Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the AE firm Gresham Smith had a client in Tennessee that was in the process of consolidating 1,000 of its employees into an office building that already had 1,000 of its workers. This client would never have discussed the words free addresses or shared desking, says Jack Weber, IIDA, LEED AP, the firms Senior Vice President and Design Principal. But after the virus spread to its market, were doing planning to evaluate unassigned desking for that company, says Weber.

The consideration of additional remote working alternatives and possibly unassigned seating is to create greater desired flexibility for employees, now that the client has tested and invested in remote working and is gaining trust in its employees, explains Weber. The other considerations are for future risk mitigation that will increase business continuity and resiliency during future events. Weber says a second client is also considering this future strategy.

The workplace, post COVID-19, is being viewed as the first line of defense in preventing the spread of infectious germs, states J. Kevin Heinly, AIA, LEED AP, Principal and Managing Director of Genslers San Diego office. In a paper he wrote about redesigning office lobbies, Heinly homed in on improving air quality, designing with antimicrobial materials, leveraging automation and voice activation, and using sensors to screen visitors.

It seemed that everyone had an opinion about workplace infection control. Even National Geographic chimed in with an articlethat explored how the pandemic exacerbated workers fears about returning to workplaces with open-office spaces.

MassMotion, Arups pedestrian dynamics and evacuation simulation software, can also be used to guide the design in environments like office buildings and parks with an eye toward social distancing. In the simulations, agents within six feet turn red and have their time in proximity logged to help test population and operational scenarios.

The digital library site Scribd posted a Back to Work Checklist,based on guidelines established by Congresss bipartisan Member Problem-Solving Caucus, which laid out the public health and economic criteria necessary for workplaces to reopen, including rapid and ubiquitous testing and establishing a contact tracing database.

COVID-19 created a need for workplace continuity in such areas as crisis management, business planning, and disaster recovery planning, says Peter Miscovich, JLLs Managing Director of Strategy and Innovation. Developers, building managers, AEC firms, and tenant companies had to think harder about what it would take to make returning office workers more comfortable and confident that their workplaces are continuously safe.

BuroHappold Engineerings head of analytics Shrikant Sharma cant see how workplace models that include assembly lines and open-plan offices would be tenable for the foreseeable future. Such settings are not conducive to social distancing, says Sharma, who is the Group Director of the firm's Smart Space team.

Using predictive modeling that draws on Internet-of-Things data sets, BuroHappold concluded that beyond 40% occupancy, revisions to desk layout and high footfall areas will be needed to keep occupants six feet from each other.

The future of office space is less densification: far less benching and hoteling, more private areas, more virtual meetings, concurs Andrew Horning, LEED AP, Vice President and COVID-19 Task Force Leader with Bala Consulting Engineers. During the pandemic, Bala published a white paperthat offers detailed infection-control guidelines and solutions for HVAC, filtration, bipolar ionization, UV lighting, pressurization and airflow, humification, ductwork sanitization, and air purification, as well as separate solutions for plumbing, technology, and workplace environment.

Bala recommended imposing greater control on what and who come into buildings. It anticipated greater demand for negative air pressure in common areas like kitchens, says Scott Davis, PE, the firms Vice President and COVID-19 Research Leader. The coronavirus aftermath could even trigger more building renovations and repurposing, says Charles Kensky, Balas Executive Vice President and COVID-19 Research leader.

Its safe to say that we wont go back to the way things were, says Steve Riojas, Global Director of Education and Technology with HDR. Sharron van der Meulen, Partner and Interior Design Practice Leader with ZGF Architects in Portland, Ore., added that as people returned to their workplaces, tenants will need to do some backtracking on space and amenities to discourage workers from gathering in larger groups.

To that end, Cushman & Wakefield, Hines, Delos, and the Well Living Lab in late April announced a collaboration to evaluate methods and establish guidelines for a safe return back to work. The Lab, which is adjacent to the Mayo Clinic campus in Rochester, Minn., is using its office space to gauge practices and technology that might reduce the risk of respiratory virus transmissions.

Cushman & Wakefield is contributing workplace strategy and design protocols. Delos is lending its expertise in air filtration. And Hines, with a global real estate portfolio of more than 500 properties, is drawing on its six decades as a leading developer.

