Sh*t You Wish Your Building Did!

#48 The Cost of Not Knowing. Rethinking Smart Building ROI by Memoori Research

AI updates weekly. Cyber threats evolve daily. Meanwhile, most commercial buildings still run on spreadsheets, siloed teams, and 30-year capital plans.

In this episode, Rick Huijbregts joins James McHale and Rob Murchison to dig into the growing tension between fast-moving digital forces and the slow-moving world of real estate, infrastructure, and human behavior.

We'll explore why buildings are becoming living digital environments, and why the real challenge isn't the technology, it's getting owners, operators, IT, facilities, and security teams to work from the same version of reality.

The future of real estate won't belong to whoever deploys the most sensors. It'll belong to organizations that can connect physical assets, digital systems, and human behavior into one operating model.

Why do so many smart building investments stall, underperform, or quietly create risk, even when the technology works exactly as promised? 🤔

Join us as we sit down with Rob Murchison, CEO at Intelligent Buildings, LLC to unpack 📦 a truth the industry is beginning to confront...

The biggest barrier 🚧 to smart building ROI isn't the tech stack; it's the absence of a governance and risk operating model behind it.

As portfolios 🏢 become more connected, owners and operators are inheriting cybersecurity exposure 🛑, vendor sprawl, reliability gaps, and organizational misalignment that traditional IT learned to manage decades ago.

The question is no longer "which platform should we buy?" but "who owns performance, who carries the risk, and how do we keep it from drifting over time?"

What we'll explore 🗺️:

🟢 The early warning signs that connected building portfolios need stronger governance

🟢 Lessons commercial real estate can borrow from traditional IT governance, and where the analogy breaks down

🟢 How decision-making and accountability shift once an operating model is in place

🟢 Practical advice for leaders chasing ROI while underestimating risk

Who should join? Owners, operators, asset and property managers, CIOs, CTOs, and the vendors, and consultants, who supply them.

No sales pitches ❌. No product demos ❌. Just candid, experience-based perspectives from people who have lived it ✅.

We spend a lot of time in commercial real estate talking about technology, but very little time discussing how decisions actually get made.

In this episode, we sit down with Lachlan Macquarrie, a former asset manager, educator of asset managers, and someone who now operates on the front lines of CRE technology.

It was a candid look at:

* Why smart building initiatives stall before they start

* How misaligned incentives between asset managers, property managers, and vendors quietly kill good ideas

* Where risk perception outweighs actual risk

* And why “more technology” has never been the answer

Lachlan shares some real stories from inside portfolios, moments where things should have worked, but didn’t. And what separates the few that actually break through.

One theme is clear. Most owners and operators don’t lack solutions. They lack alignment, ownership, and a model that simplifies complexity. If you’ve ever wondered why progress in CRE tech feels slower than it should be, this conversation will hit home.

What happens to your smart building ROI when nobody owns the risk? 🤔

CRE Portfolios 🏢 are getting more connected, but governance isn't keeping up. Cybersecurity gaps, unclear ownership, and missing operating models are quietly killing 🔪💸 the returns that justified the investment in the first place!

In this podcast 🎥 episode, we were joined by Cecilia A. Li, CIO at Urban Edge Properties, to unpack 📦 why smart building ROI is a risk management problem, not a technology problem!

What we discussed 🎓:

🟢 The early signals that your building technology needs stronger governance before it stalls or creates risk

🟢 What traditional IT governance can teach CRE leaders who are scaling connected portfolios

🟢 What actually changes when a clear operating model is in place, in decision-making, risk management, and day-to-day operations

🟢 How experienced leaders prevent performance from drifting as they scale

🟢 The governance blind spots that CIOs and technology leaders say catch their peers off guard

Insurance costs are climbing. Coverage is shrinking. And most building owners are still treating it like taxes, something you just pay.

But what if the technology investments you're already considering could directly reduce your premiums, unlock access to captive insurance programs, or simply keep your coverage intact in markets where insurers are pulling out?

In this episode of Sh*t You Wish Your Building Did, we sat down with Jay Scholten, Principal Consultant at JRS Innovative Real Estate LLC (Former VP - Asset Management Product Owner at PGIM Real Estate), and Rob Murchison, CEO of Intelligent Buildings, LLC, to explore an angle on smart building ROI that most operators are missing entirely.

What we discussed:

✅ Why insurance stopped being a "set it and forget it" line item.

✅ How insurers are quietly thinning coverage in ways you might not notice.

✅ The rise of captive insurance programs, and what your buildings need to qualify.

✅ Real examples of technology reducing premiums and maintaining coverage access.

✅ The 3 steps an owner can take starting tomorrow.

In this live podcast episode (number 42) we were joined by co-host Rob Murchison from Intelligent Buildings, to break down our 5 biggest trends from 2025!

We're talked about:

1. Why property management just became a tech job.

2. Why digital infrastructure is now as critical as utilities.

3. Why "per sq ft" metrics are dead (and what will replace them).

4. Why IT Managed Service Providers have "entered the building".

5. Why dozens of smart building startups are stuck in the "squeezed middle."

Who should listen to this episode? It's for building owners, operators, and anyone managing commercial real estate who's tired of buzzwords and wants actionable insight & intelligence.

This isn't theory. It's real implementation, real savings, real ROI!

What do you do when your entire campus is already running, tenants are happy, and lease rates are high, but your building systems are exposed? You can't just rip everything out and start over. You can't disrupt operations.

Tearle Whitson, VP of Operational Technology at MetroNational and Rob Murchison, CEO of Intelligent Buildings, join us to discuss how MetroNational fix network vulnerabilities across a 12 million sq ft campus.

This conversation is for you if

* You manage OT systems in commercial real estate.

* You're responsible for facilities, operations, or building technology.

* You've been told to "do smart buildings" but your systems aren't converged or secured.

This isn't theory. It's real implementation, real savings, real ROI!

Devon Newton shares how Stiles Property Management escaped the "Efficiency Paralysis Cycle" and generated measurable savings across their portfolio.

The "Efficiency Paralysis Cycle" - Why Most Buildings Never See ROI:

* Low visibility into building performance

* Lack of CRE tech expertise

* Unproven ROI projections

* Budget constraints that keep savings stuck

Hard Numbers, Real Results:

* $300,000 CapEx savings on distributed antenna systems

* $52,000+ annual energy savings potential across 5 specific optimizations

* $95,000 in additional savings opportunities identified at their second property

Devon manages 116 properties across the Southeast USA for Stiles, a portfolio that's 95% third-party owned, meaning every dollar saved directly impacts client relationships and renewals. This isn't theory. These are real projects, real savings, real ROI!

In episode 40 of Sh*t You Wish Your Building Did, we dive deep into the unvarnished realities of running a PropTech startup with Michael Grant, founder of Metrikus and co-creator of Smart Buildings Boot Camp.

Michael shares hard-earned insights from 6 years in the trenches, covering everything from fundraising in 2025 to why partnerships in real estate are so much harder than other industries.

What You'll Learn:

Why PropTech sales cycles can stretch 12+ months and how to shorten them

The shift in VC funding since the 2021-2022 "bubble" burst

Why hardware can kill deals, and software-only solutions win

The reality behind recent PropTech acquisitions

Strategic advice for founders at different stages

Why customer champions are everything in this industry

Resources Mentioned:

Smart Buildings Boot Camp https://smartbuildingbootcamp.com/

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