Proptech’s Most Powerful
Commercial Observer
Connecting and informing industry leaders of trends and individuals defining the global commercial real estate landscape
Proptech boomed during the pandemic and has cooled recently. It’s still a force in commercial real estate and likely a staple of the industry’s future. Check out the most powerful names in the business right now. And brick-and-mortar retail was reeling even before the pandemic. The health calamity, though, appears to have changed it for good in terms of the customers it might draw from the foot traffic in downtown areas, according to a new report.
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— Tom Acitelli, Co-Deputy Editor
Power Proptech 2022
Proptech — or the use of technology to streamline and improve property operations and usage — seemed to reach its zenith in 2019. Investors poured more than $31 billion into all manner of startups and more established names looking to track data, clear the air and unlock doors (literally and figuratively). The sky seemed the proverbial limit. Then COVID hit. Yet, the investment continued. Sure, it dipped in 2020; but, once society and the commercial real estate market got their bearings, investment hit a record $32 billion in 2021. Analysts and venture capitalists were bullish on the following year — this year. But 2022 has proved to be anything but stellar in proptech. The red-hot sector has cooled. Blame the wider economic tumult. Or the sheer number of newer entrants fighting for client and consumer attention. Whatever the reasons, investment is down sharply, and the general feeling among VCs and company principals is that the sector’s smoothest days, at least for now, are well behind it. The next few months to a year will likely see a wave of consolidation as well as closures. Some proptech firms just won’t survive. Which, of course, means that others will. Commercial Observer’s inaugural Power Proptech list of the most consequential players in the field was put together with this change in mind.
New York City Enters ‘New Normal’ for Foot Traffic: Report
Less foot traffic in New York City’s downtown areas may be the new normal, according to a report from retail data analytics firm Springboard. Downtown foot traffic in New York City in September was 26.8 percent below the same month in 2019, before the pandemic, and less than the city saw in August 2022, according to the report. The slow recovery to shopping areas including Midtown, SoHo and Fort Greene, Brooklyn, comes even as employers have pushed workers to return to the office this fall. Roughly 49 percent of employees headed back to their desks in the first two weeks of September, but with the rest still laboring from home, the city’s shopping destinations should get accustomed to lower attendance during the workweek, according to Diane Wehrle, Springboard’s marketing and insights director.
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