Prior to this announcement, Cushman & Wakefields Recovery Readiness Task Force released a tool kit and protocols for tenants to transition back to work. This includes a 6 feet office concept whose traffic routing is laid out to ensure employees are maintaining social distancing. The elements of this concept include an analysis of current working spaces, workable agreements and rules with employees for personal safety, workstations with personal protective components, training for facility managers, and a certificate stating that these measures are being implemented.

Cushman & Wakefields 6 feet office concept

Along these same lines, Daniel Yudchitz, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, Senior Design Architect with Leo A Daly in Minneapolis, recently sketched out a space utilization concept that reimagines the office as a mix of remote and centralized work. Dubbed Converge and Disperse, the concept foresees the amount of space that a tenant can own shifting dramatically, with shared or elastic amenities becoming a bigger part of a buildings offering.

Space shared by multiple tenants on each floor could lead to experimentation with new materials and assembly patterns to enable flexibility. And when workers must disperse, buildings could save energy by being divided into zones whose energy and electricity could be shut down.

None of the AEC sources interviewed by BD+C imagined that human interaction in workplaces would come to a halt. Sustaining social distancing, though, will also require discipline that tests the limits of most workers adaptability.

Clients that place a premium on culture will likely always want a robust physical workplace, says Lise Newman, AIA, Vice President and Workplace Practice Director with SmithGroup.

But even she thought open benching was a thing of the past, and that workers henceforth will expect companies to supply them with personal hygiene aids, like wipes to disinfect keyboards, desktops, and unassigned seats.

Changes in workspaces will likely be more behavioral than physical, observes Fred Schmidt, FIIDA, LEED AP, a Principal in Perkins and Wills Chicago office. Associate Principal Michelle Osburn adds that companies need to alter their policies to make it more culturally acceptable for employees to stay home when theyre not feeling well. The argument that you need to be in the office to do your work has been proven false on a stunning scale, she says.

In its white paper on COVID-19 and the impacts to the workplace, Bala Consulting Engineers provides several HVAC solutions to infection control, including UVC lamps installed within an MEP duct system to kill microorganisms in the airstream.

Remote working might have been more prevalent, before the virus hit, than most people knew. Rebecca Milne, LEED GA, Perkins Eastmans Director of Design Strategy, recalls reading a 2016 study that estimated 43% of U.S. employees worked remotely at least occasionally, and that on any given day 50% to 60% of office desks were empty.

Angie Lee, Vice President and Global Sector Leader-Office Workplace for Stantec in Chicago, cites another recent survey that found nearly three-quarters of the companies polled saying they would move at least 5% of their positions to remote working.

WRNS Studio in San Francisco, which has four offices and 200-plus employees, took our business to the cloud years ago, so remote working during the pandemic wasnt such a big deal, says Sam Nunes, the firms Founding Partner. While he doesnt think WRNS would ever go 100% remote, he can envision more online collaboration as employees rotate in and out of his companys offices. A lot of this will be HR-driven, and depend on new protocols for human interaction, he predicted.

James Woolum, AIA, IIDA, a Partner and Interior Architect at ZGF Architects in Los Angeles, speculated that somewhere between 30% and 40% of companies future workforces could be working from home regularly. And if there are 60 employees in an office that once accommodated 100, spreading them out for social distancing will be easier.

Whatever number of workers eventually works from home, the entire digital platform will become a very big deal to facilitate virtual collaboration, says Stantecs Lee. She also thought that Stantec would need to provide its workplace clients with designs that include larger assembly spaces for when companies bring together their associates at different times of the year. Those designs, she says, would require code changes pertaining to exits and life safety, as well as the number of restrooms needed for that space.

Greater attention to hygiene and cleanliness will distinguish the workplace of the future. The short-term impact of the virus will be more personal space. Handwashing will become more of a regimen, says Connor Glass, Principal and Design Director with Perkins Eastman.

While some AEC sources, like Gresham Smiths Weber, say their clients arent quite ready to discuss antimicrobial solutions, the general consensus among AEC sources is that healthier materials will be deemed essential for workplaces. Wellness will be ascendant, says WRNSs Nunes.

Bipolar ionization, an infection control solution proposed by Bala Consulting Engineers, releases positive and negative ions into the airstream to help the buildings filtration system capture contaminants.

