing buildings, and in conjunction with or independently of View Smart Windows, View’s flagship product that uses artificial intelligence to optimize access to natural light and outdoor views while keeping occupants comfortable. Every View Smart Window installation comes with an extensible OT network, which supports a wide variety of smart building devices and applications and serves as the foundation for a complete smart building technology stack.
About View
View delivers optimal human experiences in buildings. We started by revolutionizing something that hadn’t changed for centuries the simple window and in so doing, built the only complete, modular, cloud-native platform to deliver on the promise of smart buildings. View Smart Glass and the Smart Building Cloud transform buildings into responsive environments that continuously adjust to meet human needs for natural light, connection to nature, fresh air, and comfortable temperatures while improving energy efficiency and increasing profits for building owners and their tenants. Today, View’s products deployed across offices, apartments, life science facilities, schools, hospitals, airports, and hotels.
About Mapped
Mapped is the Independent Data layer for commercial real estate. By automating the discovery, extraction, and normalization of data from building systems, sensors, devices, and vendor APIs, Mapped simplifies the integration process down to a single, standardized API. Mapped breaks enterprise data silos to empower building owners, operators, and service providers to unlock the value of their data and drive transformative business outcomes.
About Prescriptive Data’s Nantum OS
Nantum OS is an artificial intelligence and machine learning climate technology designed for commercial real estate operators and sustainability managers. Nantum OS allows real estate managers to visualize building HVAC systems, metering systems, people counting systems, IoT devices (air quality, lighting, shade, smart glass), distributed energy systems (battery storage, fuel cells, on-site generation equipment, solar), and third-party datasets in real time. Nantum OS uses real-time AI/ML algorithms to reduce building energy demand, suppress carbon emissions, and shrink utility costs. Each building on Nantum OS uses the least amount of energy and carbon emissions while delivering the maximum amount of health and comfort to occupied spaces.
About Butlr
Spun out of the MIT Media Lab in 2019 with offices in Silicon Valley and Boston, Butlr was founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs Honghao Deng and Jiani Zeng with a mission to make the built environment people-aware. Butlr's People Sensing Platform anonymously infers human presence and activity via its thermal, wireless sensors to deliver rich spatial insights at a fraction of the cost and time of legacy alternatives. Since launch of its platform in late 2021, the company is already working with dozens of the largest occupiers, landlords and service providers in North America, Europe and Asia, in addition to partners in senior living and retail.
About Awair
Awair’s mission is to empower people worldwide to breathe safely wherever they spend time indoors. The company provides cutting edge technology that is easy to use and understand, as well as an intuitive software platform with actionable insights for IAQ improvement, enabling users to mitigate their indoor air for health and safety, be it at home, school, the workplace, or any other indoor space. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA and has a second office in Seoul, South Korea.
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AGENT,REAL ESTATE ADVICE
RentSpree | December 21, 2022
RentSpree, the industry's premier end-to-end rental management software provider, is dedicated to changing the mindset around the profitability of rental properties. A 2022 RentSpree + RealTrends Rental Power Rankings study made clear that many agents do not view rentals as worthy of their time and resources. Approximately 50% of the surveyed agents claimed that the commission was "too low" for the time and effort required to lease a rental property, and 43% of surveyed agents claim that a lack of knowledge of the rental market keeps them from working in that space. In short, many real estate agents see working with rentals as a poor return on investment (ROI).
RentSpree challenges that perception and highlights how rentals can improve agent profitability year-round, especially in an economic downturn. With new insights into the misconceptions of the rental industry, here are some tips on how agents can stay ahead of the economic forecast:
Leverage the Right Resources:
With the right tools and industry knowledge, real estate agents can increase their cash flow by assisting tenants and working with landlords and property management companies. Depending on their goals, agents could work with buyers and sellers while the market is hot, and renters during a slower part of the year, highlighting how beneficial the malleability of rentals can be.
Consider Current Business Expansion:
Many agents forget or don't realize that their current business structure might already be set up to work with rental properties. If an agent already works with real estate investors to buy and sell property, they could also offer their services to fill the property with a tenant when it is move-in ready. This can be an excellent option for adding income to your business by establishing yourself as the go-to agent for buying, selling, and renting out properties in the area. As agents, time and resources are invaluable, regardless of the economic situation.
Tap Into the Value of PropTech:
Agents can lean into property technology (PropTech) tools to simplify working with rentals. PropTech gives power back to agents to work the field rather than handle time-consuming paperwork on a transaction's front or back end. The right solutions also enable real estate agents to:
Set up a listing cart to show properties to tenants through the MLS and lets them quickly help renters fill out online applications
Facilitate payment of the tenant screening fee
Pass on the paperwork to the landlord as soon as it's completed
Allow the tenants to be notified of a landlord's decision within 24 to 48 hours of applying (cutting two to five days out of the typical manual application cycle)
Boost agents' hourly earnings and return on investment exponentially.
With a fresh perspective on the fluid real estate market heading into 2023, and nearly 50 million rental properties across the United States according to numbers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau, there has never been a better time for agents to consider working with rentals.
About RentSpree
Los Angeles-based RentSpree is a provider of award-winning rental software that helps seamlessly connect real estate agents, owners, and renters to simplify and automate the entire rental process, from listing to lease. The all-in-one platform is known across all 50 states for its easy and secure interface and suite of rental tools, including tenant screening, rent payments, marketing and renter management. To date, RentSpree has partnered with more than 250 of the most influential MLSs, real estate associations and brokerages to serve over one million users in the U.S. RentSpree is ranked 625th on Inc. 5000's fastest-growing private companies in 2022.
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