Nuveen Hires Industrious to Manage Portfolio-Wide Branding
By Chava Gourarie February 2, 2023 6:09 pm
reprints
Nuveen and Industrious have partnered on a tenant experience deal novel to both companies. Flexible workspace operator Industrious will help manage owner and developer Nuveen’s consumer branding and tenant experience across its nationwide portfolio of office buildings. The goal is a networked product for Nuveen tenants, the companies told Commercial Observer.
“We’re going to oversee all the hospitality and amenities in Nuveen buildings and help implement consumer brand guidelines,” said Hopi Stradling, senior director of tenant experience at Industrious. “We think this is really significant for us because landlords of this size have never had to build a consumer platform.”
Nuveen has been testing the partnership in a handful of New York City buildings for the last two years, and found it would be worthwhile to expand to its portfolio of 64 buildings in 13 states, according to Brian Wallick, director of New York investments at Nuveen.
“Traditionally office buildings have never had to think about branding themselves,” Industrious’ Stradling said. “[An office building] may have had an address but, thematically, it had no meaning.”
The purpose for Nuveen is to drive leasing to its buildings by offering continuity of experience throughout its portfolio, as well as access. “If you’re a member of one Nuveen building, you’re a member of them all,” Wallick said.
The need for a managed tenant experience is unique to this moment when employers are looking for an office product that encourages employees to come to work. Traditionally, office buildings haven’t exactly been consumer-facing, since it was the real estate directors who made leasing decisions, but both Stradling and Wallick believe that’s changing.
“We 100 percent think that the individual employees are going to dictate where they want to work in the future,” Stradling said. “From a talent acquisition and retention standpoint, employees are not going to go into a place where they don’t feel safe, happy and productive.”
Nuveen, the real estate arm of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA), owns office properties in major office markets such as New York City, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, as well as in Dallas, Nashville, Washington, D.C., and other areas.
Industrious is best known for operating flexible workspaces for landlords, as well as managing its own growing network of branded workspaces, but that is not the focus of the partnership. It currently manages only one Industrious space in a Nuveen building.
Chava Gourarie can be reached at cgourarie@commericalobserver.com.
Update: This story has been updated with Brian Wallick’s correct name. It was previously written as Brian Wiles.
