Intercontinental's Transformation of Non-Amenitized Buildings with HqO

The customer in this case study is Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, a comprehensive real estate investment, and management firm based in Boston, MA. The company is focused on investing in and managing properties across North America. The specific property in focus for this case study is the 955 Massachusetts Avenue office building, a 95,000 square foot office building located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The eight-story, Class A building is anchored by Mathematica Policy Research and also features ground-floor retail tenants including The UPS Store.

Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation faced a significant challenge with its 955 Massachusetts Avenue office property. The building, located in the heart of Cambridge's technology hubs, was competing with neighboring properties that boasted modern amenities and a significant footprint of both people and commercial office space. These included offices of technology giants such as Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. The 955 Massachusetts Avenue property, constructed in 2001, was not built with modern amenities in mind. It did feature a small, internally-run cafe for tenants, but its business was slow and not well-known among the building occupants. The primary challenge was to elevate the building's profile, show appreciation for tenants, build a greater line of communication during construction and maintenance updates, and compete with the amenitized spaces of neighboring properties.

Intercontinental partnered with HqO, a tenant experience platform, to transform the 955 Massachusetts Avenue property. The solution involved the rollout of a new amenity center and the use of HqO's custom white-labeled app to facilitate strategic amenity rollouts. The app was used to drive tenant outreach during the amenity center's rollout, communicate with tenants during periods of disruptive construction, and share renderings, pictures, and details of the plans and construction. The app also facilitated waiver sign-ups for the new amenity center, sent directly to the property management team. Intercontinental also used the app to drive customers to their cafe by offering promotional items, solicit feedback on adding a game table to the cafe, facilitate discounts as a thank you to tenants during construction, and communicate directly with tenants. Mobile amenities, including exercise and yoga classes, chair massages, manicures, and bike tune-ups, were also brought to the building.

• The partnership with HqO and the implementation of the tenant experience app resulted in several operational benefits for Intercontinental. The app facilitated direct communication with tenants, which was particularly useful during periods of disruptive construction. It also helped to increase awareness of the building's small cafe, leading to increased revenue. The app was instrumental in the successful rollout and promotion of the new amenity center, with over 99% of building occupants downloading and regularly engaging with the app. The app also facilitated the introduction of mobile amenities to the building, further enhancing the tenant experience. Overall, the solution helped Intercontinental to elevate the profile of the 955 Massachusetts Avenue property and compete more effectively with neighboring properties.

• Over 99% of building occupants have downloaded and regularly engaged with their building app since launch
• Digital content engagement has remained steady throughout the pandemic from March through December
• Revenue from the building's small cafe increased as a result of promotional items offered through the app