Boston-based HqO’s tenant engagement app is used by commercial landlords including Innovation and Design Building owner Jamestown and Cambridge Crossing developer DivcoWest. Image courtesy of HqO.

For office landlords competing to land the next big lease or hang onto an existing tenant, the latest must-have amenity is one you can slip in your pocket. 

Some of Greater Boston’s biggest developers are rolling out tenant engagement software, in the form of mobile apps that notify office workers about everything from ice cream socials to the arrival time of the next employee shuttle. These digital concierges foster community by promoting social events in multitenant buildings, provide wayfinding on massive corporate campuses and keep tabs on building access and conference room reservations. 

Leah Harsfield, a vice president at Newton-based National Development, credits a mobile tenant app created by Boston-based HqO with improving tenant retention at The District, a 1.3-million-square-foot office park spread across 65 acres in Burlington. 

“I started hearing about companies meeting at the bar and realizing they have a connection and can do business together,” Harsfield said at a recent NAIOP-Massachusetts forum. “These stories I hear time and time again. Those connections wouldn’t have happened if there wasn’t this software to bring people together.” 

Beyond the social aspects, proptech apps promise financial rewards for landlords by helping them operate buildings more efficiently. Using location services that track mobile phone users’ movements, they can pinpoint neglected and high-traffic spaces, or optimize use of building systems. 

But legal experts say the apps raise red flags about privacy and security that could expose landlords to risk in the event of a data breach. 

“It’s early days and there has not yet been a major hack or a data breach with a real estate asset,” said Minta Kay, partner and chair of Boston-based law firm Goodwin’s real estate group. “Until that happens, people will just kind of go along.” 

Millennium and MIT Team Up at Winthrop Center 

As companies compete for employees, tenant engagement software is another tool in the recruiting wars and ties into their search for a dynamic work environment. 

“Tenants probably make a real estate decision once every 10 years,” said Evan Rosenburgh, director of East Coast digital sales at CBRE. “The mechanisms that happen on a building tour are different than talking about the HVAC system and the attributes of the building. The buzzwords are about collaboration, environment and retention.” 

Millennium Partners is partnering with an MIT architecture professor to deploy a proprietary building app called ConnexIQ to help analyze the performance of Millennium’s forthcoming Winthrop Center tower.

As it markets 750,000 square feet of office space in its $1.35 billion Winthrop Center skyscraper under construction in Boston, Millennium Partners is partnering with MIT architecture professor John Fernandez on a proprietary building app called ConnexIQ. 

Sustainability will be a major focus of ConnexIQ’s features, said Richard Baumert, a Millennium partner. 

Handel Architects designed Winthrop Center as the world’s largest office building that uses energy-saving passive house designs, and ConnexIQ will analyze the 1.6-million-square-foot tower’s performance versus similar buildings, Baumert said. Tenants will be able to analyze their own carbon footprints by entering data on commuting and consumption habits. 

“When you take sustainability, technology, wellness and social engagement – all the pieces we have in this building – and overlay them, it equals more productive, happier people,” Baumert said. “That dictated the platform for us. The big dream is to incorporate everybody in the building and what kind of an impact they’re making on the environment.” 

Location-tracking services will give Millennium Partners insights into visitors and employees’ movements, how many people are using fitness rooms and amenities, and even what food they order on-site. 

Tapping Outside Expertise 

Sacrificing a measure of control but also saving on startup costs, other landlords and property managers are partnering with third-party app developers such as Boston-based HqO. The Leather District startup has received investments from brokerages CBRE, JLL and Cushman & Wakefield along with one of its local clients, Innovation and Design Building owner Jamestown. DivcoWest, developer of the 4.5-million-square-foot Cambridge Crossing, announced last week that it’s launched the HqO app at one of its office buildings in Washington, D.C. 

“We’re seeing a huge uptick in landlord investments in this technology,” said Salil Gandhi, a partner in Goodwin’s technology group. “Either they develop their own app or invest in the companies with the idea of acquiring them if things go well, or participating in the upside.” 

Another local startup, Cambridge-based Modo Labs, started out in 2010 marketing its property app to hospitals and colleges before launching Modo Workplace in January to target the office sector. 

Steve Adams

App providers often charge landlords a fee based upon the square footage of a building, Goodwin’s Kay said. Typically, landlords own the data and the responsibility of safeguarding it. 

And as states enact more stringent consumer data privacy laws, landlords will face increasing financial risks. A California law taking effect next January gives consumers the right to sue companies for up to $750 for each violation. 

That’s not stopping investors from showering seed money on real estate app developers. Venture capital investments in the overall proptech category topped $20 billion in 2018, a 38 percent increase from the previous year, according to Venture Scanner. Investments in the property management category – ranging from tenant engagement apps to electronic rent payment apps – were $335 million in 2018, up from $277 million the previous year.