Rubenstein Partners and cove Announce Strategic Partnership for Maryland Properties

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The office is changing. Tenants want and deserve an engaging user experience with technology, amenities, food options and an environment curated to meet their modern needs. In today's reality, this includes acknowledging and addressing potential changes that will arise from the ongoing impact of Coronavirus.

Rubenstein Partners, L.P. (including its affiliates, "Rubenstein"), a vertically-integrated real estate investment adviser focused on value-added office property opportunities, has formed a partnership with cove, a DC-based company that creates workspace experiences for modern workers, companies, and real estate owners. This partnership will include an extension of cove's software platform to help support tenants get back to work productively.

The partnership initially will focus on Rubenstein Partners' Maryland office buildings, where substantial renovations are being completed that include state-of-the art amenities, cutting edge technology, collaborative work areas and curated food options. Launching this Spring at Research Plaza and 2600 Tower Oaks Boulevard, the partnership will marry Rubenstein's first class property management with cove's brand of vibrant, custom workspaces, curated food and beverage options (i.e. onsite café, delivery, outdoor BBQ grill, food trucks, and more), and a robust technology platform and app that enables tenants to do everything from booking meeting rooms to ordering lattes and managing parking — right from their phone. Branded as "Powered by cove," many services will be included for all, with additional upgrade opportunities available to tenants as "add-on" options.

Since 2005, Rubenstein Partners has invested in more than 22 million square feet of office real estate assets throughout the United States. Since its inception, largely in DC Metro and Boston, cove has built a network of neighborhood workspaces and modern work solutions for building owners and Fortune 500 companies.  cove offers a tailored workspace software and services platform to meet the needs and budgets of its clients. Ultimately, the tenant's day in the Maryland properties are in for a transformation, including fresh coffee, snacks, managed IT/AV, office management — everything to ensure quick upstart times and the best possible experience. Through this tightly integrated partnership, Rubenstein and cove will be working shoulder-to-shoulder to implement the enhanced user experience, which will be more seamless than a traditional hand-off to various third-party firms with disparate coordination and interests.

"Today's company wants a solution and environment that meets its needs to conduct business and recruit superior talent — from amenities, to technology, to flexibility, to community. Whether the new prospect or existing tenant has 5 or 500 employees, the Rubenstein-cove team will aim to create superior experiential common spaces, as well as provide additional options for cove to run all or a portion of a tenant's 'back-of-house' needs," says Stephen Evans, DC Metro Regional Director. "In cove, we have found a partner that has spent hours and hours with us studying the operational aspects of building management to gain economies and efficiencies, jointly interviewed our tenants to assess what they want and need, and otherwise collaboratively developed a joint program to market, lease and operate our properties to drive value for our investors."

"We could not be more excited to partner with Rubenstein. They understand real estate, given their decades of experience, while also maintaining proactive thinking to stay ahead of the market," says Adam Segal, cofounder and CEO at cove. "We have spent the last few months reviewing and jointly refining the renovation plans, developing the business plan and now rolling out a collaborative, building-wide product that makes us a powerful and deeply integrated team. Given likely emerging changes post-Cornavirus, we expect our flexible workspace and innovative software platform to be adapted to tenants' implementation of differing 'get back to work' strategies."

An added component in light of current challenges where many tenants and employees are being forced to go fully remote and work from home for the first time, cove intends to extend its new cove@Home offering to the Rubenstein tenants in its Maryland properties.  Through cove@Home, users get access to a platform and web portal for supporting their employees with the perks, workspace upgrades, and strong sense of community that keeps them productive while they work from home until they can return to work.

"We haven't even formally rolled out the new partnership, but we've already seen great interest from prospective tenants and one tenant has already executed an agreement for additional services," according to Evans. "The tenant was excited with the level of amenities offered at the building and cove will be offering additional services specific to the tenant." 

About Rubenstein Partners
Rubenstein Partners, founded in September 2005, is a private real estate investment management and advisory firm with operations throughout the United States.  The firm is led by its founder, David Rubenstein, and a group of senior real estate executives, and is focused on directing and managing office real estate investments in the U.S.  Rubenstein Partners' predecessor company, The Rubenstein Company, LP and affiliates, founded in 1969, was one of the largest private owner operators of Class A office real estate in the Mid-Atlantic, owning and operating a portfolio of assets valued at approximately $1.2 billion at the time of its disposition in 2004.  Since 2005, Rubenstein Partners has, on behalf of its investors and clients, invested in more than 22 million square feet of office real estate assets throughout the United States.  For more information, visit www.rubensteinpartners.com.

About cove
At cove, we are on a mission is to improve people's workday by making it more productive and engaging, regardless of where that happens. We launched six years ago with our first neighborhood workspace, driven by our proprietary tech that puts the experiences in the user's hands. Today, we design and build modern experiences across the entire spectrum of work to support individuals, companies, and real estate owners. This includes neighborhood coves close to where people live, private custom offices operated for companies, software licensed to Fortune 500 enterprises, and partnerships with commercial office owners to create differentiated, user-driven building experiences.

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SOURCE Rubenstein Partners