Amazon, Zoom, robot megatrends set new pace for CRE

The Kansas City chapter of CoreNet Global hosted futurist Nikki Greenberg for a virtual presentation on Thursday, November 5.

Greenberg, an architect by trade, worked in real estate development in Sydney, Australia before relocating to New York four years ago where she founded Real Estate of the Future, American PropTech and Women in PropTech.

According to Greenberg, the pandemic accelerated technological changes that were already underway and created opportunities for the commercial real estate industry to embrace these changes.

“We have a construction site without a blueprint. The world has fundamentally changed. The industry’s been blowing up, and there’s rubble everywhere. As real estate professionals, it’s up to us to decide now that we know that things have been dismantled, what do we want to build . What do we want the future to look like for our industry, our assets, for our buildings and for the people who occupy them,” Greenberg said.

Although technology is changing at an exponential rate, Greenberg said we tend to think about the here and now; however, there are several megatrends that are going to cause fundamental shifts within the commercial real estate industry.

The pandemic increased the prevalence of checking in with our devices, using QR codes and other methods of touch-free entry into buildings. Greenberg said these types of technology are here to stay.

“So you do want to be thinking about your touch-free access and how you’re using technology for your building and your spaces to make it a more pleasurable experience,” Greenberg said.

Greenberg said that because of the uncertainty of when people will return to the office and what future space requirements will be, flex space operators are the future because they are flexible and nimble. Flex space is designed to respond to current conditions and absorb risk.

“They have desks that anyone can jump in on, depending on the provider. So, you give that uncertainty over to a third party. Then it becomes a shared space and you’re not having to have redundant space that’s not being used,” said Greenberg.

Greenberg said that Amazon represents a megatrend, and the real estate industry needs to watch what Amazon is doing.

“Amazon is very much making a new market. They are big consumers of real estate and of course all of the technological changes that they’re bringing--drones, robots, and so forth--and that’s going to start impacting our assets and sales,” said Greenberg.

Greenberg said that nine out of the top ten purchases on Amazon this year have been electronics, including laptops, iPads, ear buds and AirPods - devices that users can move around their space.

“So people aren’t wanting to have a fixed workspace; they’re not buying desktop computers. They’re wanting to choose where they work. So we should be thinking about that in terms of workplace design. People want to choose where they work,” she said.

Greenberg said using robots represents another megatrend.

“I think within our industry, robots provide a huge opportunity and will be hugely disruptive, but we just aren’t speaking about them enough,” said Greenberg.

Greenberg noted that in warehouse spaces, robots can move parcels; in office spaces, they can deliver parcels to desks; and on college campuses, robots deliver food. And, she said, all the delivery companies have been experimenting with drones and are working to obtain clearance to make drone deliveries.

“In the future, how are packages being delivered? Are they coming through the front door or through a loading dock or are they coming through the roof or a window,” said Greenberg.

Another megatrend is the emergence of Zoom, which, Greenberg said, fundamentally has shifted the way we work.

“So you have to think about how you design for Zoom to connect people that are working from home or working from a third place with those that are in the office working there physically or in a Board room,” said Greenberg.

Greenberg said it’s up to us to choose how much we want to embrace the new technologies and new ways of working.

“The reality is that as the way we live changes, the way we provide our spaces to facilitate the activities happening inside needs to change alongside with it,” she said.

Sociologist makes case why the office must not go away

Dr. Tracy Brower, a Ph.D. sociologist and a principal with Steelcase, joined CoreNet Global KC and moderator, David Brite, strategic account manager at Steelcase, on a live webcast event yesterday.

Dr. Brower, who studies the sociology of work and the changing nature of work, workers and the workplace for Steelcase's Applied Research + Consulting group, discussed her expertise and perspective on working from an office versus working from home.

“One of the things we know is that it’s not an either/or (situation). Some amount of work from home will continue; but, we know the office is utterly critical and we know that it is so important to our success moving forward,” said Dr. Brower.

Dr. Brower contends that the office cannot and must not go away for several reasons.

The first reason has to do with innovation.  

“When we’re in the office together, we can move so much more quickly and we have this unimpeded fast flow of ideas. We just can’t go fast enough using technology. When you’re in person, you’re in a room together, building on each other’s ideas and you’re interrupting each other in a constructive way. That fast flow is critical for innovation,” said Dr. Brower.

Another reason the office must stay relates to talent and engagement. 

“We want to keep people engaged, we want to retain talent, and that’s harder to do when people are home,” said Dr. Brower.  

In addition, Dr. Brower contends that the office is critical for reasons of humanity and empathy. 

“There is an absolute scientific connection between our ability to be present with other people and our health and well-being. When people are connected with others—person to person and not just connected through technology—they have less morbidity and less mortality. It is our instinct to come together in groups,” Dr. bower said.

Purpose is another critical reason to preserve the workplace. 

“When we are together in a place, it makes a really big difference in terms of our common sense of purpose,” said Dr. Brower.

Related to purpose is energy.

 “There’s something about being together that tends to energize us and motivate us,” she said.

 Dr. Brower contends that communications effectiveness is another reason we need the office. 

“When we have information density, it means that more people know more things immediately. It helps us stay aligned, and it helps us get things done. .We need to feel like we are tuned in.  We need to feel like we’re in the loop in terms of information,” she said.

Another reason the office is critical relates to variety and movement. When we are at home, our brains become really bored.  We need the variety and routine of getting out, Dr. Brower said.  In addition, working solely from home causes us to experience temporal disintegration. 

“That is the scientific reason that you don’t know what day it is. It’s a lot easier to remember when we can link the memory to physical locations that are different,” she acknowledged.

According to Dr. Brower, we also need to maintain boundaries. A little separation between home and office life is healthy.

Finally, the reason the office must not go away relates to culture.

“Culture is what people do when no one is looking. When we sent everybody home, we just didn’t have the same opportunities anymore to experience our culture. We can’t just look up and run into our leader who’s walking through the space and check in. We can’t look up and see our teammates around us,” she said.

“Familiarity breeds acceptance. The more we see people, the closer our relationship will be. The more we see certain information, the more we’re used to things, the more we tend to accept them and like them.”  

Being together in the workplace breeds our ability to bring diverse ideas together. “It helps us to feel like we can bring our best and like we are accepted to a greater extent within our broader culture as well,” noted Dr. Brower.

“We know we can work from home effectively. We’ve been doing it. We’ve also been hearing that people are starting to hit a wall. And we’re hearing that we know the workplace is more important than ever. So if there is a silver lining here, we are really, really understanding how important the office is because we just don’t have access to it in the same way anymore,” Dr. Bower concluded.