After Atlanta, FacilityPro will install its patented software in Zell's 380 buildings covering 99 million sf in 24 states later this year. The value of the contract wasn't disclosed.
Equity wants FacilityPro to reduce data entry and processing time, cut back on the number of vendors and related checks and expedite contract negotiations.
"We believe that operational efficiencies created by scale and technology will be a key point of differentiation for real estate companies in the years ahead," Equity vice president/business development Shobi Khan says in a prepared statement. "We continue to look for new ways to free our property staff's time so they can devote a greater portion of their days serving our customers."
FacilityPro's president/chief operating officer Lawrence Hall says in the same statement the deal was done because "our technology is consistent with Equity Office's strategy to leverage scale to maximize operating efficiencies."
Hall says his company's software solutions will "significantly reduce the need" for Equity to manually code invoices and cost distribution information." That will be accomplished by integrating Equity's electronic back-office work into the company's accounting system.
The deal with Equity has been jelling since last September at least, according to FacilityPro. That's when Equity Office made a $25 million investment in FacilityPro. Christopher Mundy, Equity's senior vice president/strategic planning and operations, is a FacilityPro board member.
Equity Office Properties is a member of Constellation Real Technologies, an industry consortium formed by 11 of the nation's largest owners, managers and developers of commercial real estate properties.
The Equity-FacilityPro deal is expected to tie in smoothly with Equity's expected closing in mid-July on the acquisition of Spieker Properties Inc., a 30-year-old Menlo Park, CA-based developer with 38 million sf of commercial space, including 25 million sf of office in California and the Pacific Northwest.
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