Flexible Space Suitable for All Real Estate and Companies

Jamal Brown, the founder of the office space company from San Diego called The Ocean Company, believes that the future lies in flexible spaces. Are tenants missing out by not accepting them?

As a tenant, you have to be sure of the safety, stability and sustainable growth. However, in the time of hybrid work, office facility owners are starting to re-examine how to achieve this. Adapting to the needs of corporate clients may require switching from long-term agreements on the lease of large office spaces to more flexible agreements on renting custom-made working spaces.

In the past few years, there have been important paradigm changes in the field of office real estate. The pandemic has accelerated the rising trend of demand in the field of hybrid work, with an increasing number of companies which respond to the employees’ needs for a hybrid model. This enables the employees to divide their time between the office, the home and the local space for working together.

Office spaces are often adaptable in nature and can be leased on a flexible basis in order to meet the clients’ needs, regardless of whether they need a meeting room, a shared working space, rooms with temporary work spaces, spaces for rest or a combination of all of the above. Due to this new trend in client demand, numerous lessors and franchise operators have started rethinking their strategies.

Jamal Brown, the founder and CEO of The Ocean Company with the seat in San Diego, which specializes in representing tenants, was one of the people who started this revolution.

“The workers value their freedom”

Brown firmly believes that flexible work spaces are the key element of this revolution in the way business is done. Lessors and franchise operators have an important role of helping their clients with this and enable them to find their way through this new way of doing business, adapting their offers to their needs.

– At the beginning of the pandemic, many people abandoned their offices, without wanting to ever return to them – Brown says and adds:

– This especially pertains to younger workers, who need more freedom in their working environment. They no longer want to travel 45 minutes to work and expose themselves to traffic jams every day. They want flexibility and the possibility of doing their job near the place where they live, which means that they don’t have to travel to a centralized office five days a week. The employers are therefore becoming increasingly dependent on big national or international operators in the field of flexible spaces, because they can have one centralized office, but also several smaller satellite ones in the center of the community in which their employees are, which also enables them to potentially meet as a team and be much more satisfied.

Brown changed his career in insurance by switching to office real estate management in 2001. He notes that, although they have been present in his home town of San Diego, the number of flexible work spaces has been growing rapidly in the past years and their offers have been adapted to the new conditions.

Up until a few years ago, flexible work spaces were more traditional by style and offer. Now, he says, clients have a much greater number of interesting and exciting options, with a bigger focus on cooperation and working in a relaxed environment.

Conventional offices have made way for business salons and meeting rooms. Brown also notes that flexible spaces are opening at an increasing rate in neighborhoods outside the business centers of San Diego (such as North Park and East Village), following the trend of a “15-minute city” which is spreading worldwide at an increasing pace.

Lessors are no longer thinking in a conventional way and they adapt their offers so as to encompass real estate that is closer to residential areas and located outside the usual business centers. This way, working space can be secured which is more suitable for the employees than meeting in the seat of their business units.

“Learn what it takes for your employees to be happy”

Corporate clients, as well as their employees, realize considerable benefits from using flexible work spaces. Regardless of the size and the sector, offering the clients membership in flexible work spaces, operators from several centers in one city can save costs for their clients, as well as the obligations which come with owning a central office, and thereby help them reduce consumption and increase the profitability.

– A flexible work space can be of benefit to all companies of any size of activity. All you need to do is choose the membership or offices in the city or the country in which your employees are. Or, better yet, use a global operator like IWG, whose membership enables you access to thousands of work spaces worldwide – Brown explains.

Brown emphasizes that CEOs which neglect trends such as hybrid work and don’t recognize the benefit from investing in flexible spaces risk staying behind:

– I believe that, in the future, companies which recognize the advantages of adopting the hybrid model will surpass those who don’t do so. A large number of founders see their companies as their children. In fact, the employees and what they’re doing for your company is what’s most important. That is why it is much more important to learn what will make your employees more satisfied and productive and to think about what will help you keep the people that make your company profitable.

Business leaders are not the only ones who can stay behind. If lessors do not adjust their offers so as to better follow the changes in the demands of their clients, they may not be able to use their real estate in the best way possible.

“Companies will find the ‘Hub and Spoke’ model more suitable”

The lessors are in an ideal position to fulfill their clients’ needs. Brown is quick to add that the clients first have to talk with the employees about their demands.

– It often happens that bigger companies don’t have talks with their employees or don’t carry out surveys – he says and adds:

– However, it is important to learn who among the employees wants to go back to the office and who feels better working according to the hybrid model, whether in a central office or in other options of flexible offices all over the city […] we have to promote this to our clients, so that they would realize how much space they really need for future work.

Finally, hybrid work and flexible space are becoming an everyday occurrence. Most FTSE 250 companies are actively trying to adapt to the hybrid model, so we can expect smaller companies to follow their example as well.

– I don’t believe that we will go back to the time when every individual comes to a centralized office, especially when it comes to larger companies. While jobs are being done and companies remain profitable, they will see, for example, a property in which two floors are used to house all employees as an excess cost. Instead, they will more gladly continue opting for the “Hub and Spoke” model in which there is a central office of moderate size – Brown adds.

At IWG, we have spent 30 years perfecting and optimizing our business model. As the world’s biggest provider of services in the sector of flexible work, we committedly help lessors and franchise users joint the work space revolution. Find out how we can provide support to you today.

International Workplace Group

IWG

The Ocean Company

Jamal Brown

San Diego

North Park

East Village

flexible spaces

office real estate

hybrid work

office space

business salons

meeting rooms

investing in flexible spaces

Hub and Spoke model

FTSE 250 companies