UTA'S STORY AND HOW XSENSE CAME TO BE

My name is Uta Birkmayer. Born in Germany and half Hungarian, I have lived and worked in Europe, Asia, the Americas and aboard a five-star cruise ship, where I wrote my thesis on "Living and Working Cultures on Cruise Ships". I have always been fascinated by the people-place interaction and have dedicated my life to inspiring human transformation by creating experiences that add meaning to people’s lives. After all, what's life, if we're not living it to our full potential? My academic background is hospitality management and design, specifically creating authentic customer experiences that connect place and people.

After spending eight years in Asia, in 2001 I returned to the US for the third time and realized that so much of real estate development surrounding me was not “real” at all, but often a copy of Tuscany or the English countryside or other glitzy, themed creations that left me void of emotions. Such "copies of " places do not elicit the emotional connection humans experience when visiting the "real thing". One developer actually shared that “we have nothing here, so we have to borrow from Europe.”

“We have nothing here, so we have to borrow from Europe.” Yes, this statement came from a real developer, who ended up hiring us to achieve the highest ROI in the 150byears of the company. (His testimonial here). Now, back to the story...

It is this very statement that inspired me to create Xsense, a consultancy for developers to ensure that their designs, concepts and eventual customer experiences connect to the real roots of place and therefore creating environments that bring the joy, meaning and connection we are so missing in real estate today.

Xsense was a hard sell from its humble beginnings 18 years ago. The question was always: what is the ROI? How much (monetary) value will it add? Why spend the money? And, in real estate, it takes a long time to get to this number. Now I have this number and I am excited to share that not only did we help the developer save money, but we also added 3.5% ($27M) to a development that was launched in 2008, the last economic downturn. It also became the most successful project in the 150-year history of the company.

I set out to create more culturally connected, meaningful and therefore socially sustainable places that people love to live in, visit and share with others. I knew that development and marketing cost would be lower and I was hopeful that the developments would create a higher financial return—but the financial return was never my main purpose. However, it’s imperative for investors. 

Now that we have learned what the actual numbers are, we want to share our story, and inspire other developers, municipalities and academia, to consider our approach.

I have partnered with Katheryne KTEE Thomas, president/CEO of In Ohm Entertainment and with 5D Spectrum to create a documentary film that explains how any developer team has access to add this new level of consciousness to development.  

15 years ago, Xsense was an obscure startup and Jason Enos, in the true spirit of Trilogy innovation, gave us a chance to introduce experiential design to the Trilogy Central Coast Project. Subsequently, I was invited to meet Dan O’Brien, Stephen Tindle and the leadership team in Scottsdale. I remember former CEO Rick Andreen saying to me that “anything we can do to add elements of authenticity, meaning, and culture, something that moves people in ways new real estate rarely does—gives our communities an edge over competition and is worth investing in.” 

Rick’s foresight has paid off with the Vineyards development, adding $27 million to the bottom line, making it, according to Dan O’Brien, Shea’s most successful development in its 150-year history.

This story is worth sharing. How was it done? What did it cost? How has it affected the design process? Sales? Operation? How do homeowners feel about Vineyards? How about the local community? History buffs? Other developers?

We are planning to answer those questions in our first documentary film “Putting REAL Back into Real Estate” and I am writing to ask you to be our fiscal sponsor. 

The documentary will be distributed worldwide, focusing on community and resort developers, real estate investment houses, historic communities, and innovative thinkers.