Building flexibly into commercial real estate portfolios and boosting returns

Real estate space is a commodity, and anyone responsible for managing commercial property has a duty to maximize the value of the investment. Effective space management can help real estate owners add square footage to a commercial property, and can also help make commercial real estate investments more competitive by working properties into known metrics that attract tenants and buyers. 

In this way, space management can be used as a data-driven, targeted marketing tool – which is just the type of thing that real estate investors need to build flexibility into their portfolios while boosting returns.

Space management elements and techniques 

Real estate experts have identified a number of aspects that are critical when it comes to effective space management. First, good space management requires a coordinated effort to plan, design, and manage a building so that it’s suitable for all intended operations and necessary services. This includes the supply and arrangement of equipment, facilities, and furniture. This isn’t about managing the placement of employees at the individual level (although there are some great tools for this, too), but rather making sure that buildings are structured in a way that ensures maximum value for clients – and as a result – greater profitability for those involved with the management of commercial space. Altogether, facility owners and managers are responsible for delivering a working environment that focuses on business needs, optimized for the professional operations ongoing in the space. 

Good space management is a holistic analytical process. However, despite advances in modern technology, commercial real estate space management has followed the same methods and techniques for decades. The process typically entails passing paper or electronic floor plans from engineers, to facility managers, to real estate owners, and back again. And while these plans may have evolved over the years from hand-drawn prints to AutoCad sketches and three-dimensional renderings, one key element has remained the same: space management decisions are largely judgement calls made based on the perspectives and experiences of property owners and managers. 

Under standard space management methods, whether a particular space should be divided or combined, furnished with facilities or reserved for storage, are all questions left up to personal experience and trial-and-error. Having to interpret complex spreadsheets and multiple drawings is time-consuming and difficult. Further, manual space analysis is subject to the natural computational and analytical abilities of the human mind – something that artificial intelligence and sophisticated software programs exceeded years ago. 

Modern technology improves space management 

The POC Space Management System uses an engaging and accessible user interface to provide property managers and owners with a clear vision of the physical space represented by their real estate portfolios. Unlike traditional floor plan technologies — which don’t have to deal with the dynamic, ever-shifting requirements of commercial spaces — the Space Management System lets you slice, edit, parcel and otherwise organize your space to your heart’s content. It additionally allows for the running of advanced simulations to reveal exactly why certain space management decisions should be made. For maximum ease of use, it provides a single system interface that lets you keep all your floor plans and supplementary data, such as photos, in one centralized location.

Those in charge of space management can also use the software’s advanced analytics tools to figure out how to get the best square-footage return on their real estate investment. For instance, a property owner can compare real-world footage measured by the program with the square footage disclosed in real estate leases or property tax filings. All of this information is accessible with just a few taps, granting decision makers information such as real time occupancy rates as both floor plan models and text-based reports. If you’re presenting this information as a marketing tool, Space Management System makes it easy to print and mail out attractive marketing materials about your properties.

Welcome to the future

By using POC’s advanced enterprise software solutions, property owners and managers can replace old, inefficient manual space management analysis. The sophisticated algorithms behind the Space Management System will give you clear, data-driven space management recommendations — rather than subjective choices made by managers in the manual process. It’s an ultra-modern solution for the requirements of an ultra-modern commercial space — whether that’s office buildings, malls, or any other square foot-heavy space.

Modernization is key to boosting the success of your space management process, and this means replacing manual data management and analysis with an automated, centralized system. The Space Management System’s intuitive user interface will put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to having all the necessary knowledge about your commercial space. This provides key insights into future use and vacancies, so property owners will be able to better plan for the future.