Recent years have seen some major U.S. educational institutions enter into partnerships with providers of flexible office space, creating coworking solutions that have already proven to be highly beneficial to both parties. These coworking spaces have served to support students by providing a professional environment where they are encouraged to interact with other college students and engage in networking opportunities. The coworking communities that have been formed on college campuses across the U.S. have also helped to support businesses surrounding these emergent hubs, providing them with direct links to students looking to enter the professional world.

Prior to 2020, the highly innovative coworking sector served to revitalize the somewhat stagnant office space market; experiencing healthy annual growth and gradually becoming accepted as a legitimate alternative to traditional offices. The shakeup caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, decimated the coworking space market, limiting growth and forcing coworking space providers to consider short-term alternatives.

Many of the partnerships made between coworking space providers and higher education institutions have already proven to be tremendously fruitful. The nature of these partnerships are also wide-reaching, with some campuses opening their facilities to serve as coworking spaces and others working directly with shared spaces to create ‘micro-campuses’ for remote students across the globe. Additionally, the partnered development of new coworking facilities within leading tech hubs has spurred greater innovation and investment than would have been previously possible for the hosting university to achieve alone. Ultimately, these higher education institutions have joined with global coworking leaders to uphold campus-like spirits of innovation, human interaction, and collaboration, whilst also introducing students to the professional atmosphere of a shared office space.

To say that this is a match made in heaven is an understatement. Read on to get some insight into how this innovative marriage was started, and how those leading the way are driving innovation, reshaping what constitutes an educational workspace, and influencing the connection between talented students and local businesses.

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Among the many changes brought about by COVID-19, the disruption to work arrangements and mobility patterns is perhaps the most profound. 

Since 2020, companies of all shapes and sizes have decided to re-structure their workforce, implementing new working models and providing employees with previously unforeseen levels of mobility. This freedom has resulted in many of these employees re-structuring their lives, relocating to more affordable or personally preferable cities. Moreover, the increased implementation of remote and hybrid office-work models has changed the way employers and employees think about location, causing many workers to reassess the need to live close to major business centers.

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The life sciences and healthcare sectors are two of the small handful of sectors that have come out stronger on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article offers an overview of relevant U.S. market data, as well as the way in which specialist office providers are serving the demands of businesses looking to house themselves in mixed-use office spaces that include both traditional desks and lab space.

Mixed-Use Office Space in the Life Sciences Sector

While offices occupied by countless other industries emptied virtually overnight in response to the pandemic, life sciences companies stayed put — with some even opting to move to larger premises to accommodate additional employees. In 2021, the sector was still attracting millions of dollars in investments — particularly in the fields of Biotech and Medtech — due to their status as safe, recession-proof assets. In fact, 2021 saw a record $78 billion of capital investments to life sciences-related companies in the United States, up from the $70 billion seen in 2020.

Rapid expansion also put pressure on these companies to source top talent. In the United States, life sciences is a leader for employment growth. Illustrating this — in Q1 2021 the life science sector had surpassed the tech sector in job creation numbers.  Read the rest of this entry »

Office Space

As of Q2 2022, we’re continuing to see signs of Atlanta’s increased post-pandemic recovery when compared to its peers. Office occupancy rates have shot up dramatically since Q2 2021, though leasing overall has still not reached pre-pandemic levels. Major players — including Google, Microsoft, Visa, and Airbnb — have been in the process of opening up thousands of high salary jobs in offices throughout Atlanta, heavily contributing to the increased positive sentiment that has permeated throughout the office sector in 2022.

Rents have settled after the turbulent events of the early 2020s. Vacancy rates in the metro are still sitting around 18%, making it harder for providers to hike rates. Overall vacancy rates have dropped from 18.8% in Q1 2022 to 18.4% in Q2, providing more evidence of recovery. Despite this, vacant square footage by volume has increased in the metro area, with just over 43 million sq/ft vacant in the middle of 2022 representing a rise compared to the same time in 2021, which saw 42 million sq/ft of vacant office space.

Vacancy rates in Midtown are down to 19% in Q2 2022, compared to 22% in Q2 2021. South Atlanta still shows the lowest vacancy rates across the metro area at 11.7%, though this is up from the Q2 2021 figure of 10%. Despite this increase, recovery is still trending positively when compared to other areas in Atlanta — though reaching the healthy metrics of 2019 is still a ways off. Read the rest of this entry »