Office News

Overview of USA Office Market

During 2016, the USA office market was marked by a climate of cautious optimism and moderate growth across the board. This was mostly evident in office rental rates, which increased by a modest 0.1 per cent or even declined in cities like Chicago, New York, Washington and San Francisco. This was coupled with a slow-down in leasing activity, as net absorption rates only reached 6.5 million square feet during the last quarter of 2016. The bulk of lease transactions consisted of small and medium-sized office properties, and the total number of leases exceeding 500,000 dropped by 43 per cent.

Key market indicators (such as take-up, vacancy, and availability rates) were linked to the performance of those industry sectors that make up for the bulk of office occupiers in the USA. 2016 saw a tightening of the labor market in the tech sector, driving vacancy rates down to break the 10 per cent barrier for the first time. This offset the relative stagnation in activity coming from occupiers involved in financial services, legal, and government.

Important figures that reveal the market’s performance during 2016 included:

– A total inventory in excess of 137 million square feet

– Total vacancy rates of 16.9 per cent

– Annual net absorption above 1.1 million square feet

– Nationwide average asking rates $23.91

– Office space under construction 4.9 million square feet, of which 53.7 per cent is already pre-leased

USA Office Market by City

Mid-sized markets were among the best performers in the year that has just ended. Portland, Nashville, Salt Lake City, and San Antonio were characterized by occupancy increases that averaged 3 per cent. In San Francisco, market indicators were also positive despite the fact that occupancy growth levels dropped from 2.9 to 1.1 per cent. Other regional office markets that did well included Austin, Silicon Valley, and Seattle. In these markets, occupancy growth averaged 2 per cent. Read More »

The following is the first in our series focusing on providing information on the various types of office space available, from business parks to hot desking, conventional office accommodation to shared coworking options.

Business centers and business parks are locations with several businesses grouped together, like a shopping center, but for commercial and office based businesses. The typical business park is a development of land and buildings set aside exclusively for the use of offices of all sizes and designs.

Business Parks in the Suburbs

Business parks are found in cities, but are more frequently located in suburban areas. Developers build a variety of sizes and designs of office spaces in one location. Available spaces will vary from a single occupancy 400 square foot office space to a 50,000 square foot warehouse space, all on one site. Occasionally, within the business park, you’ll find a larger building with several offices these are frequently owned or managed by a single entity. Owners of the larger building typically rent the spaces to small businesses as conventional, serviced, or virtual offices.

A business park is in stark contrast with the big city high rise type business locations. Business parks are often designed to resemble a university campus or suburban neighborhood. There are one or two story buildings, instead of twenty story skyscrapers; there are green spaces; there may be fountains or park benches in the surrounding areas. These business parks are ideal locations for service or retail based businesses that need a location for customers to visit.

Some business parks become so large and welcoming to businesses that they begin to resemble a small town. As the success of businesses located at a specific park grows, more and more businesses choose to locate there. From that point it may seem inevitable that neighborhoods and communities begin to sprout up in the area.

The Appeal of Business Parks

For many companies, cost effectiveness proves to be the drawing feature to a business park space. The spaces are usually more affordable than commercial or retail spaces in other locations. Often a group of similarly based businesses, such as medical specialists, will locate in a business park creating a network of services that appeal to consumers.

Typically, the companies located in a business park will be diverse, varying from service based industries, such as computer repair, for example, to investment firms that are closed to the public. The diversity of the business park is limited only by the amenities offered by the developers. Business parks can help create a concentrated, affordable non-industrial office district and contribute to the communities in which they are constructed.

For information on business centre and office accommodation opportunities across the US click here.

Los Angeles CBD is a thriving commercial hub comprised of 15 districts: Skid Row, Civic Center, Little Tokyo, Old Bank, South Park, Historic Core, Gallery Row, Fashion District, Arts District, Warehouse District, Jewelry District, Industrial District, and Toy District. Bunker Hill and the Financial District are also part of downtown Los Angeles and are considered the city’s business core area.

Los Angeles’ CBD was first defined as a business district in 1920, and was expanded and redeveloped during the 1950s and 1960s, when several high-rise office buildings were added to the city’s urban landscape. Downtown LA is easily accessible by road and mass transit, as the area lies at the intersection between the I-10, I-5 and I-110 roads, and is served by 4 Metro lines. Union Station is located on the northern edge of the CBD, and Los Angeles International airport is only 19 miles away from the downtown area.

