How will the office experience change when shelter-in-place restrictions are lifted? It is a question that property managers are starting to ask. As restrictions ease across the country, property managers are implementing ways to make the office experience touch-less or contact-less for tenants and their employees. At JLL, they are referring to the process as reactivation.
"We are starting to think about a re-entry program, and we are starting to think about how to set the stage for people to get back into office buildings," Peter Belisle market director of the southwest, tells GlobeSt.com. "Property managers have been very active in this process, and they are acting as a bridge between the tenant and the landlords."
This experience will attempt to get tenants from the parking garage to individual units without touching anything. That will mean eschewing elevator buttons, requiring social distancing in the lobby, installing automatic doors and parking equipment and requiring protective gear. JLL's property management teams are also actively connecting with tenants to understand expectations in shared spaces. "We have had some great tenant-to-tenant forums and sharing what the expectations are of the landlords and of each other," says Belisle. "We are trying to get tenants to move through the building in a contact-less way. That has been a really interesting discussion."
It isn't only property managers that are on the forefront of managing the in-building experience. Owners are requesting these programs to make the transition easier and create stability. "The more sophisticated owners realize that this is going to be around for a while," says Belisle. "The ability to respond to these nuances will go a long way in attracting new tenants and retaining old tenants. This is going to be considered a competitive advantage. The building owners that are thinking about this and are making the tenants' safety a priority will have an advantage."
Property managers are playing an integral role in not only executing these strategies but in navigating the nuances and finding solutions. "Owners are really relying on property managers to establish the operations protocol," says Belisle. "Concierge level mentality is going to be really important in establishing those practices."
After the shelter-in-place restrictions, property managers were focused on mitigating rent loss. Those plans and programs are now in place, and now, property managers are focused on preparing the building for tenants to return. "The deferral and abatement discussion has been heavy on the retail side. There is some discussion on the office and industrial side," adds Belisle. "Right now, the focus is about thinking through the logistics of getting people back to work."
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Kelsi Maree Borland
