Despite only a few stores opening and shoppers still largely exercising caution, lines are already forming in mall common areas in front of popular retailers.
While this might seem to be good news for retailers and property owners, it is potentially a disaster waiting to happen.
As these pictures -- taken at normally slow times in shopping malls -- show: Lines are encroaching on the common area, and there is no one enforcing social distancing. It also causes shoppers not in the line to break the six-foot distancing mandate.
As more stores open to customer traffic, the situation will only get more serious as the challenges of managing social distancing increase. Today, most large national chains are still closed. Over the course of the summer, as they slowly re-open, these lines will grow and so will the problem of patrons encroaching on each other’s personal space either in line or while traversing the obstacle course now laid out in the common area.
We have been warned to expect a possible second wave of COVID-19 in the Fall – just in time for holiday shopping. These uncontrolled lines by themselves could prompt cities and states to close shopping malls for the critical holiday season. For retail and their mall partners seeking to regain their footing, that could be the final blow.
RE Insight offers owners and retailers a way to tackle this issue: Our vQueue solution manages occupancy, capacity, and social distancing and has a Virtual Queue management capability which can support retailers and property owners in their quest to make the 2020 Holiday Season the best it can be.
For more information and details on how RE Insight can help you create a more pleasant and safe shopping experience for your customers and succeed within the parameters of the “new normal,” please contact the RE Insight team at info@reinsight.com or visit www.reinsight.com
Michael Osment has joined GPG Advisers as a managing director based in Detroit, Michigan. He has over 30 years experience in leading companies through significant technology transformations as both an internal technology leader at complex, global businesses such as General Motors, TRW and Taubman and as a consultant with AlixPartners.
“Michael will join GPG’s established real estate strategy, operations and accounting practice,” said Quinn Munton, executive managing director at GPG Advisers. “We were looking for someone with experience in large-scale implementations and Michael checked all the boxes. With his extensive real estate operations, accounting and IT/OT experience, he is a very good fit for our company and our clients.”
Osment is particularly skilled in large program and project management; organizational change; back office shared services; and outsourcing for both IT and business processes. He has managed IT organizations spending more than $100 million annually and employing over 500 associates.
“I’m very excited to be working with GPG Advisers in its real estate consulting business. The combination of digital technologies with the physical assets provides unique challenges and opportunities that I want to help solve,” said Osment.
For more information on GPG Advisers and the services it offers, please contact Quinn Munton at Quinn Munton or visit www.gpgadvisers.com
GPG Advisers is pleased to announce the launch of its Salesforce practice and official certification as a Salesforce implementation partner. Led by Seth Glickman, GPG's Salesforce practice will provide advisory and implementation services that leverage GPG's successful Salesforce project experience with public and private real estate clients.
"Becoming Salesforce certified demonstrates GPG's continued commitment to maximizing long-term value for our clients by expanding and enhancing the skill sets of our firm," Scott Morey, Executive Director of GPG Advisers, noted.
Jim Carr, Executive Director of GPG Advisers, adds, "We have been successful in helping our clients realize Salesforce's value because we have practical people with deep real estate experience and strong functional and technical knowledge of the application. Formally launching this practice is the next logical step for us."
Mr. Glickman added, "Salesforce's flexibility and depth as a technology platform is the standard for CRM and enables real estate firms to gain a complete view of their customers while doing deals better and faster. We are excited to continue delivering leading solutions to our clients with Salesforce."
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The Annual Real Estate IT Survey 2018 by GPG Advisers is now available. For a copy, please email it.survey@gpgadvisers.com
We are grateful for the participants of our first ever real estate IT survey targeted Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and other senior real estate IT executives. Our objective is to gain insight into how these executives are compensated across the industry and highlight the variables which may influence the results.
The real estate industry continues to be challenged by complex legacy architectures and organizations in a fast moving and quickly evolving market. CIOs can sometimes be overwhelmed with maintaining the status quo and making piecemeal improvements, rather than driving critical business innovations and strategies. In general, survey participants have extensive experience, with 61% of the participants with more than 15 years of real estate experience and 70% have more than 20 years of technology experience.
Survey participants also represent diverse types of real estate companies including Private Equity, Investment/Fund Management, Operators, Developers, Retail REITS and Public REITS. The two dominant groups in the survey are currently engaged in retail real estate (35%) while more than 33% are engaged in commercial real estate. The median size of the organization for the participants was 100 to 499 employees with more than 52% with over 500 employees in their organization. The report reflected 84% of the participants as having 19 direct reports, and 59% are responsible for more than 10 employees.