Unlike other US business districts, downtown LA has a large (and growing) permanent population. In 2016, more than 50,000 people lived within a 2-mile radius of the CBD, and particularly in the eastern fringe, where many office buildings have been converted into residential units. Read More »

An Overview of Chicago’s Central Business District

Chicago’s central business district (also referred to as The Loop) is among the nation’s top three largest business hubs. Chicago’s CBD occupies a total area of approximately 1.6 square miles and is located in the eastern side of the city, right on the shores of Lake Michigan. The CBD can be sub-divided into five smaller areas: West Loop, South Loop, Michigan Boulevard, Printer’s Row, and New Eastside.

The Loop is a densely populated area where business and residential areas exist side-to-side. Unlike other CBDs in American cities, The Loop continues to experience rapid growth in terms of its permanent population, which exceeded 30,000 people in early 2016. The Loop attracts a large number of young professionals due to its convenient location, excellent transportation links, and supply of quality housing. The area is well served by buses, commuter trains, Amtrak services, and CTA trains that link the central business district with O´Hare and Midway international airports.

Chicago’s CBD among the country’s top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest business density, ranking 6th with nearly 33 business establishments per square mile. The Loop’s dynamic economy relies on a diverse industrial base and healthy mix of small, medium, and large companies. Read More »

What is considered acceptable use of social media in the modern workplace? How can what you post on social media both in and out of the office be used against you?

Although in many cases U.S. laws and regulations have not kept pace with all the latest developments, legislators and employment specialists have become increasingly aware of the issues. Facebook has over one billion users, with Twitter boasting around 500 million – and LinkedIn around half that.

Understandably, many employers were reported as having noted this tendency with some degree of alarm, voicing fears such as reduced productivity, adverse publicity and a possible trend in work-related claims and liability. Some have wondered about their rights to ban social media usage in the workplace – yet these same employers have seen their levels of businesses grow in many cases due to social media’s innate ability to market products and services to new customers. Companies also hire bloggers, endorsers or community managers to take advantage of the phenomenon.

In addition, employee morale is usually higher with access. What is clear, however, is that social media policies are just as important an area as any other (such as vacations, special leave and anti-discrimination) in contracts of employment and the general relationships between employers and employees.

As social media developed, some government agencies began issuing guidance. While some of this has been based on common sense and an intuitive approach, other examples have been less so. Specifically, some NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) pronouncements on the subject have been viewed as self-contradictory and confusing. The NLRB has received most of its press attention for supporting the employee right of engaging in concerted activities. Here, one key test is whether any one employer policy would reasonably have the effect of distressing employees; such clauses are deemed invalid in employment contracts. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEC) has also taken an interest in the question. Read More »

Bolstered by a robust economic performance, the office market in Washington DC delivered a fine performance throughout 2015. Unemployment levels in the DC metropolitan area were at their lowest since 2008, reaching figures well below the US national average (4.3 per cent vs 5 per cent). These conditions have helped shape a real estate market that is predominantly favourable to landlords, as the following trends demonstrate:

Washington DC Office Market: 2015 Key Facts & Figures

During 2015, vacancy rates for all types of office space in Washington went down to 10.5 per cent, pretty much in line with the city’s historical average of 10.7 per cent. At the same time, net absorption levels increased by a staggering 185 per cent, going from 198,000 square feet in 2014 to 398,000 by December 2015. Nearly half of the transactions involved office stock in Washington’s CBD, which clearly outperformed all other sub-markets. This is attributed to the ongoing influx of new tenants relocating from secondary office locations into the CBD. This trend began to be evident in 2014 and has been solidified over the past 12 months. Read More »

An in depth look at how the Manhattan office space market has fared in 2015 and forecasts for this coming year.

Manhattan Office Market Overview of 2015

Over the past 12 months, federal economic policy has been focusing on expansion, driving an increase in employment rates, especially as far as office-based employment is concerned. This type of employment grew by 2.6 per cent in just 1 year, and prompted a considerable increase in demand led by occupiers in the Manhattan financial services sector. In certain Manhattan sub-markets (such as in Midtown South), strong demand from tenants in the TAMI sector (technology, advertising, media, and information) was also evident.

