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It's “Meaningful Office” Now, Not Creative

Office performance may be flat, but these developers are willing to build unique office experiences in select West Coast markets, just don't use the term creative.

By Kelsi Maree Borland | kelsimareeborland | Updated on September 14, 2017

“Creative space is the most overused term,” said Jeffrey M. Worthe, president of Worthe Real Estate Group, on the Development, Leasing and Market Experts panel at Allen Matkins‘ annual View From the Top conference in Beverly Hills. The panel was stacked with developers and investors—Sam Caven of Starwood Capital Group; Derek K. Hunter, Jr., president of Hunter Properties; Christopher Rising, president of Rising Realty Partners; Scott Strafford, principal and co-founder of Strada Investment Group—who all discussed major West Coast markets where they were building “meaningful office” properties.

Rising, who is known for breathing life back into Downtown Los Angeles’ historic office stock, echoed the overuse of the term “creative,” and said that they try to create spaces that work with people’s lifestyles. “I think creative is overused, but there is a fundamental fact that your employees are working 24-7, so an office has to be more. I think that there needs to be space to break out and have a different experience. It is about collaboration. You need different types of spaces throughout a day,” he said.

Worthe is taking a similar approach. He has three entitled properties in Santa Monica, which is a notoriously difficult area to build. “That community is very organized, and committed to stopping development; so, entitlements take a long time. We are finding building office buildings is becoming more difficult, and that means the value of those buildings are only going to increase. What happens to markets when you can’t build meaningful office buildings anymore?”

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