Today, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) and the Partnership Fund for New York published results from the first annual tech competition of the Buildings Tech Lab (BTL), a public-private collaboration that works to accelerate innovation in construction, safety, and sustainability in New York City’s built environment. 

Following the successful model of the Partnership Fund’s public-sector innovation labs, including the Transit Tech Lab and Environmental Tech Lab, the BTL hosts an annual competition designed to find, evaluate, and test innovative technology solutions that will support the DOB’s work as the primary regulator of real estate and construction in New York City, which is home to nearly 1.1 million buildings. In its inaugural program year, the BTL solicited more than 90 applications from entrepreneurs around the world seeking to demonstrate how their technology could help the DOB streamline its process management and better utilize its internal data. 

The Partnership Fund’s three public-sector innovation labs are the cornerstone of its “technology in the public interest” strategy aimed at helping government agencies deliver services more effectively for the benefit of all New Yorkers. The initiative builds on the success of the FinTech Innovation Lab, co-founded in 2010 by the Partnership Fund alongside Accenture, bringing the test-and-iterate approach to the public-sector to foster innovation and apply new solutions.

Following an application review process led by 28 senior DOB staff members, eight innovative tech companies were selected to collaborate with the agency on “proof of concept” projects. The selected companies worked with DOB project managers over eight weeks to test their product capabilities and receive feedback on their value proposition. Notably, three of the eight companies are based in New York City, aligning with PFNYC’s mission to support and elevate local innovation.

This report details how each solution was implemented, early results, and the potential for future impact. 

Select Highlights and Outcomes

Process Management Challenge – How can we better manage internal processes to expedite permitting processes, building inspections, code reviews, and enforcement initiatives?

• Archistar (Sydney, Australia) – Streamlined 26 zoning compliance checks across three residential permit applications, demonstrating potential to reduce 2-4 review DOB staff-led review cycles for each application. 

• Civcheck (Boston, MA) – Pre-screened 14 residential alteration and enlargement plans against 50 regulation checks for missing information and code compliance. DOB plan reviewers reported a 25% time savings as a result of using the tool.

• Infilla (San Francisco, CA) – Deployed a centralized, searchable platform for DOB staff to communicate about HR and building code and zoning questions, delivering expert-approved answers 20x faster than before. 

• GreenLite Technologies (New York, NY) - Customized a modern code compliance platform, LitTable, enabling DOB team to review buildings plans and generate collaborative comments. 

• Routora (Dallas, TX) – Customized an automated route planning software, allowing daily inspection schedules to be uploaded and optimized based on DOB-specific priorities and work rules. Routora estimated they could save over 625 hours of administrative work per week and enable DOB to complete over 52,000 additional inspections annually.

Data Utilization Challenge – How can we better utilize existing data to automate operations and increase staff capacity?

• Gryps (New York, NY) – Ingested data from over 25 public data systems and analyzed 43,000 violation records, automating operations and boosting staff capacity for the Class 1 Reinspection program, enabling DOB to process violation data up to five times faster.

• TheStoop.ai (New York, NY) – Demonstrated a method for DOB to proactively detect and reduce unsafe, unpermitted work by using public data to develop risk scores for 7,000 properties. DOB inspections of sites that were flagged as risky revealed a higher-than-normal rate of violations. 

• Tolemi (Boston, MA) - Integrated 32 datasets to map 1 million associations between known bad actors and active DOB licensees. Enabled DOB to surface complex ownership risks in seconds, a task that previously took 84 hours, supporting more proactive oversight of high-risk properties at scale.

Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo said, “The Department of Buildings provides critical services to our fellow New Yorkers by advancing public safety, promoting quality of life, and supporting compliant development across the five boroughs. It is imperative that as an agency we explore every avenue that can make these services as efficient as possible. Thanks to the Buildings Tech Lab, the Partnership Fund for New York City, and this cohort of eight innovative companies, we have been given an unprecedented look at the DOB of the future. Over the past several months we have seen firsthand from these companies how their emergent technologies can be leveraged to boost productivity, reduce wait times, and get our safety inspectors where they are needed most.”

Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City, said, “This was an exciting, impactful first year that showed how the right technologies, tested in the right way, can help city agencies work smarter and serve New Yorkers more effectively. We’re proud to have helped launch this effort and look forward to scaling its impact in future cycles.” 

Stacey Matlen, Senior Vice President of Innovation at the Partnership for New York City, said, “These results reflect just the beginning of what’s possible when we create space for experimentation inside government. As we’ve seen through our other Innovation Labs, collaboration between forward-thinking government leaders and entrepreneurs can unlock tangible results for New Yorkers – and the Buildings Tech Lab is poised to do the same. 

About the New York City Department of Buildings

The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) plays a critical role in shaping New York City's unique built environment. As the primary regulator of NYC’s construction and real estate industries, DOB is committed to promoting safety on construction sites and the City's more than 1.1 million buildings, all while fostering development to provide housing and commercial spaces for the City's growing population. Through meticulous review and approval of building plans, streamlined permitting and licensing processes, and rigorous inspections, DOB enhances the quality of life for all New Yorkers by delivering equitable services across all five boroughs.

About the Partnership Fund for New York City

The Partnership Fund for New York City is the $130 million investment arm of the Partnership for New York City, dedicated to mobilizing private sector resources and expertise to advance New York City’s standing as a global center of economic opportunity, upward mobility, and innovation. The Fund invests in entrepreneurs and innovators in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors who contribute to building a more vibrant and inclusive New York City economy. As an “evergreen” fund, realized gains are continuously reinvested. A key focus of the Fund is the application of new technology that serves the public interest.

The Partnership Fund Board is led by co-chairs Tarek Sherif and Neil Blumenthal. Maria Gotsch is the Fund’s President and CEO. More information about the Fund can be found at partnershipfundnyc.org.