May 11, 2021
FD Stonewater is a national, boutique real estate firm specializing in brokerage, development, investment, and asset management. With emphasis on thoughtful and creative leadership for over 30 years, they boast $10B in investments and over 45 million square feet managed.
Owen Burke, Principal and Head of Asset Management at FDS for over 8 years, gave us insight into how Prophia fit into their unique culture and became their most used asset platform.
Prophia Results Summary: Accurate tethering of data leads to quick, informed decision making
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The dynamic stacking plan makes for easy future-proofing for asset occupancy and strategy
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Portfolio Reports allows you to drill down into details for both general and specific scenarios
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Lease summaries to see the transparency of data between source documents and abstracts
Challenge: No centralized lease management platform
Before FD Stonewater sought a software solution to lease management, their lease data was scattered. Information lived on stagnant Excel files or PDFs and there were different versions for different teams. Accounting systems were used as the source of truth for information that was then verified by members of the firm when tasks and questions arose.
FD Stonewater as an organization is not new to adopting technologies. With the new challenge of decentralized lease management, executives sought a solution that is accurate, accessible by everyone, and eliminated the inevitable file digging to find answers to lease questions.
FD Stonewater tested Prophia on a recently acquired office property. It quickly became clear the product was more accurate and user friendly than other solutions. When asked about what resonated with the team during testing Burke said, “What really jumped out was the tethering of information to source documents. This cuts through other data structures and gets you right where the data comes from, which makes you feel much better about the data being correct.” Seeing how quickly the firm could onboard the new property and prove usefulness across functional teams, FD Stonewater quickly expanded Prophia portfolio-wide and it is now their most used platform.
Solution: Prophia’s accurate reporting and organized display of lease information makes for better business decisions
Now with Prophia, FD Stonewater employees at all management levels dive into Lease Summaries and Reports on a daily basis. With Lease Summaries, the constant dig through files no longer exists. Having the rights and options as well as lease expirations in one organized location with links to the source document has been critical for relaying information internally and business planning.
FD Stonewater uses Prophia during weekly calls with leasing and property management teams. Interactive and dynamic stacking plans make for easier and more informative communication now that all the data is in one place. Interactively moving suites and tenants around allows for future planning for the asset and is a central part of decision-making for the team. Whenever there are questions, it is easy to just click on a ROFO and see the language in the source document with the click of a button versus digging through files or reaching out to analysts.
Portfolio Reports have had a standout impact on how FD Stonewater responds to pandemic-related business activities. They can run reports on lease provisions like indemnity, insurance information, and electricity provisions across an asset or portfolio quickly. This agility has made adapting to rapidly changing market conditions more seamless, making FD Stonewater more agile when responding to tenant requests and issues. “People underestimate the amount of time spent on gathering and synthesizing non-economic lease information. They think many of the traditional lease platforms are good enough, but there is so much more information that should be captured.”
“People underestimate the amount of time spent on gathering and synthesizing non-economic lease information. They think many of the traditional lease platforms are good enough, but there is so much more information that should be captured. ”
- Owen Burke, FD Stonewater
Having an efficient, centralized tech platform has allowed FD Stonewater to better execute business overall at all levels, from analyst to principal. The information is better as the increase in available, detailed information is now in a centralized place. FD Stonewater is now more efficient in terms of staffing and response to issues.
FD Stonewater was quick to adopt Prophia as a daily use platform. They expanded to their entire portfolio and are some of Prophia’s most active users. When asked why this is, Burke made it clear that Prophia’s proven accuracy and ability to work cross-functionally in their organization was key to adoption. They believe that an industry more apt to adopting Prophia will lead to more time spent on valuable activities and no more replication of tasks.
Companies like FD Stonewater have access to their own lease data in an organized, central, intuitive platform. Prophia allows them to be nimble when crises arise and integrates into every functional department within the organization. All information found in reports is tethered to the source document, meaning everything is accurate and synthesized in a digestible format.
About Prophia
Commercial Real Estate (CRE) professionals who use Prophia Cloud access critical lease information from anywhere in the world in a centralized, cloud-based platform. Prophia extracts meaningful lease data and dynamically tethers it to source documents, making custom reporting, modeling, exporting, and data reconciliation more advantageous for all CRE executives and acquisitions teams.