By, Catherine Carlock – Boston Business Journal – September 14th, 2020

Real estate is an old-fashioned people business, one that’s been notoriously late to the party when it comes to integrating technology into day-to-day operations. But the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated changes to the industry, including the use of virtual platforms.

Boston-based real estate company Synergy Investments has tapped VTS Market, a commercial real estate digital marketing company headquartered in New York, to help market and lease its 4 million-square-foot portfolio remotely. David Greaney, founder and CEO of Synergy Investments, said a product that enables his company to lease and market space remotely keeps Synergy in tune with potential tenants — especially in the midst of a global pandemic.

“It’s about information. It’s about being able to make good decisions. It just makes the whole marketplace more efficient,” Greaney said. “No question — there has been historically tremendous inefficiency in the market in terms of how deals are done.”

VTS lists more than 12 billion square feet of space globally, from landlords including Boston Properties, Oxford Properties, Hines and Tishman Speyer.

Synergy has used VTS software since 2014. Greaney says he recognized the value in the CRE tech before the pandemic hit, but the benefits of a digital platform to assist with marketing and leasing office space have become even more apparent as Covid-19 continues to affect the economy.

“Going into where we are right now, and the challenges that our industry faces, the ability to engage with our tenants and our brokers digitally is just really, really helpful,” Greaney said.

The VTS platform allows an online tour of commercial office space, including videos, and a dynamic pricing feature that can show potential tenants how much a lease would cost over a specific period. For tenants who are looking for a new office space, it can be helpful to tour available space virtually before walking through a physical space, said Nick Romito, CEO and co-founder of VTS.

“While Covid has been an accelerant of this stuff, it was going to happen anyway,” Romito said. “All of the changes that are happening are going to be here forever. We don’t believe, post-Covid, anyone’s going to say again, ‘I really want to tour 50 spaces in person.’ No CEO says, ‘I want to spend the next three weeks walking onto space.’”