CREJ - Office Properties Quarterly - September 2017
For years, most commercial buildings ran off the same old processes with similar methods. You plan a building, hire a broker, find a property manager and use similar systems. But today, things are changing. Creativity and innovation are at the forefront for many of the new successful projects. These days disruptive behavior has entrenched itself in our culture. Cooperative office spaces, creative rehabs, digital wayfinding and property websites are all changing the game. The average person is closing in on 11 hours of screen time per day. Whether it’s a desktop computer, a smartphone on the go or a tablet at home, users are looking at their screens in record numbers and for record amounts of time. Commercial real estate professionals need to understand these changing behaviors and use them to their advantage, whether it’s the best way to showcase a building, get discovered by a potential user or provide a platform for an out-of-state decision maker who many never step foot in the building. Cooperative office spaces are accounting for much of the new square footage built in Denver. Creative rehabs from Union Station to Industry and Central Market are all drawing attention. A building’s digital wayfinding is common place for visitors to interact with in today’s office building. Property websites act as an online lobby with potentially more people visiting the website than the property itself. The website allows the property more opportunity to be seen, allows people to discover the property on search engines, and provides a referral link through brokers and other marketing. Often the website serves as the property’s curb appeal and is the first impression many people have with the space. It operates as a way to attract users and defines how you differentiate from your competition. Years ago, we had the opportunity to create an online presence for The SugarCube Building by Urban Villages in downtown Denver. This was early on in building website adoption and at the forefront of mixed-use building marketing. We created a web campaign that showcased world-class architecture, provided interactive maps and floor plans, and told a story that connected with the past, present and future of downtown Denver. Another example is View 57, which was an older building purchased by Element Properties located in Flatiron Business Park in Boulder. A new website helped rebrand this property and show off a new level of design, attracting many of today’s user. The website also helped bring the office property into the forefront for more people to discover, even though it was located in the back of its business park. One final example is the Wheeler Block, which is a beautiful large brick office building built in 1892 located in the Potter Highlands. With the growth of this neighborhood in recent years, many people drive or walk by the building every day. But few individuals recognized what a historically prized property this was architecturally and to the neighborhood. Then came a new rebrand with signage and web presence that was able to draw attention, tell the building’s story and point out the highlights of the property. We know that certain processes of the commercial real estate landscape will always be necessary to conduct business. But change is inevitable. Sitting idly by while other property owners use new ideas and better technology is similar to Blockbuster sticking with VHS tapes against Netflix or Yellow Cab using the same old systems to compete with Uber. Building owners should know we are in a rapidly changing environment where you can connect your building opportunity in more ways than ever.