Technology will come into play in such areas as advanced cleaning and sanitizing practices, touchless interaction with objects via automation or voice activation, and the use of UV lights, biometrics, and temperature-monitoring devices that prevent germs from wafting into the building.

Air quality is one of the most compromised aspects of a building, says Shona ODea, BEMP, RESET AP, WELL AP, LEED AP, Senior Associate and Building Performance Analyst with DLR Group. Thats particularly true of office buildings, where only 25% of their airflow comes from the outside. But indoor air quality has mostly focused on improving employees cognition and productivity, notes Milne of Perkins Eastman.

The presence of the coronavirus has shifted that conversation to infection control. In a paper on achieving healthier working environments, Stantecs Sustainability Team Leader Rachel Bannon-Godfrey grouped indoor air quality with building conditions assessments, handwashing infrastructure, industrial hygiene, and mental health design support. Her recommendations include adapting building controls and sequencing to accommodate and monitor additional filtration needs.

ALSO SEE: How the coronavirus is impacting the AEC industry

In a subsequent interview with BD+C, Bannon-Godfrey added that clients in general are showing more interest in the WELL Building Standard, which includes ventilation and airflow guidelines, to determine what constitutes a healthier office.

More firms are positioning themselves as wellness champions these days. Casey Lindberg, PhD, Associate AIA, Senior Design Researcher with HKS, spoke of the opportunity presented by the virus outbreak to connect buildings more directly with nature and air quality. Stantec, notes Bannon-Godfrey, sits on the International Well Building Institutes COVID-19 task force, which has been analyzing the pandemic to see where its guidelines might need tweaking.

The workplace, though, wont change overnight. Several AEC sources cautioned that making workplaces healthier will require code amendments, fundamental behavioral changes on the parts of employees and property managers, and clients who can see the long-term benefits of wellness that might include costly MEP and HVAC upgrades in existing buildings.

Thats a lot to expect from Americans who, in cities around the country, ignored social distancing and stay-at-home mandates. But workplace etiquette wont tolerate such a cavalier attitude toward infection control, predicts ZGF Architects Woolum, who sees the future workplace as a convergence of nature, design, and martial law.

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Infection control in office buildings: Preparing for re-occupancy amid the coronavirus - Building Design + Construction

Whether it's a creaky old house or a brand new, state of the art office block, the buildings we live and work in have a big impact on the environment.

The challenge to reduce this footprint is sizable. According to a recent report from the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, International Energy Agency and the UN Environment Programme, building construction and operations were, globally, responsible for 36% of final energy use in 2018.

Published in December 2019, the Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction also stated that, worldwide, the sector accounted for 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2018.

It's within this context that architects, designers and lawmakers are undertaking efforts to try to boost the sustainability of the built environment.

These efforts to "green" buildings can take many forms, from using sustainable construction materials to deploying energy efficient technologies such as automatic lighting and LED bulbs.

And while new buildings can be designed with sustainability and efficiency in mind, the reality is that a lot of the planet's building stock is old.

The U.K., for example, is home to many in-use buildings that are over 100 years old. While these structures can be aesthetically striking, they can often be troubled by a raft of issues, from poor insulation and sub-standard ventilation to high maintenance costs.

Take the U.K.'s Houses of Parliament, in central London: One section of the estate, Westminster Hall, dates back to 1099. Plans are being developed to restore this sprawling, aged, complex, with lawmakers set to temporarily move out when works eventually begin.

Such a situation begs the question: Is it better to knock things down and start from scratch or take a more rounded view and retrofit and renovate older buildings so that they're cheaper to maintain and better for the environment?

"Definitely, retrofit is the way forward," Cristina Gamboa, CEO of the World Green Building Council, told CNBC's "Sustainable Energy."

"There has to be a sensibility and a consciousness of the limited resources we have in the world," she added.

To date, 28 major cities including London, Tokyo, Sydney, New York and Johannesburg have signed up to the World Green Building Council's Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.

Gamboa hailed the "leadership" of these cities, stating that they were "enacting net zero carbon buildings policies but also putting out incentives for industry to transform faster."

While retrofitting and ambitious pledges may be a useful way of boosting the performance of buildings, will we ever be able to build large-scale developments without energy intensive materials such as cement?

"So, I think the answer is no," Gamboa said. "We cannot build without it, right. There has to be solutions that address climate, people and different geographies around the world."

