Central business districts are picking up foot traffic, while curbside pickup becomes less of a commonplace.
While some pandemic-era changes are likely to ease up in the following years, one market has remained relatively consistent: the office.
In the midst of the pandemic, offices plummeted in occupancy and has just now achieved a two-year high that remains below pre-pandemic levels. What began as a safety precaution has now turned into a game of tug-of-war between employers and employees.
Leaders are desperate to justify their office footprint, while employees want to continue having flexibility and choice over the days they are and aren’t in the office — and the latter is winning. This has forced occupants to be creative with their unused space.
One of the standout solutions? On-demand spaces, including coworking and other agile uses.
“On-demand uses are at the top of every conversation,” said Charlie Morris, leader of Avison Young’s U.S. Flexible Office Solutions (FOS) division.
“Whether it’s coworking space, agile space, spec suites—you need people to come into your building to understand what you’re delivering. The on-demand world, it’s low-risk, it’s easy transactional opportunities for the occupier community.”
Various platforms currently exist that market on-demand workspaces for a variety of needs, whether it’s a single desk or a meeting space for a larger team. However, tenants that want to sublease their space may not want to deal with the hassle and potential security issues of this arrangement, according to Morris.
Although scheduling out a shared use of the space could help alleviate some of the financial burden that companies with large office footprints are likely feeling, it would unsurprisingly require a lot of organization and planning.
“We’re starting to see people making that investment and leaning into the real estate problem of not giving it up, but using their footprint to try new connections that really push the workplace forward, not only for the day-to-day of staff but agents in public realms,” said Andy Lantz, the Co-CEO of architecture and design firm RIOS, which offers its Los Angeles office as a rentable space.
