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— Office Properties Quarterly — September 2016
At North Forest Office Space, we make leasing easy.
We offer affordable lease rates and guaranteed pricing with no hidden costs and upscale amenities.
Your clients can lease what they need today, and then add space as they grow.
Professional, medical and dental space in Brighton, Commerce City, Westminster, Firestone & Thornton • (303) 862-6367
DENVER • BUFFALO • ROCHESTER • AUSTIN
Offer your clients
office space
that grows
with them.
O
ne of the biggest challenges
facing tenants looking for
space in the commercial real
estate market today isn’t a
new one. Real estate is static,
and businesses are dynamic.
If you hear any discussions about
how the commercial real estate
industry is planning for the future,
it’s likely in reference to things such
as smart buildings and leasing data
platforms – all tools that will benefit
landlords and brokers. The number of
technologies and services out there
now designed to help landlords man-
age their properties more efficiently
and increase margins is increasing
rapidly.
What you don’t hear too much talk
about, however, are ways that land-
lords and brokers can better serve
their customers.
For companies swept up in the
volatility of today’s market, it’s dif-
ficult to plan and anticipate growth.
The commercial real estate industry
forces its best and new customers
to make those exact bets, simply
because that’s how business has
always been done.
Companies such as Uber and Drop-
Box are showing us that if consumers
demand on-demand, flexible services
that fit their needs, then that is just
what they will get. In short, “that’s
how we’ve always done business”
just isn’t a good enough reason any-
more.
So, how can brokers, landlords and
property managers easily address
this mismatch? To start, they can
focus on adding flexibility to the
existing static infrastructure. This
means partnering with service pro-
viders that inject
flexibility into the
otherwise static
industry.
This was the driv-
ing force behind the
creation of services
that give brokers
and landlords an
additive option that
can exist within
the existing com-
mercial real estate
process, while pro-
viding the flexibility
that businesses now are demanding.
In contrast to subleasing, these
services are designed from the busi-
ness owner’s perspective as a simple
way to offset the risk and cost of
excess office space until it’s needed.
The platform can handle everything
from matching hosts (leaseholders
that have extra space) with the right
guests (companies that need some
space for now), to managing the pay-
ments, communication and docu-
ments. No one has to demise space,
worry about credit risk or commit to
a long-term agreement that might
backfire for either side.
Brokers can let their consciences
rest easy knowing that clients can
sign appropriate leases based on
their growth plans and offset that
risk until they can fully utilize the
square footage. And unlike a sub-
lease, whenever the leaseholder
needs that space back, he gets it.
Customers are asked to commit to 30
days.
Landlords also can rest assured that
their tenants will have the financial
means necessary to pay rent for the
duration of their lease, while incubat-
ing their next class of up-and-coming
tenants, many of which may go on to
sign leases in the same building they
started out in as guest companies.
Here’s an example of how this
often plays out. When Boulder-based
advertising and marketing agency
Amplio Digital started looking for a
lease in downtown Boulder, it was a
12-person team, but the company’s
growth projections put it at a 65-per-
son company in three years. Amplio
Digital knew there was no way the
1,000-square-foot office spaces the
CEO was looking at could support
that kind of growth.
So, to avoid making multiple
moves, the company decided to
go bigger and signed a lease on an
office three times larger than what it
needed at the time. Despite making a
big bet, Amplio Digital felt confident
knowing it could monetize the empty
space until the team grew. Amplio
Digital booked two guest companies
to occupy the excess space and start-
ed earning more than $1,000 monthly
on the space. But, most importantly,
it ended up with a lease that was
right for its growth plans.
“PivotDesk helped me relieve a lot
of the fear associated with signing
up for a bigger space – if I get in over
my head, I can negate a lot of that
responsibility with PivotDesk,” said
Marshall Hayes, president and found-
er of Amplio Digital.
Sitting across the table from a
potential leaseholder and asking
him to make a five- or 10-year bet
on his business, when he often has
a difficult time predicting how big
the business is going to be during
that time, a broker can easily see
the stress on his client’s faces. That’s
the bet the commercial real estate
industry asks clients to make every
day. But new solutions provide a way
to offset that long-term risk and the
associated stress by making it easier
to plan for growth and sign the best
lease for both the business and the
landlord.
s
David Mandell
CEO, PivotDesk,
Boulder
Leasing Trends
In contrast to subleasing, these
services are designed from the business
owner’s perspective as a simple way to
offset the risk and cost of excess
office space until it’s needed.