Read more:
The planet has a problem with buildings: Here's how smart ideas, tech and design can change that - CNBC

Eight stories is a lot for wood; Vanessa Sturgeon and Bob Thompson predict a V-shaped recovery.

Sturgeon Development Partners (SDP) plans to build one of the tallest cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings in the western United States in an opportunity zone on Southeast Grand Avenue between Ash and Pine Streets.

Called the Flatworks Building, and based at 234-236 S.E. Grand Ave., groundbreaking is set for the end of 2020, with completion in the second quarter of 2022. LMC Construction of Tualatin will be the contractor. The 130,000-square-foot speculative office building will be eight stories tall and shows the confidence that SDP's president, Vanessa Sturgeon, has in the Portland economy despite the most significant economic depression since the 1930s (see sidebar).

"We are confident in Portland's future to attract more businesses and talent to the region," said Sturgeon, who is the granddaughter of developer Tom Moyer and one of the forces behind Fox Tower and Park Avenue West.

"These have been challenging times for our city, state and country amid the coronavirus, but we will emerge from this stronger. SDP is investing now, because we believe Portland's commercial real estate industry will continue growing, and that our city's economic future is bright."

Flatworks will use Mass Plywood Panels, which are not made in the same crisscross pattern as cross-laminated timber. The building's design shows it will have an eco-roof and be green building certified, as well as having 42 parking spaces and 45 bike parking spaces. The current tallest CLT building in Portland us Carbon12 on Northeast Fremont Street, which is 85 feet tall.

At the time the design was submitted to the Bureau of Development Services, architect Bob Thompson of TVA Architects commented on the building's retro design of tall windows and a mix of precast concrete cladding and brick.

"The building will honor and respect the character and the massing the overall look and feel of the historic buildings that make up the Grand Avenue Historic District." The architect will make its design presentation to the city's Historic Land Use Commission on June 1.

Thompson said, "Oregon and the Pacific Northwest are driven by the timber industry which has allowed us to lead the nation in the continuous evolution of wood-framed buildings," said Thompson. "Portland's inner southeast industrial district over the coming decade will emerge as one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods supporting new creative office space, galleries, restaurants and housing. The views back to the city and the West Hills are unparalleled, along with its connection to light rail and our downtown core."

Thompson is optimistic about the local economy, saying the fundamentals are good and that as soon as the coronavirus restrictions are lifted, activity will rebound. The recovery will be V-shaped rather than U- or L-shaped.

Flatworks will take a year to design, but some of that work will overlap with construction drawing and groundbreaking, making it three year's work executed in two. Thompson is sure it will open in early 2022, and there will be demand for office space.

"The economy should be back up and running in a pretty big way. We're being pretty proactive about making sure that there is available office space back out on the market."

"I do think one of the best things that Oregon's done, though, is keeping the construction industry open during this period of time. It's reinforcing the economy better than a lot of states have that it's done, those that put a halt to construction. We had a number of projects in Washington that went on hold when Governor Inslee rolled construction and manufacturing into a part of their non-essential work. He's since watched what's happened in Oregon and how successful Kate Brown's program has been, and they've reopened construction now and manufacturing, which is a real positive for their economy."

He is optimistic TVA can survive on a mixture of private and publicly funded work. The firm made it through the last recession thanks to private-sector work such as the new headquarters project for Nike over in Shanghai, China, the Phil Knight-funded Matthew Knight Arena at the University of Oregon, and the Park Avenue West tower next to Nordstrom.

"They were all large projects which kept our staff in place, all well-funded projects, too, which really helped us navigate through the Great Recession. Now we're very busy in the health care area and the multifamily housing."

He points out that Park Avenue West was just a hole in the ground for five years because "it was privately funded by Mr. Moyer (Vanessa Sturgeon's grandfather). Then when they went out to the lending markets, that's when the economy obviously started to decline, in 2008, 2009."

This downturn is different.

"That recession was all economically driven. There was a lot of long term uncertainty. This (coronavirus slowdown) is a problem independent of the economy. The economy at heart is still strong. Once they find a vaccine, hopefully, the recovery time will be quite a bit shorter."

Thompson told the Business Tribune that it has been interesting seeing his team of 50 working from home and communicating well virtually.

