News on 23 October 2000
Workspeed, Inc., developer of what is claimed to be the first web-based
platform for streamlining property management workflow, has established
its first portfolio agreement outside the US. The company has reached
an agreement with French property manager GFF Institutionnels, to provide
services to a portfolio of properties, totalling 370,000 sq m in Paris.
The portfolio includes a number of large buildings which take up about
10% of the city's La Defense business district, along with a group of
buildings in central Paris, close to Tour Montparnasse.
Workspeed will initially be used to initiate, authorise, dispatch and
track maintenance requests, schedule shared building resources, request
additional landlord or vendor services and provide all users with access
to a common data source for property information. Owners and managers
will be able to sort and analyse property operating information for an
individual building or across a portfolio of properties. In addition,
the company plans to develop new applications regularly.
The contract also covers property portfolios to be added when GFF merges
in 2001 with two other property managers - Bourdais Gestion and Agifrance
- for an approximate total of 1.4m sq m. That merger will form France's
second largest property management firm, to be called "GFF-Bourdais."
Workspeed’s president Gilles Queru said: "This first overseas
contract signals to the European real estate industry that we intend to
build a major presence there, just as we've launched at full speed here
in the U.S. Owners and managers on both sides of the Atlantic realise
that certain technologies offer tremendous possibilities in making building
management more efficient and cost-effective. We speak their language
and can deliver what they need."
Workspeed's partners include Apollo Real Estate Advisors, LLC, Archon
Group, LP, Insignia Financial Group, Jack Resnick & Sons, Lawrence
Ruben Company, Inc., Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, Newmark & Company,
Shorenstein Company LP, Starwood Capital Group, Williams Real Estate Co.,
Inc., and Vornado Realty Trust.
Financial backing has been provided by Partech International, Peregrine
Systems, Inc., and the company's individual founders.
www.workspeed.com.
