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Photo by Steve Adams | Banker & Tradesman staff
Commercial real estate brokerage JLL has bought the Boston-based property management software firm Building Engines in what it called a “strategic acquisition.”
JLL is spending $300 million in the all-cash deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Building Engines sells cloud-based property management software that’s used by over 1,000 clients managing over 3 billion square feet of space at over 35,000 commercial properties worldwide. The software is designed to be adapted to both small and large portfolios, and integrates with over 30 other building operations software tools.
“Together, JLL and Building Engines will accelerate the digital transformation of buildings worldwide.” JLL President of Americas Investor Services Jay Koster said in a statement. “The combination of JLL’s expertise in managing buildings, Building Engines’ leading building operations software platform and JLLT’s CRE technology leadership will accelerate the transition of property operations from manual and reactive activities to technology-informed, automated or digitized activities.”
JLL said it will continue to make Building Engines’ software available for “all property owners and their service providers,” but plans to grow the company’s open API-based platform into a “comprehensive ecosystem of building operations applications” by integrating software products JLL already owns or invests in through its JLL Spark venture capital firm, plus other, unspecified commercial real estate software products.
“We set out to be the leading building operations platform for CRE, guided by our vision of providing an exceptional experience for everyone in every building and increasing net operating income for our customers,” Tim Curran, CEO of Building Engines, said in a statement. “The building operations software landscape has become highly fragmented, leading to a disconnected experience for investors, operators, tenants and occupants. Our open platform and growing suite of product modules aims to solve this, with solutions that have proven to be indispensable for CRE operators and investors. By joining forces with JLL, we can deliver on that vision faster, at scale, and become the system of record for building operations worldwide.”
Post-acquisition, Building Engines will operate as part of JLL Technologies and Curran will remain on board as an executive managing director reporting to JLL Technologies President Sharad Rastogi.
