The wait is finally over! It’s March 14 – time to join Green Street in celebrating the launch of one of the most exciting products in our company’s 35-year history: a robust new web platform for our clients. In what was truly a firmwide effort spanning 18 months of development, Green Street's cutting-edge new web platform seamlessly and dynamically links all of the firm's commercial real estate intelligence – news, research, and data/analytics – across both public and private real estate markets, and across the U.S. and Europe.

Updated in real time, the fully integrated web platform includes a host of expanded insights, tools and features to empower better and faster decision-making among commercial real estate professionals.

Green Street's Global Head of Data & Analytics, Andy McCulloch, who spearheaded the release of the completely reimagined web platform, sat down with Green Street's Content Manager to discuss everything you ever wanted to know about the new product (but were afraid to ask)!

Andy McCulloch

Question | Corso: From a 30,000-ft. perspective, exactly what is Green Street’s new web platform for clients?

Answer | McCulloch: The platform is a web-based, content delivery mechanism for our commercial real estate intelligence, and the main portal for which clients can access our research reports, news articles, and proprietary data sets. It is also fully interactive via advanced mapping and charting capabilities and contains an increasingly robust arsenal of valuation analytics. Most importantly, the platform contains loads of new content.

Q: On that last point, what new data, analytics, tools or features can clients find on Green Street’s enhanced web platform?

A: There is a ton of new stuff in the platform. In addition to a completely redesigned navigation architecture that should make everything easier to find, we have added submarket and zip code cap rate data for the major markets, introduced new data and forecasts for over 300 new markets, expanded our coverage on self-storage and single-family rentals (SFR), added new metrics to our REIT company analysis tool, and introduced a completely new module for verified sales comps. We also added a host of new methodology guides and an all-new data dictionary as part of our new Learning Center. It’s really quite incredible how much more content we are delivering – yet the platform feels simpler and more streamlined.

Q: Why did Green Street decide to completely update its existing web platform, and what makes it so revolutionary?

A: Green Street has expanded its product suite rather dramatically over the past several years, not to mention we acquired two premier news organizations. A lot of this expansion was done via “bolt-on” modules to our legacy platform, that to be honest, kind of functioned in their own silos. The new platform allowed us to truly start with a clean slate and create the connective tissue that brings all the content together – across both public and private real estate, and across the U.S. and Europe. No other firm offers that.

For example: If a client is looking at current cap rates for apartments in Atlanta, the platform will automatically surface other relevant valuation data, as well as anything we have recently written on that property sector and metro area. Our premier news, research, and data offerings were all powerful in their own right – but linked together – that is unique and revolutionary in the marketplace.

Q: As the head of Data & Analytics for Green Street, can you describe the one feature that you’re most excited about?

A: For me, content is king, and valuation analytics are core to what we do as a firm, and my passion personally. So, our new Automated Valuation Model (AVM) for commercial properties is what gets me most excited.

It’s not just a slick model and approach, it is made possible because of the proprietary and ultra-high-quality data sets that feed it, including:

• Scrubbed and standardized cap rates
• Unique market grading system
• Real-time Commercial Property Price Indices (CPPIs)
• SmartComps tool

My favorite part of the model though is its transparency – clients can see exactly how valuation estimates are derived. In the new platform, our AVM is also now connected to our Sales Comps module so clients can not only see where a property last sold, but what we think it would trade hands for today. That’s a really nice feature and true differentiator in the marketplace.

Q: Do you have any other thoughts to share about the web platform launch?

A: I can’t overstate how much work has gone into making this new platform a reality. A very special thanks to the entire Green Street team for everyone’s hard work over the past 18 months. And, I’d like to extend a special thank you to our clients as well for all the valuable feedback and suggestions you have made over the years. The launch of this powerful new platform shows that we continuously listen to our client’s needs.

Watch this short video to learn more about this dynamically interconnected web platform designed to help you optimize your public and private-market real estate decisions.