"It's going a lot better than what I ever anticipated. I miss the collaboration or the ability to more fluidly connect with people versus like a Zoom meeting."

TVA has 30 projects on the go. Being project-based means staff has some security two or three years ahead. "Construction is up and running still, which is a blessing. We should be thankful.

Thompson has a wide-angle view of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I'm 65, and back in the late 1960s, there was the Hong Kong flu, and it killed every bit as many people as this one."

He points out that the Woodstock music festival, which pulled together 400,000 people in a field, was in the summer of 1969 right after the Hong Kong flu, which then spiked in the winter of 1969.

"We didn't have social media and the cable networks. It was pretty much left up to the medical professions and the scientists, and it wasn't politicized. It just kind of happened and the economy was never closed. I'm not a proponent for that. It's just interesting."

Sturgeon told the Business Tribune that opportunity zones caused a stir when they were first announced.

"They caused a lot of interest at the beginning. The COVID crisis has shut down the economy for the moment, but we raised a lot of money for the fund pre-COVID. This project has been in the works for quite some time."

The investors are still keen.

"We haven't heard from anyone that's getting cold feet. The timing is solid because the economy should be recovered by the time we are opening (in 2022)."

Speaking about construction in Portland in general, Sturgeon said, "I think the projects that have already started are going to continue. The question is whether people are going to continue to build speculative office and retail projects."

The big question is how the market for office and retail space will change. She expects some retail bankruptcies. And the trend for collaborative workspaces no cubicles, long tables and hot-desking with people wearing headphones is now dying.

"I think people are thinking about what if this happens again, can we weather the storm effectively? How can we be compliant with social distancing? It costs a lot of money to shut down. Right now, our feeling is that we need to build better stuff. So (that means) creating a workspace that really draws attention and fits with their values. We're talking about the tallest cross-laminated timber office building in the West."

Sturgeon says that kind of project will attract companies who value sustainability, the comforting feeling of wood, and the walkability of offices with retail spaces on their ground floor.

"You have to really build something that speaks to people. Standard office space is potentially going to be sitting for quite some time."

She's a big fan of TVA Architects. "We have always felt that Bob's architecture stands the test of time."

Asked what could jeopardize the project in the next two years, she recalled a talk by Ben Bernanke, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, gave to the Brookings Institution saying that the coronavirus recession is not going to be anywhere near like the Great Depression.

"Frankly, my biggest worry is how it's going to impact people who were already in a tenuous financial position. So, the homeless or those living on the brink of homelessness. I think that the economy is going to rebound and it's not going to be a two-year problem. It's going to be a significant issue for the next several months or year, but Portland has a very strong and stable economy, we don't overbuild. Our growth is that steady, and I don't see the virus changing that."

Asked whether local officials have done a good job so far, she said she didn't know.

"The state officials are in a very tough spot. They're prognosticating and doing their best to balance reopening the economy with keeping people safe and healthy. That's really impossible. So, there's definitely going to be some (policy) fixes later."

SDP also has a project at Thurman and Northwest 17th, and she still expects it to open on time in early July. It's another speculative project, a machine shop being converted into creative office space, and it does not have any tenants yet. "For a really well-done office project, I don't worry."

She sees Portland's growth as unstoppable by any recession.

"I look at Portland as an organic growth area. There are a lot of tech that our opening offshoot offices here, but we also have a lot of organic growth from local companies."

Joseph GallivanReporter, The Business Tribune971-204-7874This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSubscribe to our E-News

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Sturgeon's Flatworks will be one of the tallest cross-laminated timber towers in the west - Portland Tribune

Office usage in Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver is more varied, and it shows in the stats, according to CoStar.

"The Dallas-FW office vacancy rate is the least impacted relative to the major energy markets, only rising from 18% currently to 19% in the worst-case scenario. Denver, with the lowest overall 4&5-Star vacancy rate among these markets, could see a slight rise in vacancies of 2.5 percentage points in the worst-case scenario but would still retain the tightest vacancy rate across the four metros."

Comparing not-so-lil-ol' Oklahoma City, population 655,057, to Houston, population 2.3 million, isn't quite as crazy as it seems when the historic-economic kinship of the oil business is taken into consideration. Plus we should probably get ready for more comparisons with bigger cities, and more caveats. In case you missed it, Oklahoma City is now the 25th largest city in the United States, up six spots since 2010, according to the Census Bureau.

