DivcoWest launches tenant experience app at one of its DC properties

Divco West Real Estate Services, a client of investment management company JLL, launched a new tenant experience software platform at its Washington, D.C., property located at 1133 15th St NW.

Boston-based HqO, with an app of the same name, has been implemented to provide tenants with control, community, content and commerce opportunities, a spokesperson for the company tells Technical.ly. The tenant experience (TeX) software is now accessible by all 10 business tenants in the building, which includes approximately 700 employees.

The app provides exclusive discounts and services to neighborhood establishments and partners including on-site events, volunteering and other opportunities. The app can also be used for mobile access and entry into the building as well as a communication tool to connect with other tenants in the building. Representatives from the company were on-site for a launch event of the app on Feb. 12 to help employees download the software.

“We built HqO to enable a better experience for users of the physical space. We believe there are six pillars of great tenant experience: convenience, entertainment, mobility, security, sustainability and wellness,” Mark Rosenthal, vice president of marketing, sales and customer success at HqO told Technical.ly. “We enable experiences across those six pillars with software in four core functions which we call the 4Cs: community, anything that brings people together; commerce, anything that is transaction driven; content, any information about the property or neighborhood; control, things that connect the building, like access. Our software is ultimately a remote control for the building experience.”

At the end of 2018, over 50 percent of the people working in building had downloaded the app, and those numbers have continued to grow each week, Rosenthal tells Technical.ly. About 50 percent of those who have downloaded the app are active monthly. Today, the most used features are content and community driven.

Rosenthal said the partnership between HqO and DivcoWest is ongoing. JLL and DivcoWest both invested in HqO in fall 2018. DivcoWest was first a customer and now also acts as a strategic partner to the company. Since this is a landlord-sponsored program, the app is free to tenants and their employees

“Our company is rolling out a partnership with HqO on a broader scale. For sure they will definitely be rolled out in my portfolio here in D.C.,” Doug Mueller, executive managing director at JLL, told Technical.ly.

Mueller said since the building does have some vacancies, JLL was even more drawn to the platform to attract more tenants and companies, as not a lot of employees have this service in their offices. HqO will be implemented into another DivcoWest building in the District and one more in Boston as the larger partnership rolls out with plans to take HqO to buildings in San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego, Rosenthal told Technical.ly.