CBRE Acquires Occupancy Planning Tech Firm To Aid Return-To-Office Effort

 As employers look to reinvent their offices to bring people back this year, real estate services giants like CBRE are beefing up their workplace technology offerings. 

CBRE has acquired occupancy planning and technology company Buildingi for an undisclosed price, the firm announced Wednesday. 

Buildingi provides space utilization data and technology services such as Computer-Aided Design, Integrated Workplace Management Systems and Building Information Modeling to help office occupiers make decisions about the size and layout of their workplaces. Founded in 1994, the company has offices in Bellevue, Washington, and Dallas, plus a service center in Costa Rica, which CBRE will acquire. 

The company will now be branded as "Buildingi from CBRE," the announcement said. CBRE plans to integrate the company and its technology offerings into its Occupancy Management team to help clients reimagine their workplaces as they bring people back to the office. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted more companies to reimagine their workplace and occupancy strategies as they look to provide employees with more flexibility as they return to the office,” CBRE Senior Managing Director of Occupancy Management Susan Wasmund said in a release. “Now more than ever, CBRE and Buildingi have a unique opportunity to fill the need in the marketplace by bringing together the best of each organization’s people and services.”  

Many companies had been aiming to bring employees back to the office after New Year's Day, but those plans were largely delayed by the omicron variant and the record spike in Covid-19 cases. This latest delay means the uncertainty around office returns, and the efforts from services firms like CBRE to help aid them, will continue well into 2022. 

Another major real estate services firm, JLL, teamed up with a tech company last month that aims to improve the experience for office tenants. JLL announced Dec. 14 it invested in and partnered with HqO as a way to offer new services to clients as they bring workers back to the office.

https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/office/cbre-acquires-occupancy-planning-tech-firm-to-aid-return-to-office-efforts-111407