Things change. Population isn't everything. Tulsa used to be known as the Oil Capital of the World, and CoStar didn't even look that direction.

(Story continued below...)

Email Real Estate Editor Richard Mize at rmize@oklahoman.com.

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Not to be crude, but Oklahoma City and Houston, we have a problem - Oklahoman.com

For centuries people have been trying to predict the future, and with good reason. Personally, if I knew for certain what the future held, Id arrange some way to bet on what is a sure thing. Because of all of the upheaval we are experiencing from COVID-19 and because of our governments unprecedented response many of us are more desperate than ever to know what the future has in store. Unfortunately, because many aspects of our current situation are unique, we cannot really rely on the past as a guide, thus complicating efforts to see into our future.

Difficult though it is, there are some people whose livelihoods depend upon their ability to predict at least some aspects of the future. Restaurants, for instance, were created based on predictions of how well theyd be received. Because of COVID-19, once again their owners are frantically reading the tea leaves, trying to understand what lies ahead and whether they can even remain open. To stay open, restaurant owners need to know how long itll be before their customers will return in large numbers, and, unfortunately, no one can say just when that will be.

Restaurateurs arent alone. For instance, predicting the future is a key part of what real estate developers do. Large developers dont build for today, but instead build based on a future day, some years in the future, when their project will be completed and can be leased. For instance, back in mid-2014 when Greystar first proposed the apartment building that stands on Jefferson Avenue at Franklin Street now known as the Cardinal Apartments building they must have anticipated that there would still be a need for the buildings 175 apartments some years down the road (it opened in late 2019, after five and a half years).

While our economy was humming along and demand for both housing and office space was strong, making such predictions was probably easy. No longer, however. For instance, after some two months of office workers having to work from home, many probably assumed that office work would soon return to some semblance of normal. However, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, recently announced that Facebook would allow many of its employees to make their work-from-home situations permanent. If other area companies end up following suit, this would have huge implications for our commercial real estate developers. Just possibly, it could cause demand for additional office space in our area to vanish almost overnight.

If employees no longer need to commute to a central office, they would no longer need to live in the area. Some of Facebooks employees have already left Silicon Valley, and, given our high cost of living, I expect that more may follow suit. A large enough shift to working from home could thus soften our need for additional housing, and potentially cause demand for new housing projects to dry up.

Complicating the equation is the fact that our demand for housing currently outstrips our supply. Depending on how many people choose to uproot their families and leave the area, we might see some of the not-yet-finished housing projects having to struggle to find tenants.

Projects already underway, such as Greystar IV (the 350-unit apartment building well on its way to completion at 1409 El Camino Real in Redwood City), will likely be finished regardless, since a completed building in a soft market is better than a half-finished one with no hope of generating revenue. But I have to imagine that developers of office and residential projects that have yet to break ground or that have yet to be approved are rushing to their crystal balls and reassessing their projects prospects in the light of our new, uncertain future.

Not all projects have a murky future. For instance, the office project being built at 1180 Main St. (across from the Main & Elm restaurant) will likely go ahead, since that building has been preleased to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. But one has to wonder about proposed developments such Greystars large South Main Mixed-Use project (which would replace Towne Ford and Hopkins Acura, among others). Id have also put the proposal to redevelop the Sequoia Station shopping center in the questionable bucket, but it seems that Lowe, the projects developer, has told the city that they want to press on.

Because large construction projects take a long time to complete, thanks to the many that are currently underway, well be seeing construction activity for the next couple of years. But as they continue, Ill be watching those projects that are currently either proposed, or are approved but not yet started. If those proceed, itll be an indication that our real estate developers see growth in our future, and that our future is one on which they are willing to bet real money.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.

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Building the future | Columnists - San Mateo Daily Journal

Staff Report

A new five-story office and retail building will expand the Plush Mills campus near Greenvilles West End Village, with the project expected to be delivered by the M Peters Group in 2021.

The M Peters Group has played a key role in improving Greenvilles West End with the rehabilitation of the historic Plush Mills building. The Greenville-based firms focus is on economically impactful redevelopment of brownfield sites located in transitional areas.

We believe that redeveloping property in a blighted area can be the spark for the revitalization of an entire community, said Mark Peters, M Peters Group's managing partner.

