September 2016 — Office Properties Quarterly —
Page 17
C
oreNet Global recently took an
exhaustive look at how corpo-
rate real estate will function
in the future. The final report,
“The Bigger Picture, the Future
of Corporate Real Estate,” examined
several areas including technol-
ogy, risk mitigation, cyber security,
the environment, corporate social
responsibility, the global economy,
people/talent and the future of cities.
The future of corporate real estate
will, of course, have a direct impact
on the operation of the wider com-
mercial real estate industry in Colo-
rado as well as globally. Below are
several of the key takeaways from the
report for commercial real executives
and leaders to consider.
Technology.
People will continue to
have greater workplace choices as
augmented reality and virtual reality
technologies come into play. Some
believe that virtual reality and aug-
mented reality could be two of the
most disruptive technologies on the
horizon, as they will allow people
to work with colleagues around the
world in real time.
Additionally, beacon technology
will be applied to the office sector to
help optimize the use of space and
bring in greater personalization to
maximize productivity. With beacon
technology, individuals don’t have to
manually sign-in to a specific space.
Beacons will recognize when that
person enters or exits a room, which
will make it easier to measure and
track when and how meeting rooms
and offices are in use.
Companies can then layer on space
planning tools to create different sce-
narios for the best uses of their space.
The next-gener-
ation workplace.
The increasingly
mobile and con-
nected workforce
is changing real
estate require-
ments as it relates
to how much space
is needed, where
facilities will be
located, and how
that space is con-
figured, utilized and
managed.
The next-generation workplace
likely will be built around workplace
networks that will support this new
mobile workplace complexity. Real
estate leaders will need to provide
technology-enabled workplace net-
works that will allow for greater agil-
ity and flexibility for both the orga-
nization and the employee, as well
as long-term enterprise workplace
effectiveness for the corporation.
For example, a corporate workplace
network might include a headquar-
ters and multiple regional satellite
offices, as well as remote co-working
sites that allow people to work from
home, the coffee shop, airport or
their virtual reality headset.
Over the next 10 to 20 years,
potentially 40 to 60 percent of the
workforce that now is doing trans-
actional work could be replaced and
augmented by artificial intelligence,
workforce automation and smart-
cognitive-thinking machines, said
Peter Miscovich, managing director,
Strategy + Innovation, JLL Consulting.
There are a number of industries
that will have to adapt to the shrink-
ing human workforce as more and
more occupations become automated
and as artificial intelligence and the
next generation of physical robot-
ics continue to converge and evolve
within the corporate workplace.
The future of cities.
Business, and
the economy as a whole, is becom-
ing increasingly urbanized. For half
a century, many companies moved
from city centers to suburban cam-
puses in order to expand, control
their environments and be closer to
workers’ homes. In the past decade,
we have seen a reversal to this trend
as many of the same companies
relocated to urban hubs for a mix of
reasons.
Among these is access to transit
and the most advanced technolo-
gies, as well as the continuing desire
for proximity to workers. What has
changed in this last instance is that
young professionals, as well as some
empty nesters, have made lifestyle
decisions to live in the city centers
that had fallen out of favor with ear-
lier generations.
These developments have rami-
fications for cities moving forward
– not just in the prevalence of good
restaurants, but also related to infra-
structure, governance and technol-
ogy, as populations increase and
change, influencing different choices
for their neighborhoods.
As workers become more flexible,
it’s also incumbent on businesses to
offer a premium office experience,
both to retain employees and to
convince them of the value of being
present and interacting with others
in the organization.
While no one can predict the
future with certainty, this much is
clear: The future of corporate real
estate won’t look anything like its
past.
We live in a world that is more
globally connected than ever before,
changing more rapidly than ever
before and constantly disrupted by
technological innovation. It is replete
with both risks and opportunities.
s
Tim Venable
Senior vice
president, CoreNet
Global, Atlanta
Market Drivers
These developments have
ramifications for cities moving forward –
not just in the prevalence of good
restaurants, but also related to
infrastructure, governance and technology.
