57% OF THE FORTUNE 100 TRUSTS HqO
What is Real Estate Experience (REX)?
REX is a system—not a product. Certainly not just an app for your building users.
It’s a repeatable, tech-enabled framework for modern CRE organizations to manage assets, engage tenants, and drive financial performance. Built for a demand-driven market, REX reorients how landlords operate—by aligning real estate operations with the needs of tenants and the expectations of modern users.
Instead of managing space and hoping it fits, REX helps landlords design experiences, measure outcomes, and evolve offerings across every asset and tenant lifecycle touchpoint.
CRE’s Challenge: Overcoming The Experience Gap
What is The Experience Gap? It is the difference between what tenants expect - and what buildings deliver - and it is accelerating.
1. TI Spend Frequency
TI allowances in major US markets are up 30%+ between 2015 and 2023. With 3-7 year leases more prevalent than 10-15 year terms landlords are improving space 2x-3x more often. JLL/CBRE
2. Amenity & Design Trends Turn Over
A 2023 Gensler report noted that workplace design and user expectations have “entered a mode of constant iteration, not static design.”
3. Tenant Tech Expectations
Deloitte’s 2023 CRE Outlook study found that tenants expect CRE to compete more like a SaaS product - requiring constant experience upgrades.
4. CRE Cycle Compression
CRE operating cycles have condensed due to economic volatility, hybrid work, and demand shifts happening faster, requiring repositioning to happen in quarters vs. decades. McKinsey 2023
The Experience Gap
The Experience Gap is a structural shift is reshaping commercial real estate.
What tenants expect—and what buildings deliver—are no longer aligned. That misalignment is called The Experience Gap, and it’s accelerating across every market.
Today’s tenants demand flexibility, personalization, and continuous improvement. But most CRE organizations are not designed for this reality. The result? A widening gap that erodes asset performance and portfolio value.
Four Drivers Behind the Experience Gap:
TI Spend Frequency
TI allowances are up over 30% since 2015 as 3–7 year leases replace 10–15 year norms—forcing landlords to refresh space 2–3x more often. (JLL/CBRE)Amenity & Design Turnover
Workplace expectations have entered a mode of constant iteration, not static design. (Gensler 2023)Tenant Tech Expectations
Tenants expect CRE to perform like SaaS—delivering always-on, continuously improving experiences. (Deloitte 2023)CRE Cycle Compression
Market shifts now happen in quarters, not decades. Hybrid work, economic volatility, and tenant mobility are forcing landlords to reposition faster. (McKinsey 2023)
The Cost of Inaction:
📉 -8% Occupancy
Experience-poor buildings drag down leasing velocity and leave space unutilized.📉 -17% Rent Pricing Power
Lack of differentiation kills brand value and erodes premium positioning.📉 -23% NOI Drag
Siloed service models miss bottom-line gains from retention, engagement, and operational clarity.
Left unaddressed, the Experience Gap compounds—eroding up to 35% of asset value.
As tenant expectations rise, assets that deliver experience command greater pricing power and long-term value.
- Commodity space is no longer viable.
Undifferentiated assets face rent pressure, churn, and soft demand. - Basic Services - aka “Maintenance Mode”.
Reactive. Undifferentiated. Siloed. Cost-center. - The Experience Gap.
Where most portfolios lose value - caught between operational necessity and tenant expectations. - Experiential Operations.
Proactive service delivery. Daily engagement, tech- enabled feedback loops driving retention & rent growth. - Experiential Platform.
A portfolio-wide system of engagement, intelligence and identity. Tenants connect to your brand - not just your buildings. The experience becomes the product.
Legacy vs. Experiential CRE
Not all CRE organizations are created equal.
Legacy CRE companies continue to treat buildings as static products—delivering basic services and managing operations in silos. In contrast, Experiential CRE organizations operate as dynamic platforms—designed to serve tenants like customers, with branded services, proactive engagement, and portfolio-wide intelligence.
Here’s how they differ:
| Dimension | Legacy CRE | Experiential CRE |
|---|---|---|
| Mindset | Space = Product | Experience = Product |
| Operating Model | Fragmented, cost-centered, reactive | Unified, value-creating, proactive |
| Service Philosophy | Maintenance mode | Hospitality-style experience operations |
| Tenant Relationship | Transaction ends at lease signing | Relationship begins at lease signing and deepens over time |
| Data & Feedback Loops | Minimal insight, manual reporting | Continuous measurement across engagement, use, satisfaction |
| Tech Adoption | Point solutions, inconsistent across portfolio | Integrated platform with identity, access, feedback, and automation |
| Portfolio Strategy | Focused on square footage, location, lease length | Driven by Ideal Tenant Profiles (ITPs), experience goals, and brand alignment |
| Brand Positioning | Asset-level branding (if any) | Portfolio-as-a-platform with consistent identity across assets and services |
As tenant expectations rise, only experience-driven platforms will command pricing power, retention, and long-term value.
The Pillars of REX
REX gives commercial real estate organizations a new foundation: one built around tenants as customers, and portfolios as platforms. These pillars enable landlords to systematically deliver value—not just space—across every asset and interaction.
Ideal Tenant Profiles (ITPs)
What is an ITP?
