Working smarter and working harder: Office evolution and commercial curation
Productivity—both as a social imperative and a business necessity in an ever-tightening labor market—has put more and more pressure on office workers, and offices, to perform. Developers and commercial-property owners need to focus on providing not just space and a great location, but an environment for success.
As office design morphs into more mixed workspaces, and the tech world fetish for innovation, creative commons, and innovation bleeds into every sector of the economy, more and more firms want curated, configured office spaces that boost productivity. Developers who focus on and market design and efficiency, and tailor their products to ever-evolving workplace trends (flexibility, green design, smart office space), will benefit greatly.
In its annual look ahead, the Urban Land Institute predicts a soft landing. That may seem totally tone-deaf when considering today’s news cycle and the overall tumult of 2017 thus far. But as far as the real estate industry is concerned, the immediate future promises a relatively smooth ride.
Unveiled during the organization’s annual fall meeting in Los Angeles this morning, the 2018 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report, a joint project between ULI and PricewaterhouseCoopers researchers, compiles more than 800 individual interviews and 1,600 surveys from a diverse array of real estate, economic, and development professionals.
It’s been anything but a slow year, with an expanding affordable-housing shortage, cries of a new urban crisis impacting cities, a string of tragic and costly natural disasters, and new regulatory and tax uncertainty due to proposed Trump administration policy.
But the consensus of real estate experts and analysts surveyed by ULI views a “sudden drop in altitude” as highly unlikely. Growth trends and an economic tailwind suggest an expansion of the current cycle, amid larger structural shifts in real estate.