When the New York City Council passed the historic “City of Yes” zoning reforms late last year, they didn’t just pave the way for 80,000 new housing units; they also created a ton of work for developers, architects, builders, and brokers.
“City of Yes” tweaked dozens of existing regulations around parking mandates, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), density and height restrictions near transit, office-to-resi conversions, and much more, creating an entirely new planning regime overnight. While this type of change would typically take a firm months to come to grips with one block at a time, the team at Simplex 3D has a more elegant solution. The proptech firm’s proprietary 3D map of all five boroughs integrates “City of Yes” layers, including Town Center Zoning, Transit Development, and Districts by Density, as well as other New York City layers like Zoning Amendments, Inclusionary Housing Areas, Commercial Properties, and Cultural and Health Services. With Simplex 3D, tasks that would have taken real estate professionals weeks and cost them upwards of five figures can now be accomplished in minutes with a few clicks.
Democratizing The Use of Information
The Israeli proptech company was founded a decade ago with the lofty goal of leveraging the power of 3D and AI to combine geospatial data with high-definition and incredibly-accurate 3D maps, reshaping the way spatial reality is understood and created.
“At that time, platforms that used GIS and data layers were very complicated to use,” explains Co-Founder and CEO Avi Aflalo. “Usually, they could only be used by one person in the organization, and even then, they wouldn’t know how to operate 90% of the tools.”
Simplex 3D’s process starts with creating a map of a specific urban area via a patented aerial photography mapping system. Their team then takes this vast amount of information (for example, the map of New York City features over 700,000 images) and creates a highly detailed, incredibly accurate 3D map, into which they integrate a wealth of urban planning, financial, and zoning data. In NYC’s case, it’s the highest-resolution image of the entire urban environment in existence. The map is updated frequently, helping users keep track of new construction and other physical changes, while the datasets are constantly updated.
The result is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that combines their proprietary 3D map of an urban environment with constantly updating datasets superimposed over the city via dynamic layers. While other prop-tech service providers lack context and provide only partial capabilities, Simplex 3D goes far beyond mere visualization, enriched by real-time data streams. It is complemented by an advanced suite of tools, such as shade analysis, land-use optimization, and geospatial simulations. This powerful working tool is designed to analyze urban spaces, extract actionable insights, and streamline complex processes, transforming arduous planning, designing, surveying, and even sales tasks into simple, menu-driven operations.
“It makes a huge impact on the entire ecosystem of designing, planning, surveying, and even sales,” explains Aflalo. “Operations that used to take hours and weeks now take one or two clicks.”
The platform has already become a crucial part of many real estate professionals’ workflows, from designers and developers to appraisers and builders.
“Simplex 3D has become the new work desk for our architects,” says Mickey Otmazgin, CEO of Mickey Otmazgin Architecture. “I simply can’t see myself working without it.”
“The 3D environment, shading, and sun features drastically impact our decision-making,” adds Ofer Odles MRICS, owner of Odles & Keinan LTD, a prominent real estate valuation and investment advisory firm. “Today, it’s hard to imagine our work without Simplex 3D’s platform.”
Putting The Development Process Into Context
Aflalo walked us through a few of the most common use cases for the Simplex 3D’s all-in-one tool, which helps users add real-world context to tasks in an often-siloed development process.
It all starts with developers using Simplex 3D’s detailed datasets to quickly and thoroughly investigate multiple potential sites. Combining the latest zoning information with datasets, including how much sun a given lot is expected to receive each year, Simplex 3D makes it easy for developers to compare sites and find the best one.
“The ability to create market-specific data layers has been transformative,” says Oren Altmark, Partner at The Altmark Group, whose firm relies on Simplex 3D throughout the development process. “We have found that Simpex 3D allows our team to streamline not just the underwriting process but plays a key role in developing and stabilizing an asset during the lease-up process.”
Once a site has been selected, the developer turns the project over to the architect. Architects often “work in a vacuum, on a blank screen,” says Aflalo when designing a new building. Now, with Simplex 3D, they can easily import their Revit working file and view their building in its surroundings, allowing them to adjust their design accordingly from very early in the design process, informing decision-making and avoiding costly design updates by enabling business-critical buy-in from project stakeholders at every step along the way.
“Then, once they’ve finished their detailed planning on BIM software, they put it on our platform and present it to their stakeholders,” says Aflalo. “That’s the best way to present it because it’s integrated in real life.”
Next, engineering and construction firms can use the model to plan their step of the work, from figuring out where to place cranes to determining what needs to be demolished. Finally, once the building is in lease-up, brokers can use Simplex 3D as a selling tool, not only as a way to show prospective buyers the view from their unit but also as an easy way to compare multiple units based on criteria like distance from a subway station and nearby Air Rights.
Aflalo told us about a broker using the platform to close a sale on a $15 million penthouse with a view of a nearby park. The buyer was concerned that the view would be obscured by a building at some point in the future, so the broker used Simplex 3D’s air rights dataset to show how, even if all the nearby buildings grew to their maximum heights, the penthouse view of the park would remain.
“Normally, to check this out, it would have taken a couple of months and $20,000 to create a visualization just to say, ‘The view is not obscured at all,’” says Aflalo. “With our platform, it took five minutes, and a day later, the deal was signed.”
Harnessing AI To Change How We View The Urban Environment
Simplex 3D is constantly working on new features and improvements to their platform. Not only are the city models continuously updated, but the company is using its in-house AI to interpret and create new datasets that are added to the environment.
“It puts us in a position where we’re not just integrating data, we’re creating it,” says Aflalo. “We’re enriching the model with our own data that no one else has.”
The company is also expanding its US footprint to include the red-hot South Florida development area.
“We’ve created a 3D model of Miami, not just the city but Ventura and all other counties around it,” says Aflalo. “There’s a lot of new development going on down there, and we think the market will be eager to get acquainted with our platform.”
To learn more about Simplex 3D, book a demo today.