AdIndex
1 Marcus & Millichap
3 AG Net Lease Acquisition Corp
5 Berkadia
7 Walker & Dunlop LLC
21 Northmarq
23 Bellwether Enterprise
25 US Realty Advisors LLC
27 CBRE
29 Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
37 REVISTA
39 Kroll Bond Rating Agency
41 Kay Properties & Investments, LLC
C4 Parkview Financial LLC
An Uneven Race to Recovery
. . . continued from page 14
pharmaceuticals, biotech and medical technology industries.
Examples of investor activity proliferate.Alexandria REIT, which is the largest playerin the space, made a significant acquisitionwith the purchase of the Karlin Palmerportfolio in the Research Triangle Park inRaleigh/Durham, North Carolina for $615million late last year. In October, Ventasacquired a three-building portfolio in SanFrancisco for around $1 billion.
While other sectors struggle with fallingrents and rising vacancies, rents are continuing to increase in life sciences. “It’s afunction of basic supply and demand, andsupply has not kept up with demand inmany areas, so rental rates keep chasing thesupply,” according to CGS3 attorney DawnSaunders.
Traditionally, life sciences companies
tend to form in hubs around universities
like Oxford and Cambridge in the UK,
Munich in Germany and San Francisco and
Boston in the US. However, there is some
evidence that life science hubs could
emerge in new markets due to high costs
and the fact that employees are moving
away to take advantage of telework policies
implemented during the pandemic. “This
has created the perfect storm for life sci-
ences companies to re-evaluate their real
estate footprint and look at tier-two cities
that have some of the factors essential to
their success in a market,” Mark Hefner,
CEO and shareholder of MGO Realty
Advisors, says.
WHITHER THE OFFICE?
By now it has become an exhausting exercise trying to determine what role the officewill play in companies’ operations once theeconomy reopens and employees have nosafety fears to keep them at home. The consensus is that there is still a place for theoffice, though remote work productivitywill likely remain strong.
But recent research from Cushman &Wakefield suggests that the work fromhome trend may eventually lose its luster.
In a focus group with 32 owners, occupiers and placemakers, Cushman & Wakefieldfound that not only were both management and professional staff able to do theirwork remotely, but administrative and nonexempt workers were also able to execute ata high level.
“It was an ‘aha moment’ that we canactually be very productive when you put90% of your colleagues fully remote,” oneexecutive told C&W.
Still, the occupiers in C&W’s focusgroups indicated that increased remotework has created a perceived cost in long-term productivity, corporate culture andinnovation and creativity. They shared thatemployees wanted to go back to the officeto connect and collaborate. In fact, work-from-home fatigue is setting in, which ispartially driven by video conferencing.The technology has led to “meetingsprawl” as meetings have increased formany people.
While employees surveyed by C&W werecomfortable with remote work today, therewas a feeling that this might not be sustainable once employees return to the office.C&W pointed out that it could be a muchdifferent experience for a worker if they’reon video in a meeting where everyone elseis in a conference room.
Developments in overseas marketsalso gives office owners a reason forhope. An owner with locations in Koreaand China indicated that as of October2020, businesses were back in the officeat pre-pandemic levels in those countries. It is encouraging to note that theytoo had slogged their way through Zoomfatigue. ◆
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possible, listing accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
