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Las Vegas has unveiled a digital twin of its downtown area to help city planners deal with future growth and other issues, like climate change. It\\u2019s a virtual modeling system by a Chicago-based company called Cityzenith. It says that Las Vegas has completed an initial set up phase, and is now headed into phase two.

Hi, I\'m Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.

Cityzenith says its SmartWorld Digital Twin technology will help Las Vegas analyze issues involving mobility, air quality, noise pollution, water use, and carbon emissions coming from large downtown buildings. City planners will be able to analyze those emissions as they call for changes to reduce greenhouse gases to a net zero level. (1)

Las Vegas Begins Phase Two

Cityzenith CEO, Michael Jansen, says of the Las Vegas project: \\u201cThe base twin is now complete, and in the second quarter of this year, stakeholders from Las Vegas will be invited to join phase 2 of the Digital Twin project.\\u201d Stakeholders include real estate owners, government agencies, university researchers, data partners, architects, and casino operators.

Jansen says that just 1.7% of American office buildings are \\u201cgreen.\\u201d But he says that building owners won\\u2019t have to shell out a lot of money for upgrades because Cityzenith has partners that will provide risk-free, no money down financing for retrofits. He says the digital twin platform combined with \\u201ccreative financing\\u201d will make it easier for property owners to transition their buildings.

Clean Cities, Clean Future

This is just a first step for Cityzenith. It says on its website that the Las Vegas project is part of a much larger \\u201cClean Cities, Clean Future\\u201d initiative. The company hopes to implement the digital twin platform in major cities throughout the world. Other cities adopting this technology include Los Angeles and Phoenix, but Cityzenith says that more than a dozen other cities and property owners are lined up to do the same.

Cityzenith isn\\u2019t the only one providing this technology. Ernst and Young issued a report last year called \\u201cDigital Twin: The Age of Aquarius in Construction and Real Estate.\\u201d It predicts that the use of digital twins will become an important part of the real estate industry. (2)

The report lists four ways that digital twins provide significant value:

1 - The first is to help with building maintenance and operations. It says the technology can increase efficiency by as much as 35% by determining wasteful expenses and hidden cost savings.

2 - The second is a substantial improvement to a building\\u2019s environmental footprint. The report says the technology can identify how buildings impact the environment and help reduce emissions by as much as 50%.

3 - The third value proposition is a 20% increase in health and wellness. That would happen by improving unhealthy indoor environments that can lead to illness and lower productivity.

4 - And fourth - improvements to the way people use indoor space and interact within a building. The report estimates a 15% increase in space utilization, thanks to digital twin modeling.

Built Environment with Real-Time Data

The technology combines spatial data from the built environment with real-time data that is collected with sensors, and the internet of things. That also allows researchers to run \\u201cwhat if\\u201d scenarios, and predict what actions may be needed to address any future issues or events.

The CEO of data company, Terbine, that works with Cityzenith, talked about the virtues of this technology in a Construction Dive blog. (3) David Knight says: \\u201cTransitioning our home city into a clean, sustainable, and more attractive place to live and visit is a fantastic opportunity.\\u201d He says: \\u201cWhat we\\u2019re building here represents a model for how other cities can enable sustainability and a better quality of life for their citizens.\\u201d

If you\\u2019d like to know more about this topic, check for links in the show notes at newsforinvestors.com. You can also find out more about real estate investing at our website. It\\u2019s free to join, and free to access hundreds of webinars and articles on real estate investing. You\\u2019ll also have access to the Investor Portal where you can view sample property pro-formas for new and existing rental homes, and connect with our network of resources. That includes experienced investment counselors, property teams, lenders, 1031 exchange facilitators, attorneys, CPAs and more.

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Thanks for listening. I\'m Kathy Fettke.

Links:

1 -https://cityzenith.com/press

2 -https://www.ecmag.com/sites/default/files/Digital%20twin%20-%20the%20Age%20of%20Aquarius%20in%20construction%20and%20real%20estate.pdf

3 -https://www.constructiondive.com/news/las-vegas-unveils-digital-twin-of-downtown/617127/