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COVID-19 has transformed how people live, work, shop, and interact on a day-to-day basis, augmenting how digital is shaping our new normal. The pandemic forced organizations around the world to become virtual, digital-centric, and agile at lightning-fast speeds, specifically challenging how society thought about inhabiting and interacting with their physical spaces. As a result, the real estate industry experienced seismic shifts with a need for overnight novel strategies. In the case of RXR Realty, building a digital muscle was the catalyst to becoming a winner within the ever-changing arena.<\/p>\n
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RXR Realty is one of the largest real estate companies (investor and developer) in New York with over 27 million square feet of real estate. In normal times, around 75,000 office workers occupy their building spaces. Prior to the global health crisis, RXR had begun implementing a strategy to transform their traditional real estate footprint into an intelligent network of digitally connected spaces using technology, IoT, sensors in the cloud (Microsoft [Microsoft Mechanics], 2020). The company had recognized the untapped value in shifting its focus from simply offering properties to offering real estate as a service<\/em> (Microsoft [Microsoft Cloud], 2020).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n RXR CEO Scott Rechler stated, \u201cThe future of real estate is no longer about delivering four walls to tenants\u2026 Instead, it\u2019s about creating a unique, personalized customer experience that fosters meaningful interactions, collaboration, productivity. Delivering this will require a unique combination of capabilities that seamlessly integrate across the physical and digital realms.\u201d (McKinsey & Company, 2020).<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n When New York became the epicenter of the virus and physical distancing and the need for contactless interactions became paramount for RXR\u2019s tenants, the accumulated digital investment capabilities allowed RXR to pivot quickly. Its nascent platform, RxWell, was deployed as a solution to save the company and address health and wellness concerns. On the commercial side, RxWell provided information about air quality, heating cooling, floor space optimization, occupancy levels of a building, cleaning status, food delivery options, and shift times for worker arrivals. Employees had their temperatures taken via thermal scanners when they entered a building, and heat maps were available online that showed how full a restroom or conference room was at any given time. On the residential side, the app enabled real-time move scheduling, deliveries, dog walking, maintenance requests, and rent payments. The entire experience was powered by a robust data and analytics infrastructure that was uniquely tailored and personalized, enabling staff to manage buildings in a customer-centric way (McKinsey & Company, 2020b) (McKinsey & Company, 2020). This IoT and AI-based foundation ultimately helped the company emerge as a beacon of change for the industry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The RxWell app was recognized by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences for the 25th<\/sup> Annual Webby Awards as an honoree in two categories: Apps & Software: Experiential & Innovation, and Apps & Software: Data Management. Additionally, the company was a 2020 Digie Award Winner for Best COVID Tech ((RXR, n.d.) Moreover, the success of RXR Realty\u2019s digital solution has propelled the lab to grow to more than 100 data scientists, designers, and engineers, and has generated official partnerships with Microsoft, Vision and others to build products and services for residents that enhance living experiences (McKinsey & Company, 2020).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As people have grown accustomed to digital experiences and conveniences such as online banking, tele health, eCommerce, etc., it is not surprising that the expectation for digital conveniences and personalization are seeping into real estate. The deployment of the RXWell Digital Solution has paid dividends for RXR Realty as they are now able to tap into a powerful new era of business via data collection and management, AI, IoT, and reimagined customer experience touch points. By reorienting towards a digital-heavy strategy, the company has been able to leverage proprietary digital capabilities, hedge their bets as workers and tenets return to a new \u2018normal\u2019, and identify themselves as an agile player in the onset of a new frontier. RXR Realty is a COVID-19 winner, influencing what \u201csmart\u201d real estate may mean in the future.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\nSee how RHR Realty is transforming properties:<\/h3>\n