The technology behind CRE Simple, a real estate technology startup from Oakland, was purchased by an Arizona real estate broker.
Craig Coppola, a founding principal at Lee & Associates Arizona, a commercial real estate brokerage, and his newly-formed Habanero CRE Simple LLC purchased the proprietary source code for CRE Simple’s platform earlier this month.
CRE Simple filed for Chapter 7 on March 11, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.
Coppola and his company bought the code for $121,000 at a bankruptcy auction, and the sale closed June 7.
The Phoenix-based Coppola plans to reboot CRE Simple and move its headquarters to Scottsdale.
“What they’ve created is way more powerful than the technology I’m using today — and we’re pretty cutting edge,” Coppola told the San Francisco Business Times. “We think everything that the previous owners built was spot on.”
Coppola met CRE Simple co-founder Laura Millichap in 2019 after investing in the company through the Reach accelerator program, from the National Association of Realtors.
CRE Simple was founded by Millichap and Brian Thompson as a technology platform to “give the commercial real estate community 25% of its day back,” according to Millichap.
CRE Simple was built to manage documents, deal terms and secure communications with stakeholders involved in complex transactions.