LEX, the leading commercial real estate securities marketplace that enables accredited and unaccredited investors to invest in individual properties, today announced it has partnered with Nasdaq to power its trading platform.
LEX will leverage the cloud matching service via the Nasdaq Marketplace Services Platform to provide the same robust, low latency and high-performance trading features used by 120+ global market operators around the world. The technology partnership sets a new market infrastructure standard for trading real estate securities and establishes an exclusive trading venue for commercial real estate securities.
Nasdaq’s Marketplace Services Platform will serve as the underlying technology for LEX’s alternative trading system (ATS). The technology, which is designed with the rigorous regulatory, reliability and security standards proven in financial markets, will provide LEX with a full range of trading functions, interfaces and surrounding market operations capabilities in a dynamic environment that can flexibly adjust as LEX’s business evolves. With road-tested technology in place, LEX will unlock previously unavailable matching opportunities between property owners and retail and institutional investors at speed and scale. The company will also be able to demonstrate integrity and trust through transparent price formation mechanisms that inspire confidence for participants and investors.
“We are excited to forge this partnership with Nasdaq and create the most powerful platform for trading real estate securities,” said Drew Sterrett, co-founder and CEO of LEX. “Nasdaq’s market leading technology will allow LEX to scale with the sophistication of a global market and helps us achieve our mission of opening access to the asset class for both retail and institutional investors. Properties have historically traded hands over the course of years. Nasdaq is providing us with the technology to make it happen in under a second.”
"For nearly fifty years, Nasdaq has been a leading market operator and technology company,” said Paul McKeown, SVP and Head of Marketplace Operators and New Markets, Market Technology, Nasdaq. “We look forward to working with LEX as their technology provider as they reimagine real estate securities trading to make the multi-trillion U.S. commercial real estate market more open and transparent."
Launched in 2019, LEX enables retail and institutional investors to directly invest in individual commercial real estate properties via securities qualified by the SEC under Regulation A, enabling trading by non-accredited retail investors. The shares offered are publicly traded partnership interests, allowing the full tax benefits of direct real estate ownership to pass through to investors.
The partnership with Nasdaq underscores momentum for LEX who has secured a strong stable of investors and advisors including Craig Hatkoff, LEX’s Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer. Mr Hatkoff is one of the earliest pioneers of commercial real estate and mortgage securitization and currently serves on the Boards of Colony Capital and SL Green, two of the country’s largest REITs. In addition, LEX has partnered with Nasdaq Private Market to facilitate secondary transactions for owners of private equity interests seeking liquidity.
"Our partnership with Nasdaq puts into place the final piece of the puzzle giving LEX a true first-mover advantage with a simple-to-use, proprietary platform for structuring and trading commercial real estate securities,” said Craig Hatkoff. “While others have tried variations, until now no one has cracked the code on how to partner with a recognized national securities exchange. The LEX/Nasdaq tie-up should be a game-changer opening up access to an untapped market for the accredited and unaccredited investor and dramatically lowering the cost of capital for the real estate industry."