Recent surveys have supported allowing pets in the office will increase workers returning to the office. about 71% of employees said their employer made changes to its workplace pet policies within the last year. Those sorts of changes can help employee retention and satisfaction, with about 86% of employees surveyed saying they would look forward…Read More→

An article in the San Francisco Business Times today listed the three main factors impacting the return to the office. #1, Covid uncertainty…companies have announced, tehn cancelled, then announced again only to cancel again plans to bring employees back to the office. “Experts say they fully expect additional variants to follow Omicron, which is keeping…Read More→

  Yesterday Slack’s CEO called ‘Return to Work a Doomed Approach’ and put 208,000 square feet of space on the San Francisco sublet market. The SF Registry reported on Slack, “Communication software firm Slack has decided that the future of work is not necessarily in the office and has placed 208,460 square feet of space…Read More→

The overall office vacancy rate for the I-680 Corridor is around 20%, with Class A Downtown Walnut Creek at 25%, the Pleasant Hill/Walnut Creek Bart region at 30%, while smaller markets like Alamo/Danville are closer to 10%. Cushman Wakefield just reported “The Class A office vacancy rate in Oakland’s core business district reached a historic…Read More→

  This is my 45th year representing corporations in the sale and leasing of Northern California office space. I may be sticking my neck out, but that is the privilege I have in writing this blog. I believe that we are finally at the low point in the office leasing cycle, and that while we…Read More→

The relative good news is the vacancy increases in the office sector is slowing. The U.S. office vacancy rate rose for the sixth consecutive quarter in Q2 2021.  Asking rates for the most part are holding firm but concessions have increased, meaning effective rents have dropped. According to a recently released Colliers report, “Combined net…Read More→

A Colliers report just out compares what the ‘normal’ office sublease prior to the Covid crisis was averaging 110 million square feet and now is almost double that at 208 millions square feet. Sublease asking rents are an average of 26.7% below direct space. San Francisco currently has 8.8% of its office market for sublease….Read More→

“According to a new survey of more than 500 Chicagoland brokers, investors, corporate real estate executives and others by the Real Estate Center at DePaul University, 56% said they think office users should be fully vaccinated before returning.”  Bisnow August 10, 2021.  Because the survey was taking in June, well before the Delta Variant began…Read More→

The national average office space vacancy rate increased by a half-point to 14.7%, with Central Idaho at the low end with 2.1% vacancy and Houston at the top with 22.5% vacancy. San Francisco is in the middle at 13.1%.  Suburban office vacancy is about the same, at 14.8%, as compared to Central Business District vacancy…Read More→