Real estate professionals say coworking is not a flash in the pan

A majority of corporate real estate professionals polled at CoreNet Global Summits in North America, Europe, and Asia in 2018 and 2019 believe that coworking is a trend that will continue to grow and impact their markets.

Some 63% of respondents currently have coworking property within their portfolios, according to a report published by Cushman & Wakefield. What’s more, nearly two-thirds of the companies surveyed have a positive or very positive view of coworking.

The median company surveyed has 3% of its employee base using coworking regularly. This percentage is expected to grow fivefold within the next five years, the survey found.

Across all global regions, the top two benefits to coworking are flexibility (e.g., the ability to quickly ramp office space up and down) and reduced real estate costs. Digital security is the most commonly cited potential downside, with decreased company culture and cohesion and personal privacy named second and third by most respondents.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.