In case you weren’t aware I have been writing and publishing a newsletter, Corporate Office Perspectives, for the past 43 years and it goes out to tens of thousands of subscribers every other month. If you would like a free subscription just go to www.officetimes.com to sign up. In my February 2020 was the…Read More→

In a survey of 150 C-suite executives conducted by the firm West Monroe, 29% are considering relocating their operations out of state or out of the country due to the high cost of living and high tax burdens. The top relocation is Texas, and the largest region of where these companies will be relocated from…Read More→

A number of the major fast food restaurants are coming out with new store designs, emphasizing drive-through and take out, and in some cases eliminating the dining option entirely. Burger King has two new concepts, one with three drive-through lanes, one dedicated to delivery drivers, and a parking lot where customers can order through their…Read More→

  Colliers just completed a study Implications of COVID-19 on the Workplace with data from more than 5,000 global respondents.  76% reported same or improved levels of productivity. 74% felt connected to their team even though not physically with them  67% experienced improvement in work-life balance, and 83% wanted to work from home at least…Read More→

  Cynthia Milota of Ware Malcomb and Sally Augustin, Design With Science, wrote an article for Corenet Global discussing working from home vs returning to the office. “Organizations are re-imagining their mobility profiles. W1ill they be remote first with come in-office presence, or will the model largely be in-office first while allowing for remote work?…Read More→

  This was  the headline of a Bisnow report from a few days ago, citing 42 million square feet of new subleases hitting the market with 73 U.S. markets reporting negative absorption. Then the next day the Colliers ‘Disruption 2020: Office Sublease Continues To Rise, reporting that sublease space is 30 million higher than it…Read More→

One idea is, using your exclusive tenant rep broker, to go after office subleases that might be much larger than your initial requirement but can accommodate your growth longer-term, and then make aggressive offers (yes, I know this will irritate some listing  agents) 50% or even 25% of asking…in today’s market there may be Sub-landlords…Read More→

I’ve been researching just how safe elevators are during a pandemic, and while the risk factor might be low, you are still better off not having to ride in one. Is the cab small, limited to just one or two people, or  is it a larger elevator cab that can hold 4 standing 6 feet…Read More→

Maya Donnon, Sven Schroeter of KSS Architects (among other co-authors) in a Corenet Global article titled ‘Why Workplace’ discuss the paradox corporate America is going through. They cite Facebook who has committed remote work as a permanent option for its employees while at the same time committing to millions of feet of new office space….Read More→

BISNOW Oct. 30, 2020 reports that real estate companies think they’ll need less office space. “More than any other industry, real estate has a vested interest in making sure office occupiers don’t cut their real estate footprint. Office is the largest of the real estate asset classes, and a reduction in demand would lead to…Read More→

According to the East Bay Times, “At least 1 in 5 residents in high-priced cities say they have already moved or expect to – a possible harbinger of significant change in the Bay Area. This is the biggest, fastest transformation of how we work since World War II” said Adam Ozemik, chief economist at Upwork….Read More→

At a recent SIOR National Conference I heard of Amazon 3-5 story 70’ clear warehouses, 3-story warehouses for high-valued land, last mile, using steel supports and costing three times the normal cost of a warehouse, and one of the largest warehouse developers in the world said we had a demand for 400 million square feet…Read More→

  Stephen Newbold, National Director of Office Research for Colliers International reported that in Q3 of 2020 the United States experienced 33.5 million sf of negative absorption and office subleases in the US hit a record at 168.8 million sf. This is more distressing than we experienced during the Great Recession. The bad news was…Read More→

  A number of large office users have delayed the return to their offices until mid-2021, while others have told their employees they can work remotely permanently. Facebook and other major players have allowed their employees to relocate to lower-cost regions, some taking a pay cut but still saving substantially over their previous San Francisco…Read More→

The downtown San Jose Google 79-acre development currently in planning stages will have 5,900 residential ‘dwelling units’, 500,000 square feet of retail stores, restaurants and cultural buildings, and 7.3 million square feet of office space. In the old days this might translate to 35-45,000 employees, and after Covid is gone may again be at this…Read More→

