SAN DIEGO-The results of a year-long research project titled Corporate Real Estate 2020, which brought together hundreds of CRE global thought leaders to analyze and parse the corporate real estate industry’s current and future state, were revealed during this week’s CoreNet Global Summit here. The project, through interviews with more than 150 CRE executives, service providers and economic developers, examined a wide range of external and macro-economic, societal, political and other influences, triangulating these drivers against trends affecting the globally networked enterprise and CRE itself.
The initiative focused on eight industry domains that are key to corporate real estate’s success: enterprise leadership, partnering with key support functions, portfolio optimization and asset management, sustainability, location strategy and the role of place, technology tools, service delivery and outsourcing and workplace. Under each domain were revealed bold statements about how each would be affected by the year 2020.
“We went in to test these hypotheses to see whether they held up or not,” Mary Jane Olhasso, economic development agency administrator with the County of San Bernardino, told GlobeSt.com at the Summit. The agency helped sponsor CRE 2020, and Olhasso was involved in the location-strategy research. “We did primary and secondary research on near shoring manufacturing and found that more manufacturing is occurring in developed nations.”
Olhasso adds that this research was necessary because corporate real estate executives need to base their decisions in reality. The research involved discussion topics and two case studies. “We would sit down and listen to them and try to understand what’s important to the corporates as they get into the space.”
Among the bold statements about each industry domain revealed by the project are:
- Enterprise leadership—By 2020, senior leaders will champion change in the supply side of the service industry, including more innovative partnerships and the seamless integration of internal and external resources globally.
- Partnering with key support functions—The skill-sets required to be a leader in this new integrated workplace entity will be more strategic in nature and benefit from a more diverse set of experiences, including exposure to other support functions and a far deeper understanding of the business.
- Portfolio optimization and asset management—Demand forecasting will improve and significantly narrow the band of uncertainty in regard to future requirements. Forecasting will become less dependent on management’s predictions, and better able to use external factors to predict demand.
- Sustainability—Regulatory incentives for resource efficiency and market penalties for resource inefficiency will meaningfully increase by 2020.
- Location strategy and the role of place—There will be a reemergence of manufacturing in the developed countries with smaller regional facilities.
- Technology tools—Corporate real estate strategy now includes “goodwill assets” that include third places (e.g., home offices and coffee shops) in supporting diversified workplaces that increase productivity, recognizing the value of the worker ecosystem.
- Service delivery and outsourcing—Clientele will drive service providers to grow their platforms internationally.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
