COVID-19 Realty: Your Next Office Could Be in a Hotel or a Shopping Mall

Here’s how commercial real estate spaces will be repurposed in a VUCA or volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

In many ways, the pandemic has accelerated the transition that was taking place in the commercial real estate space with advances in technology, growing need for healthcare, shift in attitudes and preferences of younger generations for hybrid workspaces that included work from anywhere and work from a co-working space.

With lessons learnt from the lockdowns imposed across the country, leading players have been actively seeking ways to diversify sources of revenue, pursue new digitally enabled business models and focus more on the tenant experience. Today, developers and business owners are increasingly focusing on building resilient and agile models in the commercial real estate industry by leveraging the adaptive reuse technique.

As we rethink office spaces, commercial spaces will shift to intentional and purpose-driven environments.

Hospitality converging with commercial real estate spaces

With the rise in the hybrid work model, lines between offices, event spaces, restaurants and gyms within commercial buildings are getting blurred, allowing these spaces to co-exist.

This change in the behavioural patterns of customers has accelerated the process of ‘hotelisation’ of commercial real estate with an aim to provide all amenities in one place. For example, a commercial real estate space such as a hotel property can have co-working spaces, cafes, spas and shopping centres.

In fact, integration of co-working spaces is a concept that is quickly gaining momentum in the hotel real estate space. Leading companies offering co-working spaces are partnering with hotels to cater to the discerning needs of today’s clients. Therefore, in my opinion, multi-services in a commercial space not only attracts a younger audience but provides huge opportunities for real estate owners to generate more revenue.

When workspaces and shopping come together

As commercial real estate leaders seek to redefine spaces, the impact of the retail revolution is seeping into offices to suit the dynamic lifestyle of today’s generation. With a gradual return to work, many developers are considering malls to set up co-working spaces. Shopping malls offer abundant parking space, several food and beverage choices and options for shopping for daily needs among others.

Co-working spaces within an office or a mall makes it easy to meet all requirements on a common platform. It is a much more convenient place to meet friends and get away from work pressure. Considering the new lifestyle we all have been adapted to, shopping malls will make a conducive bet for offices in the new normal.

Enabling return to work through on-ground health facilities

With health and safety taking centre stage, commercial real estate spaces have begun to incorporate health services to enable a smooth return to work. Apart from enabling health facilities on the ground, many office space owners are abiding by government rules and regulations that include timely sanitization of workstations, six-feet distance between workstations, daily temperature checks of employees, automation of systems to avoid surface contact, on-ground team for RTPCR tests, allowing only fully vaccinated people in the property, etc.

The desire to break out of the monotony of work-from-home and the need to venture out of familial surroundings is compelling commercial real estate developers to focus on creating spaces that offer a variety of services. Another trend is that of demand for commercial real estate picking up in Tier2 and 3 towns after the second wave of COVID-19.

As commercial real estate markets get ready for a post-pandemic recovery with the swift rollout of vaccines, I am certain that commercial real estate spaces will not just be confined to one particular activity but will follow a multipronged approach as work-from-home fatigue sets in and officegoers’ demand for variety and change goes up.

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Source: www.moneycontrol.com