Short answer: Commercial real estate access control is decided at the lobby turnstile, where every tenant employee and visitor passes each day. Edge.AI by Proptech.AI adds facial recognition, QR codes and app-less enrollment to the turnstiles and card system you already own, plus calendar-based visitor pre-registration. Because it reduces badge printing, visitor-desk time and tailgating risk without a rip-and-replace, it is usually the most cost-effective proptech upgrade an office owner can make.
Key takeaways
- Tenant employees can enroll before their first day from an emailed link and a selfie, with no app to install and no trip to a badge office.
- Hosts invite visitors from Outlook or Google Calendar, visitors pre-check in on their phones, and hosts are notified when their guests arrive.
- When the credential is the person rather than a card, badge passing and card sharing at the turnstile become much harder.
- At 101 Greenwich and 330 Madison in New York City, Edge.AI was integrated with existing turnstiles and card-based access control rather than replacing them.
Why does a lobby upgrade come first in a commercial proptech budget?
Because the lobby is where operating cost and tenant experience meet every working day. Security officers, the visitor desk, badge administration and the turnstiles all sit there, and every employee judges the building on the walk from the street to the elevator.
Other upgrades, such as building-system retrofits or tenant apps, often need broad capital work or new habits before their benefits show. Access control touches everyone on day one, and when it reuses existing turnstiles and panels, it is closer to an operating decision than a construction project.
How do you enroll thousands of tenant employees without a badge office?
Let them enroll themselves before they arrive. Each employee receives an enrollment email, sees the biometric privacy consent first, then takes a selfie and uploads it without downloading an app. On the next arrival, the turnstile opens hands-free. Anyone who declines receives a mobile QR code or an RFID card instead.
This scales to large towers. At 330 Madison in New York City, part of JLL’s portfolio, hundreds of people move through the building every minute across 855k RSF and 39 floors. There, Proptech.AI tied Appless Self Enrollment and facial recognition into the building’s 6 turnstiles and existing card-based access control system, delivering 24/7 secure access.
How does calendar-based visitor pre-registration work in an office tower?
The meeting invitation becomes the visitor pass. With Edge.AI visitor management and access control, a host schedules the meeting in Outlook or Google Calendar, Edge.AI sends the visitor a customized invite, and the visitor completes an appless pre-check-in on their phone. When the visitor arrives, the host is notified.
Contractors, couriers and vendors run through the same consolidated system as tenants and staff, so the lobby team works from one list instead of several. Our guide to moving from paper logs to appless pre-check-in walks through the visitor flow step by step.
Which lobby credential holds up best against tailgating and card sharing?
A credential that cannot be lent. Turnstiles do the physical work of admitting one person at a time, but a badge can be passed back over the barrier or borrowed for the day, as our article on AI turnstile access and office tailgating explains. On accuracy, Proptech.AI specifies 99.9% for the multi-sensor Edge.AI device, and the system raises alerts on suspicious spoofing and fraud attempts at the turnstile itself.
| Lobby approach | What people carry | Sharing risk | Visitor handling | Recurring cost drivers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Officer desk and sign-in log | Nothing | Depends on staff attention at peak | Paper or tablet log | Officer hours |
| Printed badge at turnstiles | Plastic card | Cards can be lent or passed back | Temporary badges printed at the desk | Card stock, printing, replacements, admin |
| Edge.AI with QR and card options | Nothing, for those who opt in | Much harder to lend a face, plus spoofing alerts | Calendar invites and appless pre-check-in | Subscription, plus cards for opt-outs only |
What do badges and the visitor desk cost a Class A building?
Usually more than the badge budget line shows, because staff time is buried in security and management payroll.
Illustrative example: Assume a multi-tenant office tower with 4,000 badge holders and a staffed visitor desk. Replace every figure with your own.
- Badge stock: assume 15% of badge holders turn over each year (600 new badges) and 300 badges are lost or damaged, at $8 each: 900 x $8 = $7,200.
- Badge administration: assume 10 minutes for each new, replacement and deactivated badge: (600 + 300 + 600) x 10 = 15,000 minutes, or 250 hours, and 250 x $35 = $8,750.
- Visitor desk: assume 180 visitors each weekday at 2 minutes of desk time to sign in, print a pass and call the host: 180 x 2 = 360 minutes, or 6 hours a day, and 6 x 250 days x $32 = $48,000.
That is $7,200 + $8,750 + $48,000 = $63,950 a year before any tailgating incident, which is real but too variable to model here. Self-enrolled tenants and pre-registered visitors address the two largest lines. Then line your own figures up against a subscription quote from Proptech.AI.
Will Edge.AI work with your existing turnstiles and card system?
Yes. Owners choose among four deployment modes and can host in the cloud or on-prem.
