HEALTHCARE TRUST OF AMERICA (HTA) LEASES AND RENOVATES PROPERTIES FASTER WITH MATTERPORT

Attention to Quality and Care

Healthcare Trust of America (HTA) is the largest owner and operator of medical office buildings in the United States. Dedicating itself to this sector allows the company to create long-term relationships with healthcare systems, academic

medical centers and teaching hospitals, key physician groups, and developers. 

HTA differentiates itself with in-house teams for leasing, property management, property marketing, engineering, acquisitions, development, and construction. “We want to ensure that we provide the best quality, attention, and care to all of our tenants,” says Amy Pearce, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at HTA.

Virtual Tours of Real Spaces 

In 2020, like businesses in many industries, HTA found itself at a crossroads. Few organizations are willing to lease property without seeing it first, and when nonessential workers had to remain at home during the pandemic, HTA had trouble showing its spaces. 

After brainstorming and researching options, HTA decided to invest in Matterport for its ability to capture digital twins of indoor and outdoor spaces with complete accuracy and render them in immersive 3D. The company now uploads Matterport 3D tours to its website, emails them to prospective tenants, publishes them on social media channels, and includes them in digital listings so that anyone can view available properties anytime from anywhere. 

Although HTA started using Matterport to solve problems imposed by travel restrictions, it’s continuing to use it for several reasons. HTA now shares digital twins with prospective tenants who live out of town and out of state. “If the main decision-maker is in Dallas,” Pearce says, “and we need to show them a property in Nashville, we can now send a link to a Matterport 3D tour so they can walk through a digital twin of the space.” 

Critical to HTA’s decision to adopt Matterport was its Capture Services platform offering that seamlessly connects HTA to thousands of Matterport Capture Technicians trained to capture a property with the highest degree of precision, quality, and speed.  “With just a few clicks we can schedule and receive a complete and accurate 3D digital twin in as little as 48 hours in any location we need,” Pearce says. A year after its first Matterport scan, HTA had more than 250 Matterport digital twins in its archives. “We’ll continue to use the Matterport Capture Services team well beyond the pandemic. It's much more cost-effective, and the Capture Technicians are professional and continue to deliver the high-quality scans.”

Better-Quality Listings for Faster Decisions

Prior to Matterport, HTA used still photography in its brochures and digital listings, but tenants were often surprised by stark differences between the photos and reality. Photographs don’t fully capture what a property actually looks like or how it’s laid out, let alone what it feels like to be in the space. 

“Matterport digital twins help us tell a bigger, better story,” Pearce says. “There are so many things that physicians want to see captured in an image of a medical facility. Wide-angle photo lenses distort the space by making it look twice the size, but with Matterport, visitors can explore spaces in  360-degrees with the spatial layout rendered precisely. They can experience  how close the nurse's station is to the exam room or how near or far the patient check-in counter is.”

Being able to walk through a property in immersive 3D without leaving their home or office helps prospective tenants make decisions faster. “They can see a space and say, yes, that’s for me, and move on to the next step,” says Pearce. “Or they’ll realize earlier in the process that the space isn’t going to work. A process that used to take weeks now takes days.” 

A Win-Win for Landlords and Tenants Alike

Matterport’s ability to capture complete spaces in vivid and exact detail helps HTA’s internal teams too. “We're spread across 33 states,” Pearce says, “so it's difficult to get eyes on every single property. Now that we don’t have to travel nearly as much, our budget benefits more than anything else.”

The company also uses 3D scans to facilitate capital improvements at its medical office buildings. By virtually touring patient waiting areas, elevator lobbies, and so on, HTA can be proactive, as a landlord, reviewing what needs to be upgraded or replaced. 

Explains Pearce, “After showing footage of building interiors and exteriors to our executive team, we are able to get approval to move forward with the budget and to move projects up or down in priority.” Preparing vacant properties for the next tenant is easier too. HTA can see if ceiling tiles need to be replaced, if fixtures need to be updated, or if exam rooms aren’t ADA-compliant.

When viewing properties, people in each department want to focus on something different, and that led to trouble when HTA still relied on photography. “Property managers took pictures of what they thought was important,” Pearce says, “but each department wanted pictures taken at different angles, so they’d send their own people. With Matterport, everyone can zoom in on what they’re looking for - all in one digital twin.”

Overall, since implementing Matterport, HTA has seen huge improvements in both time and efficiency as well as more online engagement, including on its social media channels. “Our tenants aren’t just looking at a photograph or reading a brochure,” Pearce says. “They’re experiencing prospective medical spaces themselves. And by saving their time as well as ours, it’s a win-win for everyone.”

ABOUT HEALTHCARE TRUST OF AMERICAHealthcare Trust of America (HTA) is the largest owner and operator of medical office buildings in the United States. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, it manages more than 25 million square feet of medical industry real estate in 33 states. https://htareit.com

HEADQUARTERSScottsdale, Arizona

INDUSTRY Healthcare

CHALLENGEShow properties remotely to prospective tenants and internal management teams 

PRODUCTS Matterport Pro2Matterport Capture Services

SOLUTION HTA uses Matterport Pro2 cameras and Matterport Capture Services to create immersive, 3D digital twins of medical real estate properties that can be viewed by anyone, anytime, from anywhere. 

RESULTS

• Tenants and management teams can identify the right properties in days vs. weeks 

• Reduced travel and site visits

• More efficient leasing and renovation processes

• Higher quality listings drive more online engagement