The One About CREtech NYC – What Major Challenges Are Facing The Industry And What Can We Do To Overcome Them?

Coming on the heels of CRETech’s return to live events with an 1,800 person turnout in NYC on Oct 13 and 14th, Louisa sat down with three of the leaders who headlined the event. She spoke with Brad Greiwe, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Fifth Wall, Raj Singh, Managing Partner, JLL Spark and Sharad Rastogi, President of Revenue at JLL Technologies.  They talked about their recent investments, the global movement towards sustainability in buildings and who the responsibility lies with to make changes towards net zero, and how buildings will be computers in need of operating systems in the future.   Companies Mentioned: CRETech New York Conference  CRETech New York Website Fifth Wall Icon Sealed Juno CRETech Climate Tech Copenhagen Equity Residential   Hudson Pacific Properties Ivanhoe Cambridge Kimco Turn Tide   Shout Outs: Michael Beckerman Scottie Lee  Aloft  Swift Connect Building Engines   Key Insights From This Episode:    We invest in companies where we think that we can be a customer or we can be a channel to our clients, and sell their products through that channel. - Raj Technology was definitely impacting and influencing, from a disruptive or an enabling perspective. - Raj But at the same time the challenges around, climate tech specifically around decarbonizing the built world was also proven to be extremely challenging as well. The muscle groups that these corporates need in order to engage technology, and decarbonization, require different approach. - Brad     And I think what makes this sort of green wave a lot different than the ones we've seen in the past is that in addition to sort of this government mandated demand, there is a real impetus and a real interest from corporates to be a part of the solution. - Brad I think the two things that stuck out for me firstly, was the number of attendees from the regular real estate world, as opposed to the technology PropTech world. So, there were a huge number of people there who were genuinely curious to understand how technology could have an impact on their business. - Raj I think change is driven by people, The whole world is waking up, why we need to be more carbon neutral, how we need to sort of control increase in temperature. What can we do as individuals to make the world a better place. And I think that's driving the investors, the occupiers to make different decisions. - Sharad I think buildings are will become computers eventually, and computers need an operating system. - Sharad I think for a lot of corporates who expecting the world to just go back to normal, post pandemic, it's just not going to happen. And having a very comprehensive digital strategy is likely going to be your best way to navigate the path forward. - Brad Keywords: funding, innovation, sustainability, collaboration, acquisition, smart buildings, COP26 About Our Guests: Brad Greiwe, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Fifth Wall https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-greiwe-96022a38/  Brad Greiwe is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall, where he guides the firm’s strategic vision. Prior to starting Fifth Wall, Brad co-founded Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH), a multi-billion dollar owner and operator of single-family rental properties originally backed by The Blackstone Group. As CTO, he positioned Invitation Homes as the dominant technology-forward brand in the single-family rental category, developing a proprietary technology stack to support the valuation, acquisition, rehabilitation, leasing, and professional management of over 80,000 homes in 17 major markets, serving 120,000 residents across the U.S. Brad started his career in investment banking at UBS in the real estate, lodging, and leisure group, where he tallied over $33 billion of M&A advisory work and $1 billion of debt and equity financing, including the sale of Hilton Hotels to The Blackstone Group for $26 billion—the largest hotel privatization in history. He then worked in real estate private equity at Tishman Speyer and Starwood Capital, where he executed over $30 billion of acquisitions, debt financing, and development projects. Brad is originally from Cincinnati, lives in San Francisco, and graduated from Harvard University, where he received his BA in economics. Raj Singh, Managing Partner, JLL Spark  https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajsingh/  In his role as JLL Spark managing partner, Raj guides strategic investments to continue growing JLL Spark’s portfolio, further accelerating innovation and adoption of PropTech in commercial real estate. Raj is a venture capitalist, strategist and adviser in the innovation and information technology sectors. He most recently served five years as head of investments and then as interim co-head at JetBlue Technology Ventures—the corporate VC arm of JetBlue Airways. JLL Spark - Company Summary JLL Spark is a global venture fund, founded in 2017, investing in early to mid-stage property technology startups. JLL Spark’s team and venture capital fund have invested tens of millions of dollars in more than 30 early-stage proptech startups—from IoT sensors to investment platforms and more. Sharad Rastogi, President of Revenue at JLL Technologies  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharad-rastogi/  Sharad Rastogi is president of the revenue division at JLL Technologies (JLLT), a business division of JLL dedicated to commercial real estate (CRE) technology.  Sharad leads product strategy and engineering execution of JLLT’s revenue-generating technology offerings, helping to unlock data-driven insights and experiences, while improving the efficiency and ROI of clients’ real estate portfolios. JLLT - Company Summary JLL Technologies (JLLT), a business division of JLL, was established in 2019 to build and expand the company’s portfolio of technology products and services to shape the future of commercial real estate. JLLT is a first-of-its-kind team that combines commercial real estate experts with world-class technologists to deliver solutions that transform the way organizations acquire, manage, operate and experience space. About Our Host Louisa Dickins https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisa-dickins-ab065392/?originalSubdomain=uk Louisa started her career in property working at a well-known estate agency in London. Realising her people skills, she moved over to Lloyd May to pursue a career in recruitment. She now is a Director at LMRE, who are a specialist recruitment firm driven by PropTech and recruitment professionals, and Louisa oversees their 5 core areas. Louisa co-founded LMRE and provides a constructive recruitment platform to the new disruptors in real estate. Louisa is also on the board of Directors at UK PropTech Association (UKPA). About LMRE www.lmre.tech LMRE believe there is a better way to recruit. LMRE focus on a more comprehensive, client led focus delivering exceptional talent to the place at the time. They are passionate about the industry and passionate about people's careers. LMRE spend time with each client to become and an extension of the business, and their transparency and core values help them grow with the sector. LMRE simplify recruitment and innovate with our clients and evolve the people driven, PropTech community.