  Office subleases are hitting the markets bigtime, from New York to San Francisco, Boston, Houston and many other major markets. Millions of square feet of excess space, with millions more expected to follow. Companies are finding that they can not only survive with working from home, many are thriving, despite the absence of corporate…Read More→

Bloomberg News reported September 25, 2020 that Deutsche Bank AG is considering a hybrid model of allowing staff to split work between office and home, although a Morgan Chase spokesperson warned that staff productivity might slip if they work remotely too long, and a UBS Group spokesperson commented that working from home makes it harder…Read More→

  A report just out by the California Economic Forecast predicts more doom and gloom than I would have liked to have read. “The economy however is not back to the pre-crisis status. During most of Calendar 2020 and in much of the first half of 2021, ongoing economic restrictions will have resulted in millions…Read More→

  Something for employers to caution employees who are thinking of moving to a lower-cost state but continuing to work remotely. In an article in the New York Times, there are some states that will tax your income based on where you did the work, and others based on your residence, and it is possible…Read More→

Rich Commercial Realty in Raleigh, North Carolina recently had a survey of thousands of their clients, vendors and contacts asking about the current usage of office space. 69% reported currently occupying their space, and those who hadn’t and asked when, 25% said the next three months, 13% said the next six months, and 62% weren’t…Read More→

On the day Pinterest announced paying $89.5 million dollars to cancel a 490,000 square foot office lease they had previously signed for a project that was going to be built in San Francisco’s South of Market, due to a change of where employees would be located, developer Jay Paul announced it is going ahead with…Read More→

San Francisco now has an estimated 6.5 million square feet of office sublease space. Direct Class A rents are still among the highest in the country, averaging $84 an annual square foot, but Class B rates are now in the $50-60/rsf range. In the Bay Area several companies have announced they will relocate their headquarters…Read More→

There has been a lot of hype on the world getting a vaccine in late 2020, or early 2021, after which life will hopefully return to normal. However the announcement by one of the smartest and largest corporations in the world, Google, that they will let employees work from home until at least July 2021…Read More→

www.bisnow.com reported today that New York City brokers do not feel very confident in the current and future state of the real estate market, and in a Real Estate Board of New York Broker Confidence report released yesterday averaged 1.94 out of 10 this quarter. “In their general written comments about the market, brokers cited…Read More→

In an article today in GlobeSt.com, a recent survey by Gensler found that only 12% of workers want to work full-time from home and 70% said they want to spend most of their week in the office. “Meetings, socializing and impromptu face-to-face interactions with colleagues were ranked as the top reasons people wanted to head…Read More→

Reported in TechCrunch this past week: 63% of the startups surveyed by Founders Forum with Tech Crunch said they would re-open in 1-3 or 3-6 months, regardless of when the government told them it was safe to do so. A small number have re-opened their offices, 10% have closed their offices permanently and many said…Read More→

Triple-net real estate investment owners often take a lower rate of return, sometimes in the 5-7% annual range, with increases every five years, long 20-30 year leases, credit tenants or strong franchises just to protect their investment. Many of these investments are absolute triple-net, which covers the owner.  If a hurricane tears down the building…Read More→

Real Capital Analytics, which tracks national commercial real estate sales, reported on June 25, 2020 that May sales volume was down 79% year over year.  Industrial was the best performer category (only down 70%), office volumes were down 82% and apartments were down 81%. Retail dropped 83%, and all of the above looked comparatively strong…Read More→

There have been a number of reports, both regionally as well as nationally, that predict corporations will begin leasing suburban office space to accomplish several goals. First, they need to increase employee separation during the pandemic, and it is much cheaper to lease space in the suburbs to accomplish this. Secondly, companies that are above…Read More→

In National Real Estate Investor June 2020 Elaine Misonzhnik writes on page 3, “The virus might be with us indefinitely. (The World Health Organization has predicted it might take up to five years to get it under control.) And to declare the end of cities, decide that everyone should work and learn from home permanently…Read More→

Apartment rent collections nationwide which were in the 90+% range the past few months appears to have sunk to the 82% level. Retail rent collections reported in the 25% range. At some point this will impact the banking and financial sectors when landlords cannot pay their mortgages without sufficient rents coming in. Will this lead…Read More→

According to Bloomberg News April 1, 2020, WeWork is asking landlords to cuts its rent by 30%, in some cases offering revenue-sharing agreements. Early indications are landlords are reluctant. As of June 30, 2019, WeWork is on the hook for $47 billion in lease liabilities.

