In a commercial real estate industry where access to information can make or break a deal, Cushman & Wakefield has developed a new internal technology platform designed to give its brokers a sharper edge. The tool, called Athena — a nod to the Greek goddess of wisdom — aims to help brokers and clients navigate complex property decisions by blending multiple layers of data into a single, visual interface.
“We did want to create a tool that solved a specific challenge to a specific subset of our clients,” Jessica Howe, vice president of global practice groups, told GlobeSt.com. “And so that’s what we did.”
While many companies choose between “best-of-breed” technology — specialized tools targeting a single task — and “best-of-class” products that integrate multiple functions, Cushman & Wakefield took the latter approach. Athena’s design incorporates a wide array of information, including parcel data, power substation locations, fiber optic transmission lines and environmental risk assessments. The goal, according to the company, is to move beyond the typical property-centric data and instead show how different factors interact to influence real estate decisions.
“It really empowers us to sit with clients, look at their portfolio, assess the market in real time, and then identify not only current risk, but anticipated risk, forecast risk, climate risk in the future, and really drive that optimal real estate decision,” Jason Tolliver, president of logistics and industrial, told GlobeSt.com. He noted that the platform reframes the conversation from simply buying or selling property to solving business problems. “Companies aren’t interested in properties as an end to themselves. They are tools to support strategies and operations.”
Developing a one-size-fits-all solution, however, proved challenging. Commercial real estate data doesn’t function uniformly across asset types, making it impractical to build a single, large platform that would work equally well for, say, industrial sites and retail centers. Athena was initially designed with a “very specific data center lens,” Howe said. Once that framework was solidified, the company realized it could adjust the input data and adapt the platform to serve other property categories.
Although Athena is currently used only by Cushman & Wakefield brokers, an eventual client-facing version is a possibility. Still, Tolliver emphasized that the technology is meant to enhance — not replace — the role of real estate professionals. “There is no replacement for a brokerage professional or real estate advisor,” he said. “The tool elevates the conversation, drives to key decision points, helps visualize potential problems. And when you marry the tool with a real estate advisor, then you’re able to get to that point.”
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