It is doubtless a positive to see that the DIRTT Environmental Solutions Ltd.  share price has gained some 107% in the last three months. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last half decade have been stomach churning. Five years have seen the share price descend precipitously, down a full 83%. While the recent increase might be a green shoot, we're certainly hesitant to rejoice. 

Manhattan, Boston and Atlanta lead the way for office space under construction, according to a new report from CommercialCafe, with more than 10 million square feet on track to deliver in each city in the near future.

Austin snagged the #3 spot on the list, with roughly 7.7 million square feet in the pipeline, followed by Dallas with 7.5 million square feet and the Bay Area, San Francisco, Seattle; and Washington, D.C. all trailing with more than 5 million square feet of office space in their respective pipelines.

In 2022, Q4 proved a diving platform for tech office usage. Leasing dropped by 57% from activity the previous quarter, according to Savills’ Q4 Tech Tenant report. Large layoffs have been loudly in the news. According to the site Layoffs.fyi, there were 159,756 tech layoffs across 1044 companies during the entirety of 2022. In the small part of 2023 that has taken place, 326 companies laid off 98,100 — 61% of last year’s total.

But, as always, the danger of averages and national performance is that it’s easy to miss how things vary locally and where conditions are better or worse.

The office may-finally-be coming back. Look no further than big city workers for proof. Working from home has been more common in major metro areas than in smaller cities and towns since the pandemic started. But that trend has been declining since early 2023, finds the latest installment of WFH Research published in the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Office visits remain about 60% of what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis from Placer.ai.

It’s a continuation of a trend the firm observed in both Q3 ad Q4. In January, the year-over-three-year (Yo3Y) visit gap, which had narrowed somewhat in December 2022 to 38.3%, pushed back up to 40.2%.

A new analysis by Trepp and CompStak raises the question of whether the office segment of CRE is facing a now-cliched perfect storm metaphor. The three dangers that could unite are office loan maturities, large lease expirations, and low space demand.

Said another way, it comes down to inflation and the end of easy money, worry about corporate financial performance, and the desire of working people to control more of their lives.

Firms that are confident of their business model and understand how to balance in-person and remote work knew that 2022 presented a market opportunity for aggressive transactions in office space, according to Mary Ann Tighe, CEO, CBRE New York Tri-State.

“In the midst of uncertainly, those firms saw an opportunity and seized it,” she said.

According to the 2023 Global Coworking Space Market, the industry is projected to hit a whopping $5.0150 billion by 2028, boasting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% in the five years between 2023 and 2028.

A brand-new report from CBRE revealed that technology companies lost ground to finance and insurance industries in 2022 for the biggest percentage of the top 100 U.S. office leases. Twenty five of the top 100 leases last year were with financial and insurance organizations, which are currently geared to more than quadruple the share they held in 2021. The finance and insurance industry now represents nearly a quarter (7.4 million square feet) of the top 100’s total square footage. New leases made up 60 percent of the total for the financial and insurance sector, largely in the Northeast.

It might seem rather new age-y to think that we have to be in the right mood to work (our grandparents didn’t need to be in the mood to work in fields and factories) but there is evidence to back up the idea.

The idea of returning to the office, or the mandate to do so, has left many people on edge wondering how to succeed in a space where they have little-to-no control over their environment.

Personality types can strongly influence a person’s reaction to having to work from an office for any amount of time. Personality-wise, extroverts and introverts differ with respect to how much they like to be around people. More specifically, the difference between extroverts and introverts is primarily in how being around others impacts their energy levels.

The idea of what it means to share space is broadening, and the future of space-as-a-service (SaaS) is entering a new phase. Welcome to the new age of co-everything.

As it continues rapidly evolving, the modern American office increasingly defies easy categorization. On one hand, we hear remote work is here to stay. On the other hand comes word office occupancy continues to climb. On one side of the issue are pundits arguing remote work is essential to employees’ mental health. On the other side are those observing that without regular in-person exposure to offices and colleagues, mentoring and collaboration are as yesterday as an IBM Selectric.

Milan Design Week 2023
April 18-23, 2023 | Milan, Italy

Milan design week is the biggest annual design event in the world and takes place from 17 to 23 April 2023. The week includes the furniture fair Salone del Mobile, which takes place at the Fiera Milano exhibition centre and is the largest event to take place during the week. The selection of fringe events collectively named Fuorisalone also takes place across the city.

hd expo+conference
May 2-4, 2023 | Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

HD Expo + Conference is the largest hospitality event of its kind in the country, showcasing the latest products, services, and innovative developments from the industry’s leading manufacturers.  

Clerkenwell Design Week 2023
May 23-25, 2023 | London

Clerkenwell is home to more creative businesses and architects per square mile than anywhere else on the planet, making it truly one of the most important design hubs in the world. To celebrate this rich and diverse community, Clerkenwell Design Week has created a showcase of leading UK and international brands and companies presented in a series of showroom events, exhibitions and special installations that take place across the area.

Orgatec 2024
October 22-26, 2024 | Cologne, Germany

Orgatec is the International trade fair for office and property equipment. Held in Cologne, Germany.