At a recent SIOR National Conference a few tidbits on the future of office usage in the United States. There appears to be long-term significant compression of how much office space a number of major corporations are planning for. An overall 25% reduction in office usage due to long-term partial remote workers not needing to…Read More→

Issue 242 The corporate consensus that I am hearing and reading is that by mid-2022 business and humanity will begin towards a new normal, while tens and hundreds of millions of folks will be taking their first and second rounds of vaccination. Most of us will still be wearing masks and socially distancing. There will…Read More→

The WELL Building Standard “is the first rating system to focus exclusively on how Buildings impact human health.” It is now in the process of preparing aWellv2 which will incorporate guidelines needed due to the coronavirus. “The prevention of infectious diseases hadn’t been given nearly as much weight as providing occupants with light, fresh air…Read More→

Issue 241 I’ve been on many, many networking events, broker panels, institutional investor groups, meetings with architects & with engineers, Zoom programs, etc. over the past 90 days.  This has given me a fairly good feeling of what is going on nationally as well as locally with corporate America, office space, office buildings, commercial real…Read More→

In a report just out July 27, 2020 by Green Streeet Advisors, the prediction is that as a result of the successes in corporations working from home office demand in developed economies will drop 10% to 15%. “There is increasing evidence that companies will allow, indeed encourage, employees to work from home more regularly than…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→

San Francisco has over 4.5 million square feet of available office space for sublease, and some brokers are predicting that this may cause direct office space rents to drop by as much as 10-20%. The Covid-19 is not the only reason for this spike in available space. There were a number of new office projects…Read More→

The U.S. Economy had trillions of dollars in stimulus money pumped in,  but unemployment continues to rise and with PPP loans beginning to run dry, businesses are increasingly challenged to survive this pandemic. Local governments are laying off staff as budgets turn inside down, and with projected tax revenues for below what governments had planned…Read More→

“By 2021, a new blended workforce will emerge with 20-30% of people working remotely 2-3 days a week.”  Employees and clients must feel confident that management is making safety a priority.  Buildings will be increasing automated and touchless, with physical distancing, space utilization apps and health and safety protocols. Remote working will be part of…Read More→

Reported in Fox News, June 22, 2020, real estate entrepreneur Don Pebbles predicted New York based companies are likely to reduce their brick-and-mortar office space in favor of remote working. ”What happened with COVID-19 is, it accelerated nationally…because it compelled most Americans, certainly office workers, to work remotely. What business owners, entrepreneurs, and CEO’s found…Read More→

June 1, 2020                                                                               Issue: 240  This Issue #240 marks the 40th year of publication, every other month without an issue missed, and thank you so much for taking the time to read this! I’ve been contacting scores of corporate decision-makers, managing partners of CPA, law and financial planning firms, and watching or participating in dozens…Read More→

On April 24, 2020 CoStar News had projections by Abby Corbett, their senior economist. In a moderate downside forecast, 50 million square feet of retail space will shut down and it will take seven quarters to return. A less-optimistic forecast sees 128 million square feet of retail in the U.S going dark, taking four years…Read More→

The other day I attended an excellent Zoom meeting and here are the highlights. A number of California counties are using e-recording while their offices are closed to the public. The original documents must be in the escrow officer hands while the documents for recording are transmitted electronically. Submissions are routinely kicked back if the…Read More→

Colliers just published a report where they believe there will be minimal impact on the office tenants and the office market. CBRE came out with another report that said it may take a year after the economy rebounds for the commercial real estate market to get back to normal. Globest.com had an interesting article where most…Read More→

According to a new McKinesey & Co report, the pandemic will force commercial real estate to make significant structural changes. Open office layout and densification trends may reverse, and there may be changes in building codes and regulations relating to how many square feet each employee is allotted. CRE companies may intensify a move toward…Read More→

Yesterday I was on a webinar with Larry Heard, CEO, and Chip Clarke, President and here are the highlights…the office industry will come out of this COVID-19 fine, but there will be a period of transition and adjustment. It won’t be business as usual. Working from home seemed to turn out fine for many of us, but…Read More→

Bisnow April 8, 2020 reports that 22.7 million of the 45.8 million total rental units are owned by mom-and-pop individual investors and many of these use their tenants rent to pay their property taxes and mortgages. If they don’t’ have Freddie or Fannie loans, without Federal assistance in mandating the lenders give owners some type…Read More→

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→

The International WELL Building Institute is about to publish an updated health and wellness standards report on March 13, 2020, when the Coronavirus turned our world upside down. They are now working on a new set of standards including combating future pandemics in the workplace. The Well Building Standard addressed the health and wellness of…Read More→

Issue 239 Preface:   The world in just the past few weeks feels like it has turned upside down. I usually write this newsletter two to four weeks in advance so most of the material while still relevant seems a bit distant. The near total shutdown of California last week and hopefully by now the…Read More→

