Grubb & Ellis Pact Ties Management, Software

Tom D'Arcy

SANTA ANA, CA-Grubb & Ellis Co. has formed a strategic alliance with Manhattan Software to offer what it says is a one-of-a-kind integrated product to manage the life cycle of real estate from end to end. The companies say that the new alliance will allow Grubb & Ellis and Manhattan, which offers corporate real estate, facility management, property management and enterprise asset management software, to service clients more effectively.

Tom D’Arcy, president and CEO of Grubb & Ellis, says that the alliance with London-based Manhattan “was driven by the knowledge that combining disparate packages and reporting tools is far inferior to an integrated product that can manage the life cycle of real estate from end to end.” The Grubb & Ellis announcement regarding the alliance says that it is “unique in that it will allow the two firms to work together with clients from the exploratory stage of a management engagement to deliver an integrated solution” for their real estate operations, no matter where they are around the globe.

Craig Gillespie

Craig Gillespie, CEO of Manhattan who is based in the company’s US headquarters in Boston, said that the two companies “focused on designing a platform that would allow real estate management decision makers to reduce occupancy costs, improve sustainability and release capital back to the business.” The platform will enable real estate users to outsource management to Grubb & Ellis while “capitalizing on an enterprise-system-level integration of all functions of real estate,” he said. Grubb & Ellis worked with Gillespie and with Manhattan’s global chairman, London-based Steve Vatidis, in arranging the new alliance.

Manhattan Software provides applications such as space planning, maintenance, project and portfolio management, lease administration and other functionality, as well as a full financial suite. It says that its clients, including a number of Fortune 200 companies, have discovered this approach to real estate management “is more efficient and effective than how real estate portfolios have been managed historically.”