Companies in the Valley are slowly beginning to reopen. While some are sticking to the work from home model, many are returning to a coworking or open office model, which may be good for workplace efficiency but very tough to manage during the pandemic.
Coworking space makes up a quarter of all new office space — and was expected to be 30 % of all office space by 2030 — according to property management company JLL. At least, that was the projection before the pandemic.
Mark Stapp is the executive director of W.P. Carey’s Master of Real Estate Program at ASU.
“Building owners and employers didn’t ever think of themselves as being in the business of disease prevention and wellness. And now they find themselves faced with those very issues,” he said.
He says in order to get employees to come back to work and to get the space rented, the open concept now needs dividers in order for employees to feel healthy.
“You go in and you adapt by having touchless surfaces, touchless door openings, touchless faucets, lights, etc. Then you’ve got to accommodate social distancing, spacing. It’s expensive,” he said.
He says flex spaces tend to be obsolete very quickly. And with far fewer tenants in these spaces, there’s a lot less rental income. Flex space company, WeWork, announced a 20% sales drop in August.
Outside of coworking, warehouse and distribution space are still in high demand, according to the latest Phoenix-based report from JLL.