UCLA economists suggest that the uncertainty of the pandemic may lead to 10-20% reductions overall in the value of commercial real estate. My opinion is triple net investments with high credit tenants might escape this but retail strip centers, multi-tenant office buildings, free standing retail with less than stellar credit, and even the sought after…Read More→

California’s statewide “Shelter in Place” orders could shutdown 28 percent of the job market. It’s an astounding situation that has virtually no comparable precedent. We’re talking about 5 million jobs across 400,000 firms, a scenario that dwarfs the 2008-2009 recession when the state lost 1.1 million jobs over the course of 18 months. The corona…Read More→

Most of the county recording offices throughout California and perhaps the entire country are closed to the public. Some are working through digital sites, others have drop boxes where documents left are supposedly picked up daily but the overall impact on commercial property sale ABA financing has been severe. With city offices closed in many…Read More→

The world in just the past few weeks feels like it has turned upside down. The near total shutdown of California last week and hopefully by now the rest of the United States will have a staggering economic impact. With so many small businesses closed a number may never reopen. With brick and mortar retail…Read More→

I was reading in Business Facilities Magazine January/February 2020 about Uber leasing 168,000 square feet in Dallas and expand into 450,000 square feet in three years when the second office tower is completed. I thought, darn, we lost another expansion that went to a lower cost area,  but then on the same day Google announced…Read More→

Netflix’s new 13 story Los Angeles office building will have solar panels integrated into the building’s envelope to generate renewable energy. It will also feature 25,000 square feeet of communal outdoor space, a landing pad and mailroom for drones, and electric car charging stations.

Fifteen Fifty, a 40 story aparment house just being completed in San Francisco at the intersection of Van Ness and Mission, with 550-units and amenities including a dog washing station and 5,600 square foot dog park on the fifth floor, saw construction prices go up 45% since its conception six years ago. As a result,…Read More→

Penumbra, a global healthcare company, signed a 126,700 square foot 15-year lease at 1310 Harbor Bay Parkway in Alameda, and Exelixis did a deal for a 220,000 square foot expansion of its Alameda headquarters at 1951 Harbor bay Parkway.

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→

Major companies continue their expansion in the Bay Area, and for every firm that relocates out of the area there are plenty of companies ready to fill their space. Today AirBnB just announced it leased 301,000 square feet of office space 4301 and 4401 Great America Parkway in Santa Clara, as one recent example

There are office landlords out in the suburbs who are beginning to resist spending the humungous amounts of office tenant improvements some tenants are demanding, especially for five year lease terms, Tenant improvements that just five years ago may have come in at $25-35/rsf are now pricing at $50-60/rsf. With some of the suburban submarket…Read More→

By 2040, the entire Bay Area is expected to add an additional 2.1 million people to the region, but building additional housing remains a tough sell.

Lisa Picard, CEO of EQ Office, describes co-working spaces as “the three F’s…fast, flexible and fun.”  WeWork has introduced WeLive, a co-living concept with existing facilities.  RISE by We, a gym and super-spa concept, and WeGrow, a kindergarten program for children ages two through five at $36,000 annually, per child. (Ouch!)  “New co-working operators tend…Read More→

“Of the Bay Area residents who are still here, nearly half of those surveyed recently said they plan to move out of the region in the next few years, according to a poll released in June by the Bay Area Council.” (Bay Area News Group, July 15, 2018) Folks are leaving in droves, selling their…Read More→

MB Contract Furniture Trevor Williams 1001 Galaxy Way, Ste 100, Concord, Ca 94520 (925) 391-2446 https://bayareaofficefurniture.com/?ref=mbcf.com

Creative Supports Stephen Wold, Vice President 5729 Sonoma Dr. Suite K, Livermore, Ca 94550 (925) 785-3205 office@creativesupports.com https://www.creativesupports.com/

Contract Office Group 220 Montgomery Ste 975, San Francisco, Ca (408) 213-1790 webmaster@cog.com https://www.cog.com/

I recently wrote an article titled “The East Bay office market is in balance (temporarily)” published in the May 12, 2006 East Bay Business Times www.officetimes.com/EBOfficeMarket.htm. In general, throughout not just the East Bay, but much of the Bay Area, both office landlords and tenants feel the market is in their favor. Landlords point to…Read More→

At the 27th Annual Convention and Expo of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, the Chief economist of the National Association of Realtors stated that during the past five years 350,000 jobs have been created in the San Francisco – Oakland metro area and another 200,000 jobs were created in the San Jose metro area….Read More→

Past SIOR President Geoffrey Kasselman predicts that office space may one day be occupied 24/7, and there are major users “that may rhyme with Zamazon and Zoogle that are trying to negotiate with large-portfolio commercial landlords now — they want a landing pad on the top of their buildings so they can recharge the drone…Read More→

Office furniture types and materials are changing as worker flexibility and allowing different employees to work anywhere increases. In the “old” days of private offices and dedicated workstations it was one employee sitting for years in the same chair at the same desk surface. Now workers want (or need) height adjustability, changing stations, laptop docks,…Read More→