Greg Kraut, the co-founder and CEO of New York-based KPG Funds, in Commercial Observer April 2, 202, stated ‘The commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market has essentially collapsed and the broader $20 trillion commercial real estate market is on the verge of collapse as well. We still have time to prevent this catastrophic event, but we need…Read More→

“declining oil prices hurting the Russian and Middle-Eastern zillionaires”

Concord Weapons Station Reuse Project City of Walnut Creek New Developments City of San Ramon Current Project List Colliers Retail Report Fall/Winter 2019 Colliers Oakland Office Report Q3 2019 Colliers Oakland Industrial Report Q3 2019 Colliers San Francisco – Peninsula Report Q3 2019 Colliers Pleasanton – Tri-Valley Industrial Report Q3 2019 Colliers Pleasanton – Tri-Valley…Read More→

Bloomberg News Banks around the world are unveiling the biggest round of job cuts in four years as they slash costs to weather a slowing economy and adapt to digital technology. The 2019 cuts bring the total for the last six years to more than 425,000. In fact, the actual amount is probably higher because…Read More→

CNBC today announced that WeWork lost $1.25 Billion in the third quarter on revenue of $934 million. Its occupancy decreased to 79% as the company added 115,000 desks. If there is just the slightest downturn in the US economy, companies that have flexible rental agreements in WeWork facilities may exacerbate their predicament.

In National Real Estate Investor, July 12019, there was a report on the biggest flex office space markets in the country, with Regus and WeWork dominating.  Manhattan reported 13.5 million square feet with 30% annual growth, Los Angeles, 4.2 million with 15% annual growth, and in 6th place San Francisco with 2.8 million feet and…Read More→

Is the economic downturn on its way?  In the National Real Estate Investor, July, 2019 there were a number of different articles written by different authors but all pointing in the same direction for 2020 – down… Elaine Misonzhnik started it off on page 6, discussing industrial real estate “…while e-commerce growth will continue to…Read More→

Again and again, companies that can choose to locate to regions where there is plenty of low-cost office and research space, and where the cost of a new house is ridiculously cheap (i.e. under $250,000 for a decent home in a decent neighborhood) companies still choose to locate in the Bay.  Autonomous vehicle firm Aurora…Read More→

Governor Gavin Newsom “recently criticized Tennessee, which is an increasingly popular destination for Bay Area businesses and residents.  “I see that we’re CEO magazines ‘worst place in America to do business’ and yet our GDP growth outperforms every one of those other states they highlight,” Newsome said, citing California’s strong economic growth averaging 3.8% in…Read More→

The first inside page of the May/June 2019 Business Facilities magazine was an ad for Michigan Economic, “The startup culture in Michigan is like no other.”  For sure, if you want very affordable housing, which according to Zillow, the median rent price is $850 and median home sales is $350,000.  Here in the overpriced and…Read More→

In an article titled “Wealthy Millennials are leaving these states – and moving to these instead,” I had fully expected to see California at the top of the list of states folks were fleeing from, but was surprised!  Based on data provided by the IRS from the 2015 to 2016 tax year, a June 2019…Read More→

One more blog about governments offering huge economic incentives, tax breaks and subsidies to entice corporations to set up shop in their region. Yes, there can be “clawback” provisions whereby if the promised economic benefits of new jobs and increased economic prosperity do not occur, the company has to give back part or all of…Read More→

by Odette Pollar Time Management Systems Question: I am going to start a business from my home, but I am worried about being taken seriously by my customers. Answer: More and more people are working from home and hence it does not carry the same stigma it once did. Before going “official”, particularly in a condominium…Read More→