There were shorter waits—if waits at all—for elevators in major urban area offices in June, a trend that Nick Romito, CEO of VTS, called “concerning” in a release this week about office activity.

Demand remains just shy of two-thirds of normal in some areas, according to a VTS Office Demand Index (VODI) analysis and “remote friendliness” continues to be a decisive factor.

Facebook parent company Meta has hit the pause button on the fit-out of its mammoth Fibonacci Square development in Dublin amid signs of a global tech slowdown and retrenchment of office space.

The U.S. tech giant, which owns both Facebook and Instagram, has taken a 25-year pre-let on two 360K SF office blocks being developed by Johnny Ronan on the site of the former AIB Bankcentre. Meta has agreed an annual rent of €22.5M on the development.

The last day of the workweek, once synonymous with long lunches and early departures, has increasingly become a day to skip the office altogether. The trend, which was already brewing before the pandemic, has become widely adopted, even codified, in recent months and is creating new challenges for employers.

 

Just 30 percent of office workers swiped into work on Fridays in June, the least of any weekday, according to Kastle Systems, which provides building security services for 2,600 buildings nationwide. That’s compared to 41 percent on Mondays, the day with the second-lowest turnout, and 50 percent on Tuesdays, when the biggest share of workers are in the office.

Google and Microsoft have slowed hiring and axed job listings as economic pressures bite.

Perhaps the greatest irony of the tedious home v office debate is that the absolutists on both sides rely on many of the same fallacies. They tend to build their arguments around a simplistic view of the office and remote work that has little basis in reality. Unsurprisingly, when they do get their way, reality often bites them in the arse.

Rory O’Hagan, director at Assael Architecture, shares why green is the new black in office design. Environmental concerns are now dominating the business agenda for real estate. Investors, occupiers and developers are all increasingly making sustainability and ESG top priorities.

It’s been more than 25 years since LEED was launched as the first green building standard and the landscape for these kinds of programs has expanded

Around three quarters of people think that so-called digital HQs are fundamental to making hybrid working a success, according to a new report from Slack. The study also claims to reveals how both virtual and in-person office etiquette has changed along with new workplace habits. The survey of over 1,000 UK office workers suggests that the majority (73 percent) believe hybrid working is ‘here to stay’ and 53 percent think businesses should operate on a digital-first approach. Spending more time at home is a must for most with over 3 in 5 (66 percent) likely to start looking for a new job if hybrid or remote working is not offered. Over two-thirds believing hybrid work has helped them with the cost of living crisis, with less being spent on transport and lunches.

The current debate about how much space we will need in the office from now on is not new. As with many of the debate’s facets, the point at which we find ourselves has long been our destination. We’re just here earlier than we might have expected.

The metaverse has the potential to play an increasing role commercial real estate.

The average US office listing rate hit $37.58 in June, falling 2.6% year-over-year, while the national vacancy rate ticked up 20 basis points over the same period to 15.2, according to CommercialEdge.

Charlotte was the top performing market for price growth for the fourth month in a row, logging a 15.% increase year over year to hit $33.45 per square foot. Miami also performed well, increasing by 8.4% year over year to $47.23 per square foot, while Boston posted a 12% year over year increase thanks primarily to the city’s life sciences sector. Boston is also the only market among those surveyed by CommercialEdge to boast an office vacancy rate below 10%

Workplaces look very different now than they did just a few years ago. Corporate occupiers have so much more design choices to pick from as they prime their spaces for the return-to-work push: a coffee shop ambiance, dynamic layouts with color-coded quiet zones, biophilic spaces, and even workplaces that look like libraries. With so many options, there’s no clear answer with what occupiers want their spaces to look like. But, what is becoming more and more consistent is that occupiers are wanting their landlords to spare them the headache of furnishing their workplaces.

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report Chicago’s central business district had 788,320 square feet of negative absorption in the second quarter, according to MB Real Estate. That’s up from the 589,058 sf of negative absorption posted in the first quarter.

The national office sector suffered from 7.8 million square feet of negative absorption during the second quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Over the past nine quarters, the national office market has had positive absorption only once. The driver for the negative trend has been new...

Allsteel Inc., announced that they have been chosen as the primary manufacturing partner by wilsonbauhaus, a Dallas, Texas-based full-service management company made up of a team of experts providing individually tailored workplace solutions.

CIS will continue to work with The Berg Group to make sure all existing clients are taken care of for the next year.

The self-storage sector was an unexpected victor after the pandemic. Ranking among the top performing asset classes in commercial real estate in 2021, self-storage racked up $10.9 billion in sales transactions, representing a 161% increase over 2020.