For decades, property management ran on instinct and experience. A seasoned manager could walk a concourse, feel the crowd, glance at storefronts and know what was working and what wasn’t. That intuition is still invaluable, but in today’s complex retail and mixed-use environments, it’s not enough. The pace of change, the diversity of tenants and the heightened expectations of visitors demand something more: real-time, shared, actionable data. The properties that embrace it aren’t just managing, they’re thriving.
Why Data Is Now the Deciding Factor
It’s worth remembering that data in real estate is nothing new. Leasing teams have long tracked occupancy rates, operations managers have maintained maintenance logs and marketing departments have counted foot traffic. What has changed is the speed, granularity and shareability of that data.
A decade ago, a landlord might receive retailer sales reports months after the fact, long after the window for intervention had closed. Today, real-time sales and performance data can inform operational decisions the very next day. That shift from lagging to leading indicators is a game-changer.
The holiday season is a perfect example. With next-day sales data, property managers can adjust marketing campaigns on the fly, move underperforming tenants into higher-traffic areas or deploy additional cleaning and security resources to maintain the customer experience during peak foot traffic. This isn’t a hypothetical — it’s already happening in forward-thinking retail and mixed-use environments.
From Guarded Secrets to Shared Insights
Historically, property operations knowledge lived in people’s heads, often the heads of seasoned veterans who knew every quirk of a building, every long-term tenant relationship and every hidden risk. While invaluable, that model doesn’t scale and it doesn’t survive staff turnover.
The future lies in capturing and operationalizing that knowledge through data platforms. Think of it as succession planning for property expertise. When institutional knowledge is documented, centralized and shared, it stops being dependent on individuals and starts being a resource for the entire organization.
This is also changing the dynamic between landlords, tenants and even competitors. Where once data was guarded as a proprietary asset, we’re now seeing more sharing, particularly when it benefits everyone involved. Real-time reporting on sales, traffic patterns and even safety incidents can help entire retail districts act faster, spot trends earlier and reduce risk.
Retail Resilience and the Rise of Destination Placemaking
If the past few years have proven anything, it’s that retail is far more adaptable than many predicted. While some categories have shifted online, retail’s ability to adjust its tenant mix keeps it relevant in a way that static office towers can’t easily match.
Premium retail space remains in high demand and landlords are becoming increasingly selective about who they bring into the fold. Secondary malls are pivoting to mixed-use models, adding residential, leisure and even healthcare facilities to diversify traffic and revenue streams. The result is a wave of new “destinations” where people don’t just shop — they spend time, socialize and return again and again.
Hollywood Park in Los Angeles and Tysons Corner in Virginia are two examples of how this plays out. Both are more than shopping centers; they are vibrant, multi-use communities that blend retail, dining, entertainment and residential living. Their success is no accident — it’s rooted in data-driven decisions about tenant mix, event programming and operational management that keep the experience fresh and compelling.
The Role of Data in Safety, Cleanliness, and Experience
Ask any visitor what makes them return to a destination, and they’ll rarely cite “good property management” directly. But they will notice, and act on, its effects: clean common areas, a sense of safety, responsive staff and well-maintained amenities. These table stakes for customer loyalty are deeply data-dependent.
Incident tracking, for instance, allows property managers to address safety risks before they escalate. Patterns in cleaning logs can reveal where and when maintenance is most needed, allowing for targeted deployment of resources rather than blanket scheduling. Even marketing decisions are affected: if data shows that cleanliness issues correlate with drops in sales in certain zones, management can prioritize them immediately.
In short, operational data isn’t just about internal efficiency, it’s about protecting and enhancing the visitor experience, which in turn protects revenue.
Simplicity as a Competitive Advantage
There’s a temptation in proptech to chase complexity, layering on features until the platform feels more like a puzzle than a tool. But in my experience, the most effective solutions are those that deliver clarity, not confusion.
In multi-tenant, high-foot-traffic environments, whether shopping centers, stadiums, airports or train stations, staff don’t have the luxury of sifting through complicated dashboards or wrestling with multiple disconnected systems. They need simple, intuitive platforms that integrate data from various sources into a single, actionable view.
The goal isn’t just to have data, it’s to have data you can use in the moment, in the field, to make a difference.
The Future: Connected Communities
The ultimate vision for data-driven property management is a connected community in which every stakeholder — security, maintenance, cleaning, tenants and management — operates in sync. Information flows seamlessly, decisions are made faster and everyone understands how their role contributes to the destination’s success.
This isn’t a distant ideal; it’s already emerging in properties that treat data as a shared asset rather than a siloed resource. And as AI continues to mature, the potential for predictive, proactive and personalized property management will only grow.
At Kinexio, data is not just isolated metrics but acts as the backbone of a connected ecosystem. The Kinexio Facilities Management (FM) Portal is designed to unify maintenance, asset tracking, compliance and communication into a single, accessible platform. By providing one source of truth for everything from preventive maintenance schedules to incident reports, the portal eliminates the silos that often slow down decision-making in property operations.
Real-time data and integrated workflows allow on-site and remote teams to respond faster, reduce risk and plan for the long term, whether that’s avoiding costly equipment failures, improving compliance or creating cleaner, safer environments. More importantly, it fosters a sense of shared responsibility across security, maintenance, cleaning crews, tenants and management. In connecting these communities, we strengthen not only the performance of each asset but also the collaborative culture that underpins great placemaking.
Retail and mixed-use destinations are more than just collections of buildings and leases, they are living ecosystems. And like any ecosystem, their health depends on the quality of the information flowing through them.
The properties that will lead the next decade won’t necessarily be the largest or the flashiest. They’ll be the ones that use data as the thread connecting every operational decision, tenant relationship and visitor experience.
For those of us in the business of creating places where people fwant to be, data isn’t just a tool. It’s the foundation of everything.