An Ideal Tenant Profile (ITP) defines the type of tenant best suited for your platform – not just based on credit or square footage, but based on:
- Sector and sub-sector alignment
- Business model alignment
- Space type and usage patterns
- Experience expectations and service needs
- Growth potential and retention likelihood
- Cultural and brand fit
What is a User Persona?
A user persona represents the individual roles within your ITPs that interact with your spaces, services, and platform. Personas are built around:
- Job role and function
- Goals and KPIs
- Daily work activities and rhythms
- Product and service needs
- Engagement and communication preferences
Why it Matters:
Targeting the right ITPs and User Personas helps you:
✅ Increase tenant lifetime value through stronger retention
✅ Design product and service lines tailored to sector and persona demand
✅ Create localized, experience-driven offerings grounded in real user behavior
✅ Strengthen platform brand identity across assets and experiences
✅ Shift from lease-first to customer-first portfolio strategy
The Strategic Operating System
Experiential CRE organizations don’t leave experience to chance—they operationalize it across every team, asset, and tenant touchpoint. The REX Strategic Operating System brings structure, clarity, and consistency to three essential layers of execution:
1. Asset Lifecycle Operating System
REX introduces a standardized playbook that runs from acquisition through disposition, ensuring every asset is evaluated, activated, and evolved based on experience potential.
Key components include:
- Market and ITP fit analysis pre-acquisition
- Programming and experience underwriting during leasing
- Amenity and service activation during stabilization
- Repositioning and experience refresh during asset evolution
- Experience score benchmarking and reporting pre-disposition
Every building is treated as a repeatable product, not a one-off project.
2. Tenant Lifecycle Operating System (TLOS)
REX aligns your organization to manage tenants not just as lessees, but as lifecycle customers.
The Tenant Lifecycle OS defines engagement across six phases:
- Attract: ITP-based marketing and branded stack plans
- Convert: Persona-driven tours and onboarding programming
- Onboard: Digital access, welcome journeys, activation of services
- Engage: Day-to-day experience programming and issue resolution
- Measure: Sentiment, engagement, and feedback tracking
- Renew/Expand: Experience scorecards, expansion plays, and retention loops
The result is a seamless journey from first impression to long-term loyalty.
3. Stakeholder Execution Matrix
REX helps every stakeholder group operate with clarity and coordination. It defines roles, responsibilities, and KPIs across:
| Stakeholder | Focus | Execution Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Investors | Portfolio performance, risk, and differentiation | Portfolio reports, benchmarking, brand & ITP alignment |
| Asset Managers | Strategy, value creation, and lifecycle planning | Lifecycle OS, activation roadmaps, experience KPIs |
| Property Managers | Daily service execution and tenant engagement | Experience programming, CRM tools, vendor coordination |
| Leasing Teams | Attraction, conversion, and storytelling | Stack plans, persona-led collateral, ITP leasing scripts |
| Experience Teams | Programming, activation, sentiment tracking | Engagement flows, health score tracking, feedback loops |
REX makes experience everyone’s job—with the tools and structure to deliver it.
The REX Platform
The REX methodology comes to life through the HqO platform—a vertically integrated, purpose-built stack that enables experiential operations at scale.
From the infrastructure layer to the end-user interface, every component of the REX Platform is designed to empower CRE organizations to operate like tech-enabled service providers.
HqO Infrastructure Layer
The foundation of the REX Platform is a composable, multi-tenant architecture that powers unified operations across any asset type.
Core components include:
Digital Grid
A standardized data model for all CRE entities—assets, tenants, systems, users, services—designed for structured reporting and benchmarking.
PAIR (Physical Access, Identity & Relationship)
The engine behind tenant and user experiences, connecting identities to access rights, services, and engagement workflows across the portfolio.
Quantum Core
HqO’s AI intelligence layer for decision-making, experience automation, and predictive performance modeling.
CRM for CRE
The first customer relationship management system designed for landlords—tracking tenants, vendors, prospects, and lifecycle activity in one place.
REX Product Suites
The platform includes modular product suites aligned to the key functions of an experiential CRE organization:
Marketing & Leasing Suite
Tools for ITP-based positioning, tenant lifecycle automation, and experience-rich leasing journeys.
PXM (Property Experience Management) Suite
Software for managing day-to-day service delivery and operations, tenant programming, digital communications, and real-time feedback.
Smart Building Suite
System integrations, IoT tracking, energy management, and preventative maintenance tools.
Intelligence Suite
Dashboards, benchmarks, and reporting across tenant health, asset experience scores, and platform-wide engagement metrics.
Tenant Suite
Digital experiences to personalize tenant experiences that align with tenant goals.
Vendor Suite
Digital tools for third-party service delivery and integrated partner workflows.
REX Is the Operating System for Modern CRE
The future of commercial real estate won’t be won by those who manage square footage—it will be led by those who master experience.
REX gives your organization the framework, tools, and technology to deliver tenant-centric service at scale—across every asset, every user, and every market. Whether you’re repositioning a single asset or transforming an entire portfolio, REX turns your properties into platforms and your operations into advantage.
This isn’t about adding app features. It’s about changing the way you operate to win in market over the long term.
Want to know how your portfolio stacks up today?
Get a Free REX Assessment and measure your Experience Gap Score to see where your current strategy excels—and where you’re at risk of falling behind.