From cafes and restaurants to fitness centers and event spaces, amenities are playing a central role in office leasing. As we emerge from the pandemic and office users cement new workplace strategies, amenities have become a way to lure employees back to the office as well as justify trimmed down office floorplans.

"Some of the newer buildings have incredible amenity spaces. There is going to be big competition among landlords to compete in the marketplace. These amenity spaces are going to be the thing that people are going to look for," Rob Gilman, co-head of the real estate group at Anchin, tells GlobeSt.com.

While amenities have continued to get bigger and more impressive, Gilman says that the most valuable amenities today are those that replace square footage in the office. These include conference rooms, training facilities, collaboration spaces and event spaces. Companies can leverage these communal spaces while downsizing their office footprint, a win-win in the post-pandemic world where employees are not in the office daily. "A lot of companies require a significant amount of conference room and training facilities space. Companies are looking to lease space in buildings that have this availability as part of the building amenities," says Gilman.