EJME Picks HqO for Workplace Experience at Its Office Properties

Edward J. Minskoff Equities (EJME) will start to use workplace experience technology from HqO “to address rapidly changing tenant needs,” the vendor has announced.

EJME will initially roll the software services out at 101 Avenue of the Americas and 51 Astor Place, both in Manhattan.

Landlords have been looking into amenities as a way to lure employees back to the office, which then would give employers reasons to at least maintain their level of real estate spending, as GlobeSt.com reported in April.

“Buildings are competing against one another to gain a competitive edge in the market, and amenities are a key factor for tenants in gauging one building against another,” Trevor Adler, head of the leasing practice in Stroock & Stroock & Lavan’s New York City office, told GlobeSt.com at the time. “They’re just looking at their competitors and saying, ‘This other landlord in the area has these amenities that they’re offering or just put in and what can we do to compete?’ I think a lot of the efforts are keeping up with the Joneses to make sure a landlord’s particular building doesn’t fall behind the pack in terms of being competitive in the marketplace.”

Products like the HqO offering take a different approach. Rather than including restaurants or food courts, gyms, or childcare, all of which might be available in an urban center, they offer operational convenience: access control and security; booking space; arranging for maintenance; food ordering; event programming; communications; wellness services; and more.

It’s not that all the offerings need to be physically brought into a single building, but that they are close enough at hand and can be scheduled through the system, saving employees time.

Whether that is something to bring people back into the office is impossible to say right now. Perhaps it helps stem the flow out to working from home, or maybe just becomes table stakes in what property owners will be expected to offer.