- Integrated: Edge.AI feeds the building’s existing access control panels over Wiegand, leaving tenants’ cards working while it adds facial recognition, QR codes and analytics.
- Parallel: run Edge.AI alongside the current system for one tenant or one turnstile bank during a pilot.
- Hybrid: integrate at the lobby turnstiles and run Edge.AI standalone on an amenity floor or tenant lounge.
- Full replacement: use Edge.AI as the standalone access control system in a repositioning or new development.
For owners with several assets, Edge.AI manages the whole portfolio from one centralized system; see managing access control across a portfolio from one dashboard. Other property types are covered in our industry-by-industry access control guides.
What can leasing and operations teams learn from access data?
How the building is really used. Edge.AI analytics report people counting, peak hours, unique visitors and popular areas, which helps you staff the lobby for the morning peak, judge whether the conference center or fitness floor earns its space, and bring usage evidence to renewal conversations.
At 101 Greenwich, a 25-floor, 480k RSF building managed by JLL with 1,500 tenants, the team previously relied on manual counting and a limited access control system. The fix was six Edge.AI sensors, one on each of the six turnstiles, tied into the card-based system already in place for 24/7 secure access. In its BOMA Pinnacle Award speech, the building team recognized Proptech.AI’s work.
Jones Lang LaSalle’s testimonial on proptech.ai credits that upgrade with unparalleled security at 101 Greenwich. It runs under the headline “Increased our property value 130%,” a figure specific to that building and customer, not a prediction for yours.
How should owners handle biometric privacy in a multi-tenant building?
As a building policy that tenants can explain to their own employees. Edge.AI is designed to help landlords comply with BIPA, GDPR and the other privacy frameworks that apply at federal, state and city level.
- Consent first: every employee sees the biometric privacy consent as step one of enrollment, and the forms confirm that data is not sold to third parties or used without authorization.
- Alternatives: any employee who declines uses a mobile QR code or an RFID card at the same turnstile.
- Deletion: remove data when someone leaves a tenant company or asks, since all data can be deleted upon request.
- Separation: Edge.AI keeps PII apart from both the turnstile device and the management console, and the leasing analytics described above run on tokenized data stripped of PII.
In Illinois, BIPA (740 ILCS 14) requires written notice, a written release and a public retention policy, with liquidated damages of $1,000 per negligent and $5,000 per intentional or reckless violation. New York City’s Local Law 3 of 2021 requires covered commercial establishments, such as retail stores and food and drink establishments, to post signage at customer entrances when they collect biometric identifier information, so towers with retail or restaurant space should check how it applies. This is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
In an office building, Edge.AI by Proptech.AI lets tenant employees enroll from an emailed link by uploading a selfie, with the biometric privacy consent shown first and no app required. From their next arrival, they pass the lobby turnstiles hands-free. Any employee who prefers not to enroll can use a mobile QR code or an RFID card. Edge.AI can integrate with the building’s existing turnstiles and card-based access control system via Wiegand.
Yes. Edge.AI can connect to an office building’s existing access control panels via Wiegand, so the current card system keeps running while facial recognition, QR codes and analytics are added. At 101 Greenwich and 330 Madison in New York City, Edge.AI was integrated with the existing turnstiles and card-based systems. Owners can also run Edge.AI in parallel, in a hybrid setup, or as a full standalone replacement.
At a commercial building using Edge.AI, a tenant host invites the visitor from Outlook or Google Calendar, and Edge.AI sends a customized invitation. Before arriving, the visitor finishes an appless pre-check-in on their phone, and on arrival Edge.AI notifies the host. Contractors and vendors are managed in the same consolidated system as tenants, which shortens the line at the lobby visitor desk.
Facial recognition reduces tailgating and card sharing in office lobbies because the credential is the person rather than a card that can be lent or passed back. Turnstiles still do the physical work of admitting one person at a time. At the turnstile, Edge.AI also flags suspicious spoofing and fraud attempts, and its multi-sensor device carries Proptech.AI’s 99.9% accuracy specification.
At 101 Greenwich in New York City, a 25-floor, 480,000 rentable square foot building managed by JLL with 1,500 tenants, the team previously relied on manual counting and a limited access control system. Edge.AI added six sensors, one per turnstile, and integrated them with the existing card-based system to give the building 24/7 secure access. Proptech.AI’s contribution was acknowledged by the building team in their BOMA Pinnacle Award speech.
Upgrade the lobby you already have
See how Edge.AI fits your turnstiles, card system and visitor desk. Property and asset managers can reach the team at sales@proptech.ai, or through the contact form at the bottom of this page, for a demo or a subscription quote.
Sources: Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14; NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Biometric Identifier Information rule