Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in leadership and the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners": corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. Each day we can become a better version of ourselves.

1. Sublet Space Growth Slows in New York and Other Major Cities

New York’s recovery is accelerating, with both hotel occupancy and outdoor dining picking up in May. And the rebound is expected to get help from the planned lifting of most restrictions once 70% of adults in New York state are partially vaccinated; the current rate is 69%, according to the latest federal data.

But the good news has not fully made its way to the office sector. That’s not surprising, as office usage in New York remains among the lowest in the nation, with Kastle Systems reporting that less than one in five workers are back in the office.

Still, there are some positive developments in the New York City office market. Sublet space appears to no longer be piling up. Despite increasing by about 10% in the first quarter of 2021, the amount of available sublease space has increased by less than 1% during the second quarter.

2. Are You Over Zoom Meetings, Too? Let’s Talk

Have you dumped your Zoom group yet? If not, it’s probably only a matter of time.

Our virtual social lives are drying up. Zoom, Houseparty and other platforms that were a lifeline during the Covid-19 lockdowns now feel like a chore. Virtual gatherings are harder to schedule. The limitations are getting tougher to tolerate. Even long-lost friends who reconnected during the pandemic have lost interest in video chatting.

Zoom most certainly will continue as a workplace tool, but for socializing, “I think people will be ditching Zoom in droves,” predicts Richard Slatcher, a psychology professor at the University of Georgia. As the world opens up, virtual gatherings are proving no match for ones in real life.

In an April survey of 2,000 American adults conducted a year ago by the Siena College Research Institute, 60% said they had used video chat to talk with friends and family during the prior week. In April 2021, the share had dropped to 36%, according to Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas, who commissioned the two surveys.

3. The Hospitality Industry Is On Its Way Back, And Investors Are Returning As Well

The coronavirus pandemic put much of the economy on ice in 2020, especially the hospitality industry, but this year a thaw began, and investors are ready to start buying hotels again.

The Hunter Hotel Investment Conference was held last week in Atlanta, attracting more than 1,100 participants, according to NewcrestImage CEO and Chairman Mehul Patel. And the mood was buoyant.

“They were all looking for investment opportunities,” he said.

Patel and NewcrestImage have already caught the mood. Earlier this year, the Grapevine, Texas-based firm, which now owns and operates about 30 hotel properties, established a hotel investment fund that Patel said will eventually swell to $100M. He has already raised $35M, and new investors keep popping up, adding about $5M to the fund each month.

That appetite is a sign that 2021 could be a big year for hotel trades. Patel said he’s optimistic that good properties will be available. Some owners will be seeking exits after enduring more than one year of hardship, while other investors see the return of summer and leisure travel as opportunities to buy in a market that is finally on the upswing. In addition, construction costs are soaring, so hotel companies that want to grow don’t have many options.

4. Cola-Cola Sets September Date for Atlanta Area Employees to Return to Headquarters

In an email sent to its workforce in the Atlanta area, Coca-Cola said its Atlanta Office Campus would be open for all employees on Sept. 7, the day after Labor Day, after being closed to most workers since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.

The beverage maker plans to reconfigure its 35-acre office complex on North Avenue near downtown Atlanta to incorporate new ways of working, according to the email from Lisa Chang, global chief people officer at Coca-Cola, and Barry Simpson, senior vice president and chief platform services officer. Coca-Cola provided a copy of the email to CoStar News.

"We are working to build our new, flexible and networked ways of working into our physical space," Chang and Simpson said. "It’s a concept called neighborhoods that will enable us to connect and collaborate more easily. We will share more about these exciting plans and the impact on your workspace and the campus in the coming weeks."

5. What Working From Home Taught Us About Our Office Setups

He has a second set of the exact same lighting devices at his home office in Tenafly, N.J., where he still works one or two days a week. “Two pairs of everything” is his motto today. Another pandemic-era work habit that stuck with him is switching from old-school pen and paper to an iPad app called GoodNotes. It got hard to keep track of notebooks in his house, since he used to break up his workday to spend time with his 3-year-old son.

“I’d say my workflow is way better and more streamlined now,” he says.

Across the country, workers are re-evaluating their work-from-home setups as conventional offices slowly reopen. Some, like Mr. Marans, are bringing elements of the home offices that they perfected during the pandemic back with them. Others are paring down their domestic workspaces now that remote work is more quotidian instead of the special occasion it became last spring.

Carole Ingber, a New York City talent agent, says that the pandemic inspired her to deal with a chaotic pileup of paperwork that had taken over her professional life. Last spring, when she schlepped all those materials home to continue her job remotely, she became overwhelmed and hired a professional organizer. She then invested in hanging folders, a filing drawer, a dedicated spot to drop mail and a stationery container.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!

Ken Ashley