Office Landlords Race to Expand Amenities, Flex Space

Owner/operator Viking Partners, a Cincinnati-based investment firm, has been busy renovating its office buildings to add amenities which are shared by all office tenants, including lounges, fitness centers, catering kitchens and flex meeting spaces.

According to Abigail Murray, Construction Manager for Viking, creating shared space for amenities in office buildings allows tenants adjusting to hybrid work strategies to maximize their leased office footprints without having to assign space to large conference rooms and other gathering spaces.

“Adding flexible spaces to our buildings removes some of the pressure to solve all workspace uncertainties all at once. This is important as the office space market is still trying to stabilize and navigate flex work schedules,” Murray said, in an interview with GlobeSt.com.

Office tenants increasingly have been asking landlords to provide more amenities to draw workers back to in-person office work at a time when most businesses are embracing hybrid work strategies.

According to Murray, companies that may have considered downsizing their office footprints are recognizing that squeezing their workers together in a smaller space is not an attractive office environment for a labor force that now has a much greater say in how many days per week are spent in the office.

“I think a lot of employers were hopeful to be able to give back space with this transition towards remote working. But they also have been very conscious about not squeezing and putting people on top of each other. So, when they do have people working, they’re having to spread out a little bit more and provide a little more breathing room,” Murray told GlobeSt.com.

Murray cited a recent build-out of Viking’s 199K SF office building, 3100 Easton, in Columbus, OH, as an example of how the owner/operator is working with its tenants to design and renovate shared flex space.

The communal services at 3100 Easton now include indoor and outdoor lounges, conference rooms, fresh micro-market food and beverages, FOODA pop-up catering and event spaces, and caterer’s kitchen. The shared amenities occupy about 26K SF in the building.

FlightSafety International, a Columbus-based operator of flight simulators used in pilot training, is leasing new 34,624K SF headquarters in the building.

“(FlightSafety) was able to put a lot of people in their tenant suite because we offered so many building amenities that they could utilize at no additional cost to them,” Murray said.