At the end of 2015, total office stock in Manhattan was just under 395 million square feet, of which 28 million were vacant. Total transaction volume amounted to more than 28 million square feet, one of the highest figures of the past 10 years. However, there was a slight decline in transaction volumes in downtown Manhattan, where transactions mostly involved small and medium-sized office properties.

Manhattan Office Market: Key Facts & Figures

During 2015, office vacancy rates in Manhattan went down from 9.3 per cent to 8.5 per cent. This decrease equals to 90 basis points on a year-on-year basis, and brings vacancy rates closer to Manhattan’s historical average of 8.9 per cent. In Midtown South, vacancy rates were markedly lower at 6.2 per cent, whereas in downtown Manhattan they went down by 30 basis points to 9.4 per cent. Read More »

No matter what type of business you run, technology will play a large part. One of the best ways to keep up to date with the latest tech available to help grow and improve your business is to attend conferences, workshops and events where you can check out numerous tech companies and applications that relate to your particular industry all under one roof.

Here is a list of just some of the technology conferences being held in the US in 2016. Read More »

Appetizer-Only Party
Similar to a Holiday Party where folks bring festive cookies or a main dish for the potluck, you can hold an appetizer-only potluck. Simply invite people to bring their favorite holiday appetizer. The office can provide soft drinks, bottled water or coffee. Of course, cookies are allowed and always welcomed! But mostly, this is an appetizer-only party simply to try something new for the holidays. Don’t forget the decorations!

Christmas Classic Movie Marathon
For this type of office party, try a Christmas Classic Movie Marathon. Mix it up with a few movies from different decades like Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Elf, White Christmas, Ernest Saves Christmas or Four Christmases. Provide a place with a viewing screen so folks can pop in and out while they’re working, and if possible, provide popcorn and other snacks, or have a potluck. If a work day party is not possible, try to schedule something off work hours at someone’s house. The point is to have fun.

Pet Holiday Photo Contest
Because cats, dogs, bunnies and other pets look adorable dressed as Santa, angels, elves, reindeer and the like, why not throw a party with a contest for folks who share photos of their beloved family pets dressed in holiday getups? Imagine a bunch of grown ups gathering to show off their puppies and kitties? If you’re so inclined, you could set up a screen in a viewing room so people can vote live from Facebook or Flickr. The prizes can be very simple, like cat toys or a dog bone or gift certificates. Read More »

Entrepreneurs and new businesses in the south are encouraged to relocate to Georgia and North Carolina, as Greensboro, Augusta and Columbus feature in a recent article from USA Today which highlights the best cities for new start ups. The article discusses the best and worst cities for new business start ups and you may be surprised to learn that New York and Los Angeles may not be the best locations for budding entrepreneurs. Dollars may be floating around some of the multinationals and Silicon Valley corporations but many new businesses struggle to make a name and income in these locations, while quality of lifestyle is also a major consideration.

Reasons Augusta, Columbus and Greensboro are the Best Cities to Start a Business in the South USA

You’ll find multinationals, major hospitals, world leading research institutes, universities and hosts of SMEs situated in Augusta, Columbus and Greensboro, with plentiful opportunities for any new business and less expensive office/retail locations than cities like New York or LA. Local chambers of commerce provide generous support and networks for added support once your business is operational.

Greensboro

Starting up in Greensboro allows you to pull in customers from the surrounding areas of Kernersville, Summerfield and High Point, while the thriving city population totals almost 300,000. The local Chamber of Commerce runs free seminars from the Center at Guilford Technical College, with added courses, workshops and seminars at a variety of locations, including the Nussbaum Center and the Con. Ed. Center. You can source advice and information from the Chamber, and the structured workshops give any budding entrepreneur all the advice and information required to start up a successful company.

Augusta

Augusta has one of the largest medical conurbations in the States and is also home to the Dept. of Energy nuclear facility based on the Savannah River. A number of multinationals are located in the neighborhood, while near by Fort Gordon is home to the Army Signals. Census figures show the 2012 Augusta population to be around 200,000. The Downtown Development Authority 2008 guide to starting up a new business is available for free download, while StartUp Augusta is a LinkedIn mentoring service offering support to local business startups via its online community. Read More »