San Diego Tenants Slow to Adopt Open Office

All industries—not just creative companies—are gravitating toward open office floor plans and integrating technology, according to CBRE’s 2018 occupier survey. In San Diego, office tenants have been slower to adopt the more flexible office strategy, but that is changing. Andrew Ewald, first VP at CBRE, says that he is getting more frequent requests from tenants looking to update their office space, and he believes that the trend will grow substantially in the next three years. To find out more how this trend is playing out in the San Diego market, we sat down with Ewald for an exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: Why are you seeing more companies starting to adopt an open-office workplace strategy?

Andrew Ewald: It is really two fold. First, open floor plans are a great way to manage operating expenses for businesses. If you can fit into less square footage, you have a lower out of pocket cost going toward real estate. But, I think the real driver both locally and nationally deals with the employees. I think the employees are demanding not only a flexible work environment, but the work environment is part of their employee experience. Business owners are being mindful of dated ways to plan space that is really ineffective for the way that businesses are operating today. You are seeing activity-based workspace, and there is a lot more collaboration. The advances in mobile technology also allow people to work differently. So, business owners are well aware that this is a great way to manage real estate costs and a great way to keep employees happy and productive.