Supply chain constraints, shifting consumer demands adding cost pressures to office fit-outs

Cushman & Wakefield’s 2022 Americas Office Fit-Out Cost Guide found supply chain constraints and shifting consumer demands will continue to add pressure to costs, both in materials and labor.

Increases in construction and customer demand for durable and non-durable goods have driven supply chain disruptions over the past two years. COVID-19 outbreaks and labor shortages have also wreaked havoc through ports and on trucking, transportation, and distribution capacities. The supply chain stress indices for both China and the U.S. ended 2021 up over 40% from pre-pandemic levels.

For office construction and fit-outs, these stressors have created increased delays, greater uncertainty, and higher costs. There appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel, though,
as the supplier delivery index that measures manufacturer delays has been receding
since the middle of 2021, the report says.

The waning of the pandemic may add more fuel to cost pressures, however, as office tenants are targeting the first half of 2022 for employees to return to a more standard office attendance model. “As office space usage increases, we expect organizations will expand their piloting and testing of different types of layouts related to hybrid work,” the report says. “This is likely to increase the amount of fit-out and office space construction activity in the coming quarters, creating even more demand for materials and labor.”

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.