CORENET GLOBAL SPECIAL REPORT: Future Workplace to Result in Reduced RE Footprint, October 28, 2013

In an article by Keat Foong, Finance Editor, CoreNet, a commercial real estate company, reports on a presentation by Peter Miscovich, managing director, Strategic Consulting, of Jones Lang LaSalle, at CoreNet's annual summit last fall:

The new mobile workplace was a leading topic of interest for corporate real estate executives during the CoreNet Global North American Summit 2013.

Speaking at a panel entitled, “Maturing Program Models for Workplace Mobility,” Peter Miscovich, managing director, Strategic Consulting, of Jones Lang LaSalle, said that no industry will be spared the imminent changes in office configuration. Workplace optimization, enabled by a mobile workforce, will entail the reduced use of office space, more diversity of office space arrangements and usage, and more technology-enabled space, he said. . .

Gavin Bloch, director, National Workplace Strategies, at Jacobs KlingStubbin, said that at a General Services Administration (GSA) office redesign pilot, it was found that as much as 60 percent of the office space was empty, as workers were not needing to use their workstations at all times.

The subsequent office redesign involved 100 percent unassigned office desks, and space sharing on a two-to-one ratio, he said. After the redesign, 160 employees were accommodated in 15,000 square feet, and there was a 52 percent reduction in space usage, and $632,000 in savings. . .

Dan Johnson, director of WorkPlace Innovation, Accenture, said . . .  Accenture workspace-sharing arrangements resulted in a two thirds reduction in its real estate portfolio, from 3 million square feet to 900,000 square feet, even as the headcount has increased. Implementation of the new workplace “absolutely can be done,” he said.

All of this is completely consistent with what Reston 2020 has said since last summer that office space per worker is shrinking, a fact that has yet to be acknowledged by County staff or the Board of Supervisors.  (To see what we've told Chairman Bulova and others, please click on "Office Space" in the index to this blog.)  Instead of the 300 gross square feet (GSF) the County and the Reston Task Force assumed for future office space development (and not counting retrofitting for existing office space), office space per worker is being cut by one-third to one-half.  The potential risk, if office market demand permits, is that Reston will see half-again to twice as many office workers clogging its roads, Metrorail, and buses than the newly-approved Reston Master Plan expects.  Talk about gridlock, pollution, loss of quality of life, ....

Click here for the rest of the CoreNet article.