We were intrigued by the results in a number of ways: First, factors like number of years of real estate and technology experience, as well as size of company, had no material impact on compensation. Secondly, 26% of IT executives currently have responsibilities outside of the traditional technology role. Finally, our results yielded noticeable differences in compensation between men and women, which we discuss in detail within the document.
GPG Advisers is pleased to announce the release of its questionnaire for the real estate industry’s first IT Compensation Survey. This unique questionnaire is intended for Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, EVPs, SVPs, VPs, AVPs, Directors, Managers and other leadership roles with technology functional responsibilities. The confidential and brief survey will allow clients to make better organizational decisions based on real time, industry-specific compensation trends and insights. The inaugural annual survey product is in line with the industry knowledge sharing objectives of the RE Insight platform by GPG Advisers. Real Estate Technology Leaders are encouraged to participate by completing the online survey format: http://bit.ly/2DkMFhw The full copy of the survey results will be provided free of charge to participants who indicate interest in the completed product.
For any questions regarding the survey, please contact Bernie Ocampo, Managing Director & Head of People Services, at 949.468.6604 or it.survey@gpgadvisers.com
GPG Advisers is pleased to announce that Bernie Ocampo has joined the company as a Managing Director and will lead the firm’s newly-established executive search platform. Mr. Ocampo has nearly 30 years of experience in the real estate and alternative investment industries. Mr. Ocampo will be based in GPG Advisers' corporate offices located in Irvine, California.
Prior to joining GPG Advisers, Mr. Ocampo served as Principal of ELEOS Group, a boutique executive search and consulting firm focused on commercial real estate. Mr. Ocampo’s diverse real estate experience includes multidisciplinary and cross-functional exposure in executive search, consulting, alternative investment management (private equity, pension fund advisory, investment banking, life insurance and commercial bank), developer, operator, property management and brokerage. Bernie had previous affiliations with best in class firms such as Prudential Real Estate Investors, GE Capital, Colony Capital and Trammell Crow Company. His education includes an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from University of Washington.
“GPG Advisers is committed to serving the real estate community in ways that creates long term value”, Scott Morey, Executive Director of GPG Advisers, noted. “Bernie’s reputation and successful executive recruiting track record in our industry complements our existing service lines and provides a foundation to help our current and future clients in unique ways.”
Jim Carr, Executive Director of GPG Advisers, adds, “Bernie has a terrific reputation in the industry. Having him join the GPG family and help launch our executive search platform is an exceptional part of our quest to fulfill the needs of our clients in the real estate and alternative investment industries.”
Mr. Ocampo added, "I am very excited to join GPG Advisers given its reputation for exceptional client-centric services. The new executive search platform is a strategic expansion of the firm’s integrated suite of services. GPG Advisers is uniquely positioned to provide synergistic human capital and technology solutions as real estate and alternative investor clients increasingly experience unprecedented organizational growth challenges.”
GPG Advisers is pleased to announce that Scott Morey, a former executive of General Growth Properties ("GGP"), has joined the company as an Executive Director. Mr. Morey who will be based in Chicago, has close to 30 years of experience in real estate, technology and operations.
Prior to joining GPG Advisers, Mr. Morey served as Executive Vice President responsible for digital marketing, creative, information technology and infrastructure at GGP. Prior to joining GGP, Scott served as a Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal where he led their European real estate practice. Additional positions held by Scott include Chief Information Officer at Equity Office Properties as well as a former Partner at Ernst & Young LLP.
Jim Carr, Executive Director of GPG Advisers, noted, "We are extremely excited to have Scott join the leadership team. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge that is tremendously valuable to our existing and future clients. GPG Advisers is committed to providing outstanding service to the real estate industry."
Mr. Morey added, "In the last several years, GPG Advisers has established an outstanding brand in the real estate industry as one of the only firms where the majority of personnel have direct industry experience combined with a culture focused on creating value to its clients in innovative ways. I am very pleased to join them as an Executive Director and continue to drive innovation and value in an unparalleled fashion."
Quinn Munton, Executive Director of GPG Advisers, adds "Our longstanding relationship with Scott makes his joining the logical step in the growth of our brand. Scott's energy and creativity are a welcome and exciting addition."
GPG Advisers is pleased to announce the merger with Lupine Partners, a Dallas-based real estate consulting firm, for an undisclosed price. Lupine specializes in Yardi evaluation and implementation services, as well as on-going support and business process optimization. Complementing GPG's current offerings and expertise across multiple real estate product lines and verticals, Lupine's team contributes significant experience and Yardi Voyager product knowledge.
