By Kirk Garza, Valarie Bradley and Caleb Snow of Popp Hutcheson PLLC With property taxes comprising a significant portion of the real estate operating budget at most companies, both tenants and landlords need to understand how trends sparked by COVID-19 can impact their property tax valuations. The pandemic has spurred governments to impose unprecedented restrictions on office capacity and fueled widespread uncertainty among companies that own or lease office space. Organizations are asking if, when and how they will use their offices in the months ahead and are scrutinizing expenses to reduce costs. Many businesses are reevaluating their space requirements after adopting work-from-home initiatives, while greater familiarity with Zoom and other applications that support remote training and online collaboration has firms reconsidering their ongoing need for conference or meeting space. It is essential for real estate decision makers to monitor the effects of such trends on taxable property values. Office Demand Evolves In the early 1990s, it was common for companies to occupy 350 square feet of office space per person. This requirement changed as some businesses sought to maximize density and encourage collaboration. In a COVID-19 world where social distancing precludes density, many companies are limiting the number of …
By Nora Hogan, SIOR, principal at Transwestern The immediate future of the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) office leasing market is an enigma. Real estate professionals believe we are near the top of a V-shaped recovery curve. However, many tenants disagree and are being cautious about their office leasing decisions. Due to the pandemic, tenants became innovative in providing ways to service their customers. They have learned they can operate, survive and even excel under the current business environment, and thus are delaying their lease decisions. Tenants are learning which employees can work productively without the boundaries of the office. The million-dollar question is whether or not this partial work-from-home model is sustainable. Some employers think not, while others are betting that it has staying power and have placed either all or a portion of their office space on the sublease market. Today, sublease space in DFW represents 15 percent of the total vacant square footage. This percentage is higher than the volume of sublease space that the market posted during the dot-com recession of 2002. Currently the total sublease square footage is 9.5 million, which is almost identical to the December 2002 sublease inventory peak. The difference is that in 2002, …
By Addison Fairchild, Baird Holm At its onset nearly nine months ago, the novel coronavirus forced federal, state and local leaders to consider measures necessary to prevent the virus’s inevitable spread. Those leaders imposed measures they calculated to balance minimizing the spread and harm of coronavirus to the national and local economies. Whether those measures were effective in achieving those goals is a question for another day. However, now that coronavirus is currently a part of daily life, businesses have been considering what measures they must take. Like political leaders, they must also consider balancing the potential liability they may face for the spread of the coronavirus or other illness, the harm to their patrons and clients, and the harm to their bottom lines. Commercial landlords are not exempt from considering the coronavirus or other pandemics in future leasing. It is unlikely a court would find a commercial landlord liable for the spread of a pandemic in their leased properties, except in rare circumstances. However, tenants may require landlords to provide upgrades to properties to ensure the safety of the leased premises. This article considers whether landlords may be liable for the spread of a pandemic in their leased premises. …
By Brendan Carroll, research director, Cushman & Wakefield Through the first three quarters of 2020, the Boston life sciences market is seeing record occupancy, a continuation of large new-building leases, stable rents at record levels, high levels of pre-committed new construction and an insatiable appetite for inventory in new submarket clusters. Cushman & Wakefield defines laboratory properties as facilities optimized for the physical scientific research of biotechnology products. COVID-19’s Impact Following a pause of leasing activity in the first quarter of 2020, lease negotiations for laboratory facilities resumed quickly in the second quarter, hitting a level that commercial office properties have still yet to see. While optimism quickly returned for the region’s office-using businesses, widespread execution of remote office-using job functions has proven to be more effective for many of these workforces than market leaders previously envisioned. The consensus among real estate observers suggests a long-term decrease in the percent of in-office workers for traditional office-using functions. However, the importance of the continued use of physical spaces for biotechnology research will not be affected, as this function cannot be accommodated through current and easily envisioned remote work practices. These are highly specialized jobs performed by employees with highly targeted skill …
By Brandon Wappelhorst, Sansone Group In nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives, 2020 could unequivocally be summarized as certainly uncertain. The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the world and has caused significant disruption to everyday life. While likely further down the list of today’s topical issues, the overall effect of COVID-19 on the office market in St. Louis is still to be determined — but it will undoubtedly have an impact. Over the last few years, the commercial real estate market in St. Louis, much like the rest of the country, had been riding a wave of economic success. Demand for office space was high and the region was experiencing record-low vacancy rates, increasing rental rates, positive absorption, increased volume of office sale transactions and new buildings coming out of the ground. Construction of Edge@West, a 110,000-square-foot office building in Creve Coeur, began in late 2019 after a lease was signed with lead tenant SM Global. Breaking ground at less than 25 percent pre-leased was indicative of the strength of the office market at the time. Clayton, the strongest submarket in the St. Louis metro area, also saw the beginnings of …
