By Natalie Hwang, founding managing partner of Apeira Capital Advisors In the 1920s, President Calvin Coolidge made the saying famous that the business of America is business. Now, for the real estate sector in the age of COVID-19, the business of real estate is innovation. To build value in the pandemic economy, real estate companies need to find new modes of distribution, facilitated by technology, to connect with consumers, partners, tenants, investors and other key stakeholders. Once upon a time, and not all that long ago, bricks and mortar were king. Today, the COVID crisis has sharply accelerated online shopping and upended our traditional dependence on physical real estate as an exclusive distribution point for content, goods and services. This trend is nothing new, as businesses reliant on public contact have been casualties of tech innovation for decades. Long before the pandemic hit, e-commerce was displacing retail, robots were replacing warehouse workers and an erosion of labor’s bargaining power was placing downward pressure on service-sector wages. COVID-19 has only expedited the trajectory of these market participants and revealed the weaknesses of businesses that depend mainly on in-person contact. The urgency and suddenness of the lockdowns earlier this year demonstrated how …
