# Flexspace Benefits any Business… and any Property

- Link: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/thailand-prnews/flexspace-benefits-any-business-and-any-property
- Published: 2023-03-12T13:50:37+07:00
- Author: International Workplace Group

Jamal Brown, founder of San Diego commercial real estate firm The Ocean Company,
thinks that flexspaces are the future. Could commercial landlords that don’t embrace
them get left behind?

As a commercial property owner, you want to be assured of security, stability, and
sustainable growth. But in the age of hybrid working, commercial landlords may need
to rethink their definitions of how this is achieved.

Adapting to the demands of corporate clients may require a shift away from long-
term contracts on sprawling office spaces, and towards flexible leasing of bespoke
workspaces. 

The last couple of years have necessitated a major paradigm shift within the commercial
real estate industry. The pandemic has catalysed a growing trend for flexible working,
with an increasing number of companies responding to employee demand by embracing
a hybrid model. 

This enables employees to split their time between the office, home and a local 
coworking space. These spaces are often adaptable and can be leased on a flexible
basis to meet the client’s needs, whether they need a meeting room, a co-working
space, hotdesking suites, break-out areas, or a combination of the same. This emerging
trend in client demand has caused many commercial landlords and franchise operators
to rethink their strategies. 

As Founder and Principal of [The Ocean Company](http://theoceanco.com/), a San Diego-
based firm that specialises in tenant representation, Jamal Brown has been at the
frontline of this revolution. 

## “Workers value their freedom”

Brown firmly believes that flexible workspaces are a crucial element of this workspace
revolution. Both commercial landlords and franchise operators are instrumental in
helping their clients to navigate this new operational method, adapting their offerings
to meet the client’s needs. 

“There are a lot of people who left the office at the beginning of the pandemic 
and don’t really want to return,” he says. “That’s especially true of younger workers,
who now value more freedom in their work environment. They don’t want to commute
45 minutes each way on a busy freeway every day of the week.

> They want the flexibility of being able to get their work done somewhere close
> to where they live, which means they don’t have to commute into a centralised 
> office five days a week.
> Jamal Brown, Founder and Principal of The Ocean Company

“Employers are therefore becoming more heavily dependent on large national or international
flexspace operators, because you can have one centralised office, but also many 
smaller satellite offices in the heart of communities where your workforce can go
to do their work, potentially even meet as a team and be happier.”

Brown, who swapped a career in insurance for commercial property management in 2001,
notes that while flexible workspaces have had a presence in his native San Diego
for some time, they have both exploded in numbers and adapted their offerings in
recent years. 

Up until a couple of years ago, they were more traditional in style and what they
offered customers. Now, he says, clients have many more interesting, exciting options
with a greater focus on collaboration and working in relaxed environments. Conventional
office spaces have given way to business lounges and breakout meeting areas. Brown
has also noticed that flexspaces are increasingly opening in San Diego’s ‘neighbourhoods’
outside of the commercial Downtown centre – such as North Park and East Village –
which reflects the 15-Minute City trend that has been growing around the world.

Commercial landlords are thinking outside the box and adapting their portfolios 
to include properties that are closer to residential areas, outside of their comfort
zone of commercial hubs. These can provide a workspace that is often more convenient
for employees than meeting at company HQ. 

## “Figure out what’s going to make your employee base happy”

Both corporate clients and their employees benefit substantially from the use of
flexspaces. Regardless of size and sector, by offering clients membership to a flexspace
operator with multiple centres in the city, commercial landlords can save their 
clients the expense and commitment that come with a central office, helping them
to reduce their real estate spend and increasing their profitability.

“Flexspace can benefit businesses of any size in any sector,” Brown explains. “All
you need to do is pick up memberships or choose a couple of different offices around
the city or country where your employees are based. Or, better still, use a global
operator like IWG where memberships grant access to thousands of workspaces worldwide.”

He says that CEOs who ignore trends such as hybrid working and fail to recognise
the benefits of investing in flexspace risk being left behind.

“I believe that going forward, companies that recognise we can still get all our
work done by adopting the hybrid model are going to outperform ones that don’t.

“A lot of founders want to think of their company as their baby. But when it comes
down to your employees and what they’re doing for the company, that’s paramount.
So it’s really more important to figure out what’s going to make your employee base
happy and productive, and think about what’s going to help you retain the people
that are really making this company profitable.”

But business leaders aren’t the only ones that could get left behind. Unless landlords
adapt their offerings to better cater to changes in their clients’ demands, they
may not be getting the most out of their properties.

## “Companies will favour a hub-and-spoke model”

Landlords are ideally positioned to cater to the needs of their commercial clients.
But Brown hastens to add that clients first need to initiate conversations with 
employees about their requirements.

“A lot of times, larger companies don’t have a discussion with their employees or
fail to do an employee survey,” he says. “But it’s important to find out who wants
to come back to the office and who is more comfortable with doing a hybrid flex 
model, either at their central office or with other flexible office options around
town […] we need to promote that to our clients so that they understand how much
space they really need as they go forward.”

After all, hybrid working and flexspace are here to stay. [The majority of FTSE 250 firms](https://work.iwgplc.com/MediaCentre/Article/major-firms-embrace-hybrid-working)
are actively seeking to adapt to the hybrid model, and we can expect smaller companies
to follow suit. 

“I don’t think that we’re going to go back to a time where every single person is
coming into a centralised office, especially for larger companies,” adds Brown. “
As long as work is getting done, as long as companies continue to be profitable,
they’re going to look at the real estate spending of having, for example, two floors
in a building to house all their employees as a wasted expense.

“Instead, they will continue to favour a hub-and spoke-model that consolidates a
relatively decent-sized central office, combined with the use of flexible workspaces
or smaller satellite offices in areas where employees live.”

**At IWG, we have spent 30 years refining and optimising our business model. As 
the world’s largest provider of flexible working solutions, we’re passionate about
helping landlords and franchisees join the workspace revolution. **[**Find out how we can support you today.**](https://www.iwgplc.com/en-gb/develop-a-location?utm_source=Thailand-business-news&utm_medium=propertyportal&utm_campaign=real-estate&utm_content=article-Flexspace-Benefits)