Written by Jeffrey Steele
The reasons for utilizing BLDUP's services are as varied as the companies that profit from BLDUP's benefits. The rationale might be quickly identifying targets to pursue for business, leveraging already-existing relationships in the quest for new business or gaining access to information that's more than just a Google search away. For others, it's the chance to parlay BLDUP's marketing prowess to trumpet their unique services.
BLDUP's satisfied users not only come to the service from different perspectives, but also confront widely varying pain points. For Dan DiLeonardo, the challenge was gaining clarity from what he terms "the many voices in the market." DiLeonardo serves as vice president of business development for Rockland, Mass.-based Integrated Builders, a Boston-area commercial general contractor. The 29-year-old, 35-person construction management firm serves the commercial market.
Market voices to which DiLeonardo refers include publications, trade journals, industry associations and more, all vying for his attention. "BLDUP offered me a very focused view of a sector or market," he adds. "We saw BLDUP first as an opportunity to glean information and research. It saves me countless hours identifying players in the market we either do serve or want to serve. They include consultants, engineers, owners' reps, brokers, the ancillary services that can lead us to an opportunity. The ultimate goal is identifying the end users and the prospective clients." BLDUP provides Integrated Builders "very streamlined" access to information about what's happening in the market, slashing tens of hours of work weekly. "We'll identify a development group we want to pursue," he says. "We will go to BLDUP, take a look at the development group and its portfolio and in a concise manner learn what that group has existing, and what it's working on in terms of permitting and design. It identifies who their consultants are, allowing us to leverage relationships."
These aren't all BLDUP offers, he adds. Once Integrated Builders began using the paid subscription service, DiLeonardo learned of BLDUP's ability to market the company's projects to its audience. "It serves as a secondary opportunity for us to showcase our projects to the market on its service," he explains. "The result is much greater exposure of our firm to the marketplace, meaning exposure to prospective new clients, existing clients and consultants in the marketplace."
DiLeonardo proved favorably surprised by BLDUP's marketing capabilities. People with whom he interacts now exclaim, "Boy you guys are busy, you have a lot going on in the market," he says. His company also attracts attention from developers and end users, including corporations. That serves as a door opener or stepping stone to Integrated Builders reaching out to fully engage with them.
Summarizing BLDUP's chief benefits to his company, DiLeonardo says the subscription streamlines the firm's market research, reducing in a highly cost- and time-effective way its efforts to understand its market opportunities. "We bought it as a supplemental service, and it's quickly evolving into something greater in terms of market awareness and understanding specific prospects," he says.
"It quickly sizes up whether it's a good opportunity for us, and helps us formulate a strategy for approaching them . . . It will tell us whether we should call [prospects] directly, or whether we could approach them through a consultant with whom we already have a relationship."
Adding Value
Vincent Moschella learned about BLDUP while searching on Google for a property under development. BLDUP offered information about that development.
"I saw the value that BLDUP added," recalls Moschella, director of development for ECA Solar, headquartered in Waltham, Mass. The company is a leading engineer and developer of large-scale industrial and utility solar energy facilities in Massachusetts.
After poking about on the site, Moschella reached out to BLDUP regarding membership. "We started using BLDUP Pro and it's been effective in generating leads for us," he says. "My relationship is and always has been with the long-term owners. We pretty much exclusively work on large commercial-industrial roofs. A lot of what we do has been carports located on top of large parking garages. BLDUP has been helpful there. They're tracking two tranches of information helpful to me."
One involves identifying and organizing new construction developments within ECA Solar's areas of focus. The second involves pinpointing real estate transactions in the company's area of business. That's allowed him to see leases for large building roofs. ECA Solar can sit in on early-stage meetings with real estate owners and ensure both design engineers and those planning the solar integration are getting it right the first time.
"We can make sure that before they place anything else, things are sized appropriately," Moschella says.
Seeking Insights
At Quincy, Mass.-based Jumbo Capital Incorporated, associate vice president Tom Powers, Jr. and colleagues invariably seek to gather as much market information as possible. That ongoing quest led to their discovery of BLDUP, and all it could deliver.
Privately-held Jumbo Capital is a 12-year-old commercial real estate developer, owner, operator and investor. The firm manages a portfolio of $4.5 million square feet, featuring office, life sciences, industrial, flex, health care, self-storage and housing.
"We want as much information as we can get," Powers says, adding his company has used BLDUP's subscription service for about a year. The company leveraged the service initially for deal flow. "Mostly, it's been for information on what's happening in the market," Powers says. "We always look there first for deals we're targeting. It's a solid resource to find information that is more than just a Google search away. We're all busy, and it's a very efficient way of finding real estate-specific information."
Jumbo Capital is in the process of analyzing the opportunity to use BLDUP's marketing capabilities. "Surus Development & Construction is the construction affiliate of Jumbo Capital, and we would like to grow the Surus brand throughout the greater Boston market," he says, adding BLDUP could be one means of doing just that.
