RE: VISITED – The Great Office Occupier/Developer Debate follow-on series brings together some of the key themes from our 2021 debates, alongside reflections of the past year and how the real estate industry is evolving to meet the new challenges around the issues of sustainability, lease flexibility and wellbeing.  

The final part in our six part series discusses the challenge for landlords and developers of creating office premises as 'places' by combining context, location, community and partnership.

Office premises come in a wide variety of forms from new, smart buildings to older traditional and historic stock. One thing that is common to both is the need for context and location – a sense of physical place.

Whilst older premises may not offer the sustainability factors of new, purpose-built, developments, they may benefit from location. City centre offices are likely to be positioned not only close to transport links, but within areas of local commerce that support the workforce. Shops, cafes and restaurants, gyms, creche facilities and amenities like dry-cleaning and phone repairers all contribute to the workday experience of staff.

As the owner of a smaller single building that benefits from local support, this can be developed further to ensure the workplace has a pull for staff and occupiers. This synergy can offer the opportunity to develop beneficial partnerships within the locale. This is what we may refer to as ‘place-shaping’.

You can read the full article here.