Bisnow/Miriam Hall
Office Furniture Heaven CEO Marc Schwartzberg, Breather CEO Bryan Murphy, Join Senior Market Development Manager Rachel Walters, L'Oréal Head of Real Estate for Americas Susana Balbes Pazos, Normandy Real Estate partner Paul Teti and Knotel Chief Investment Officer Eugene Lee

Most experts agree that the economic downturn will eventually come, and it is a matter of when and how severe, not if. One thing's for sure: the office leasing world looks very different to what it did a decade ago.

Tenants now demand a host of pricey amenities, and a flood of new construction in New York City has forced landlords to make significant investments in older buildings to stay competitive. What’s more, the leasing landscape has been completely reshaped by the explosive growth of coworking companies and flexible workspace providers.

How the office environment is changing, and how tenants and landlords would be affected by the inevitable economic downturn, were all discussed at Bisnow’s NYC Office & Workplace of the Future event last week.

“It’s on the news all the time, ‘Are we about to enter a downturn?’ — and at some point, we will,” said Bryan Murphy, the CEO of flexible office space company Breather, on one of the panels. “But what we are beginning to see is as companies begin to worry. They are de-risking their portfolios … [by] entering into a flexible leases so they have flexibility in a downturn.”