Office Space Serves as a Petri Dish

SAN FRANCISCO—Robust job growth among firms employing fewer than 50 people, office tenants who are requiring more collaborative workspaces and fewer private ones, and the ascension of 18-hour cities as magnets for capital. These are among the major trends influencing the commercial real estate industry, according to the 37th annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2016, co-published by the Urban Land Institute and PwC US, which was released Wednesday at the ULI Fall Meeting.

According to the report, 46% of new job growth that has occurred since 2013 has taken place in firms employing fewer than 50 workers—a rate five times that of job growth within companies that employ more than 1,000 people. This trend is playing out in the kinds of office spaces, as well as in a new approach to parking that reflects an increasingly mobile and remote workforce, according to Andy Warren, PwC’s director of real estate research and co–principal author of the report with Anita Kramer, ULI senior vice president and director of ULI’s Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate.