“The space is great, but is there a coffee bar and wine lounge?”
Look through a commercial real estate (CRE) industry publication or website these days, like Bisnow, The Commercial Observer, South Florida Business Journal, Real Estate Weekly, or The Real Deal, and you’ll see ad after ad touting available office space. We know, because we create a lot of those ads! That’s nothing new. But lately, one of the things you’ll notice about these ads is how many of them are promoting the variety and uniqueness of a building’s office amenities.
We work with many developers, commercial and residential. So we understand the importance of marketing amenities. But the practice of developing and marketing unique office amenities to potential commercial tenants has really been a recent trend – and it’s taking off like a rocket.
Office Amenities: Latest Trends
Today, it’s not unusual to see office buildings offering things like:
Buildings are creating office amenities to cater to every need, like this “marketplace”
Coffee bars
Wine lounges
Cafes
Game rooms
Outdoor courtyards
Outdoor terraces
Putting greens
Fitness centers
Yoga classes or studios
You can find all these and more at many office buildings in city and suburban locations in 2018.
So we were interested to find this article on Bisnow, from Transwestern’s Q1 2018 Insights enewsletter, titled Landlords Heed the Call for Amenities. You can find the full article here: http://bit.ly/2L25XwG – and it’s worth a read. But here are a few key takeaways:
Demand for Office Amenities in 2018
“Landlords are responding to increased demand for amenity-rich workplaces that help employers attract and retain talent. Many companies today must compete for skilled labor, and are making real estate decisions based on how well their leased space, the larger property and surrounding area will provide the kind of experiences that attract and retain workers.”
We’re seeing this more and more with our clients. One Midtown Manhattan client is leasing a building that features an entire 23,000 sf amenity floor, available for all tenants. This space features, among other amenities, a lounge, coffee bar, outdoor terrace, game room/entertainment center, and conference center/town hall. Consequently, the office amenities are a core component of our marketing plan for the space, to attract prospective tenants.
The old-fashioned pool table at work is a far cry from the types of office amenities landlords are offering these days
The Future for Office Amenities
“Demand for amenities in and around the workplace is likely to strengthen in coming years, predicts Michael Soto, Transwestern’s Research Manager for Southern California. That’s due to competition for labor, and because some office users are coming out of spaces operated by co-working providers, many of which offer beer taps, game rooms, eateries and other attractions for their tenants’ use.”
WeWork, IWG/Regus, Knotel. These co-working space companies and providers are raising the bar and changing the landscape when it comes to office amenities. As a result, expectations are higher. Landlords seek to compete with these providers and to appeal to office users and prospective tenants who expect such amenities.
It will be interesting to see how things change in the days ahead. Landlords and developers are only going to get more competitive and innovative with their office amenity offerings! What’s the wildest office amenity you know about? We are interested to hear! Thanks to Transwestern for this informative article.
This might be a bit extreme: an office sliding board? But there’s no telling what developers might come up with next to attract tenants & top talent!
Transwestern is a privately held real estate firm of collaborative entrepreneurs who specialize in Agency Leasing, Tenant Advisory, Capital Markets, Asset Services and Research. Based in Houston, Transwestern has 35 U.S. offices and assists clients through more than 180 offices in 37 countries as part of a strategic alliance with BNP Paribas Real Estate.