Three Little Piggies

Our home offices are in the MetLife Building, the 50-year-old iconic skyscraper in New York City. The asset is managed in a first-class fashion by the premier real estate firm of Tishman Speyer Properties.

In keeping with the digital age, about a year ago Tishman embarked on a program to provide the 2.8-million-square-foot building with Zo, a workplace app designed to provide tenants with a wide range of amenities and services. With just a click, one can arrange a shoe shine or haircut, order a food delivery, book centralized conference rooms or a yoga class, and even arrange for childcare services.  The app is expected to spread to most of Tishman’s domestic properties by year’s end, and will ultimately span its global portfolio.

As it turns out, Tishman is at the forefront of a new weapon in the amenities arms race among office landlords, who are aggressively changing the landscape of how services are delivered to their tenants. The objective is to turn a hum-drum building into a hub for services.

Not surprisingly, real estate service firms such as CBRE and JLL are also getting into the action and are building their own super apps. Even the Wall Street Journal picked up on this, reporting on the office app phenomena in a recent issue.

In our experience, one of the best amenities that offered is “Piglet Days,” wherein Tishman turned a lobby location into a literal pig pen housing a trio of piglets. Building tenants can then use the app to reserve appointments to spend some quality time petting the piglets, proving that the opportunities are boundless for emerging office Apps.

Job Listings

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