No question the world is changing and office space now comes in all shapes and sizes! But I think Chris Erickson, a partner with Denver-based venture capital firm Range Ventures, is right on with his quote, “Even with all of the remote productivity tools available these days, I haven’t seen anything I think replaces the meeting in a conference room with a whiteboard. For companies in that growth stage, the benefit of colocating and solving hard problems together way outweighs the cost.”
Tech Companies Still Need Offices. But Here’s How Their Look and Location Are Changing.
By Katie Burke – CoStar News
September 12, 2022
As the 2010s came to a close, tech workers would swarm around the Salesforce Tower in downtown San Francisco on weekday mornings, filling the nearby cafes, light rail stations and soaring office buildings stacked with companies eager to lease distinctive space.
More than three and a half years later, the weekday scene is far quieter, with many workers at home on any given workday. The pandemic spurred early-stage startups and international tech heavyweights to shift to remote, hybrid and flexible work models that led them to reduce, relocate or completely vacate office properties across the country.
Companies are still investing in physical space, but on a smaller, more dispersed scale. Customer service software maker Salesforce has taken a long-term lease at a ranch in a remote Silicon Valley mountain suburb, while search engine giant Google has adopted outdoor work campuses and “Team Pods.” Tech companies are entering a workplace transition that could have a lasting effect on some of the most prominent and expensive U.S. office markets.
“Companies are being smarter with their dollars,” said Samantha Martz, a JLL executive vice president and leader of its High-Growth Technology group in San Francisco. “They were leasing a ton of space in the days before the pandemic, but now the approach is to lease a smaller amount that can be used extremely purposefully in order to let teams be more productive and to have those in-person moments be valuable. Yes, maybe it isn’t five days a week, but when workers do come in, that time is very important and impactful.”