By Tom Weitzel, managing director, JLL The Philadelphia office market at the moment is running in place, which is to say that there is certainly energy being expended, but it is going nowhere fast. Tenants and landlords alike are partnering with real estate experts to navigate this challenging time. However, while office users evaluate businesses and study workforces, the benefit of making a decision has not yet outweighed the downside of making a wrong decision, so most users are adopting a “wait-and-see” approach. Tenant Perspective Tenants are finding it challenging to make long-term decisions about their office spaces given the lack of clarity in the future. Business leaders and executives are tasked with considering factors such as health and safety, productivity, profitability and overall employee morale on a daily basis as they evaluate their physical office space usage during COVID-19. Throughout the region, executives continue to balance health and safety concerns with operational needs as they advance office re-entry plans. They are also assessing the current productivity of their employees compared to that at the beginning of the pandemic. Many companies that we have spoken with have cited declining productivity and creativity from their employees. At the same time, these …
By Garrett Keais In my 25 years in commercial real estate, I’ve never seen the economy — and our industry — come to a standstill the way it did this spring after the coronavirus hit. With so much uncertainty in the market, Detroit’s office sales and leasing activity slowed considerably. But as the last decade has shown us, if ever there was a city that could take a punch and get back up swinging, it’s Detroit. Comeback before the virus Fueled by a strong economy and low unemployment, America’s “Comeback City” was posting first-quarter 2020 office vacancy rates as low as 7 percent in one central submarket, according to Cushman & Wakefield research, and seeing rising property values and rents before the coronavirus hit. It was a striking change from a decade earlier, when the Detroit area was struggling after the Great Recession. Unemployment was 3.7 percent in February 2020, compared with 17.2 percent in June 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The city’s GDP had climbed steadily over those years. Tech giants like Quicken, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Amazon moved to the city’s central business district, boosting downtown office occupancy and helping to diversify the local …
By Cody Payne, senior vice president, Colliers International. As strong job growth over the past decade has brought more and more investors to Texas, many of these buyers have looked to office product due to the appealing going-in returns that the property type offers. In addition, many cross-product owners look at office investing to make higher returns outside of their current portfolios. As buyers look toward the office market, there are many factors that need to be considered before making an informed decision. Along with these basic considerations, the impacts of COVID-19 on real estate investing are also important to understand when looking at an office deal. The Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) market in particular has experienced an influx of cross-product buyers from other asset types such as retail, multifamily and self-storage during this cycle. The higher rate of return is the primary catalyst behind their motivation to purchase office investments. All asset classes are different and so are their opportunities, whether immediate or long-term. Understanding what sets office apart from other types of commercial investments is key to a successful operating strategy. Hidden Costs of Ownership One important factor to consider when buying office properties is that there are many …
By Jeffrey A. Tinker, partner, Bell Nunnally LLP Amenities often play an outsized role in influencing companies’ decision on where to lease office space. In the not-so-distant past before COVID-19 came along, open, spacious common areas were the most desirable. The music played in those common areas could not only increase customer satisfaction, but also accentuate a building’s vibe and environment. However, music from sound systems and televisions in public spaces like lobbies and elevators is subject to copyright licensing requirements. In general, a license from Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) is required for public performances of music from sources other than over-the-air radio (on a limited number of speakers) or subscription music services like Spotify Business, Apple Music for Business or Mood Media. As businesses reopen, common areas are being modified or even removed in order to comply with government mandates and provide peace of mind to their customers. As common areas disappear, the public performance of music in those areas will also disappear. The following is a brief overview of the licensing requirements to keep in mind as you plan ahead. Office Music 101 A PRO is an organization that grants, administers and enforces public performance licenses on behalf …
It’s still too early to pinpoint how long and how severe the disruption caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, will be to the major office markets of Texas. But brokers in Dallas, Houston and Austin are already seeing their markets display short-term adjustments with regard to deal velocity and structure. As commercial brokers know all too well, every deal is different. Companies are making decisions on whether to delay or pursue office lease consolidations, renewals or expansions based on their unique cash-flow situations, sales outlooks and current positions in their business cycles. In addition, because many office-using jobs don’t qualify as essential services, the uncertainty about how long employees will have to continue to shelter in place and work from home is leading many companies to reassess their short-term needs in terms of size, location and density. Lastly, there are the office users whose businesses have already been walloped by reduced consumer spending. For these companies, decisions about future leasing activity may very well be taking a backseat to a more pressing short-term need to escape an existing lease with minimal bloodshed. Office brokers have their hands full addressing the unexpected and unforeseen …