The two companies have a collaborative history, and going forward, the combined offering of Yardi consulting services will transition to a new name of "GPG Lupine Partners", in recognition of the strong brand awareness associated with Lupine's experience and client base. David Wolfe, the founder and president of Lupine Partners, will continue to serve as president of the Yardi operation. Commenting on the transaction, David states, "Our two companies have been working together with mutual clients for years. It only made sense to merge our two organizations into one consulting organization to provide a larger, one-stop roster of consulting talent for our clients."
In addition to organic growth, mergers and acquisitions in recent years have given GPG substantial in-house experience with many product lines in the real estate space. Jim Carr, Executive Director of GPG Advisers, adds, "We've collaborated in the past and highly respect David Wolfe and his team. Having the Lupine organization now in the GPG Advisers family provides us with an immediate advantage in meeting our clients' needs."
GPG Advisers is pleased to announce the formation of Lionpoint Group (http://www.lionpointgroup.com/). Lionpoint Group is a spin out organization from GPG Advisers that provides advisory and consultancy service capabilities and expertise in the Alternative Investments arena. The company will be managed by Jim Carr, Nick Moore and Jonathan Balkin. Carr and Balkin will oversee the North American operations and Moore will oversee the organization's European and international markets. This leadership team successfully created and built the Alternative Investments practice at GPG Advisers and the company will remain closely aligned with GPG, continuing to work collaboratively and share resources as warranted.
Jim Carr, Executive Director states, "Client demand for alternative investments consulting services that provide a combination of strategic and technical expertise continues to grow. Creating an organization dedicated to the Alternative Investments market is very timely given the continuing regulatory and reporting challenges faced by our clients." Nick Moore, Executive Director states, "Servicing both GPs and LPs within the Alternatives market requires consulting resources with deep practical industry expertise as well as a sound working knowledge of the various technology products available. On top of this clients are demanding global partners who can assist them with operational improvements wherever they have business operations or investments. I couldn't be happier to form an organization that has clear growth plans that fulfills such critical needs in the Alternative Investment space."
The alternative investments environment is changing rapidly and firms are under increasing pressure to provide stakeholders with more information in shorter time periods at a lower cost. At the same time regulatory changes and increased pressure for transparency are leading to more complex and time consuming reporting and analytics by both managers and investors.
Lionpoint Group is a global advisory firm that understands the entire alternative investment lifecycle and has the experience and resources to help clients transform their business operations into an efficient operating model. The business model combines the talents of industry leaders and experts in service delivery to assist clients in achieving operational efficiencies and excellence through structure, process and technology. The organization provides project-based services in several key areas including business consulting, technology implementations, and front to back office operational improvement. Global clients include general partners, advisors and administrators and limited partners such as sovereigns and pensions, endowments and trusts, and family offices.
GPG Advisers is pleased to announce the acquisition of Palazzo Inc. (Palazzo), a Denver-based JD Edwards real estate consulting firm and Oracle certified partner for an undisclosed price. Jim Carr, Executive Director of GPG Advisers states, “Client demand for real estate consulting services that provides combined strategic and technical expertise continues to grow. Bringing Palazzo under the GPG Advisers umbrella provides GPG with immediate strategic advantage in our ability to meet this need.”
Ira Frosch, President of Palazzo states, “Combining Palazzo’s many years of experience with the dynamic consulting and strategic planning of GPG Advisers will result in increased value and one-stop shopping for our clients. We couldn’t be happier to join with an organization that has a stellar reputation and clear growth plans that Palazzo resources can assist to fulfill.”
GPG Advisers is an integrated professional services firm focused on front to back office strategy, structure, process and technology advisory and delivery services within the real estate and alternative investments industries. GPG specializes in providing services to owners, builders and operators of real estate and investors, General Partners, Limited Partners and fund managers, leveraging their team of industry experts and proven solutions. Ira Frosch, owner of Palazzo, will join GPG as an Executive Director and lead the organization’s JD Edwards practice. Palazzo will redirect its focus towards software sales to support the operations of GPG.
About GPG Advisers GPG began forming their team of experienced industry leaders in 2009. GPG is committed to providing a team of talented and qualified professionals to its clients.
About Palazzo Palazzo was created in 1995 as a JD Edwards and Oracle Integration Business Partner and Value Added Reseller specializing in Engineering, Construction, Professional Services, and Real Estate Management. Palazzo has performed work with over 140 clients in more than 20 countries.