The commercial development is the first in the Greenville area to use mass timber construction. The buildings architectural design, by Perkins & Will, pays homage to the local textile industry by using folded fabric as the inspiration for the building facade.

Supporters say the sustainable design reduces its overall carbon footprint. Natural insulating properties offer strong thermal performance and the exposed wood structure serves as a high-end finish, they say.

The expansion of Plush Mills is yet another sign that our local economy is back! West Village continues to be the heart of many innovative and vibrant projects. All of them play a role in restoring confidence in Greenvilles future, said Greenville Mayor Knox White.

Downtown continues to expand to the west with significant new developments, including the expansion of the Plush Mills campus, the Trehel office building, and the Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center expansion.

CBREs Shelby Dodson is working with the M Peters Group to lease the building.

Said Dodson, CBREfirst vice president: We are delighted for the opportunity to join the M Peters Group team to lease Plush Mills. The building is ideal for tenants looking for high visibility in a premier Greenville location."

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New Plush Mills Office and Retail Development Coming to Greenville - Greenville

CIM Group announced today that it is preparing to open Fifth + Tillery, a newly constructed three-story, approximately 182,700-square-foot creative office building with outdoor walk-up access located at 618 Tillery Street in East Austin. Situated just off East 7th Street, a main thoroughfare, the property is within a short drive to both Austins Central Business District and South Congress submarkets and also has convenient access to mass transit and biking options.

Fifth + Tillery offers the features that appeal to a host of businesses such as technology, service providers, design firms, and others. Particularly given the new environment which is prompting a fresh look at office space usage, each of the buildings three large floors, ranging from approximately 50,000 to 65,000 square feet, provide for flexible configurations. All floors are accessible from outdoor walkways and staircases from the ground level parking, without having to traverse a central lobby or take an elevator. The floors are divisible into various office sizes.

Office suites are infused with natural light from the expansive windows and have outdoor balconies where employees and guests can enjoy the area views while conferring together in a large open space. Adding to the buildings outdoor features is a vast landscaped courtyard with ample areas for separated seating along with theater-style steps up to the building, providing another option for open air distanced gathering.

A steel frame, solar panel canopy spans from the roof across the front courtyard providing approximately 600 kw of energy for the building. This impressive solar component allows the building to be considered net neutral in electric utility usage, a significant feature for tenants mindful of their environmental footprint as well as potential cost-savings in terms of shared building costs. The functional canopy also provides a distinctive architectural element to this bright, modern building.

CIM Group acquired Fifth + Tillery, partially under construction, in October 2019 along with 507 Calles Street and a warehouse/office building located at 1300 E. 5th Street. Fifth + Tillery is anticipated to be complete in July.

For more than 10 years CIM has been an active owner, operator, and developer of over 2.2 million square feet of properties in Austin, bringing quality real estate uses to enhance the area as it does in other communities across North America. In addition to Fifth + Tillery, CIMs Austin office portfolio includes Penn Field, Hartland Plaza, Eastside Village, and Chase Tower, 507 Calles and 1300 E. 5th Street. CIM also owns and operates the District at SoCo apartments and was a co-developer of the Seaholm Power Plant mixed-use redevelopment as well as The Independent luxury condominium tower.

For leasing information regarding Fifth & Tillery please call (512) 814-3403 or visit https://5thandtillery.com/.

About CIM Group

CIM is a community-focused real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer. Since 1994, CIM has sought to create value in projects and positively impact the lives of people in communities across the Americas by delivering more than $60 billion of essential real estate and infrastructure projects. CIMs diverse team of experts applies its broad knowledge and disciplined approach through hands-on management of real assets from due diligence to operations through disposition. CIM strives to make a meaningful difference in the world by executing key environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and enhancing each community in which it invests. For more information, visit http://www.cimgroup.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200521005177/en/

Contacts

Karen DiehlDiehl Communicationskaren@diehlcommunications.com (310) 741-9097

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CIM Group Unveils Fifth + Tillery in East Austin Creative Office Building Featuring Outdoor Walkways and Solar Power - Yahoo Finance

The historic Piedmont Plush Mill campus will soon be adding a new five-story office and retail building.

Expected to be completed sometime next year, the 92,000-square foot office and retail redevelopment will expand the Plush Mills campus in the Village of West Greenville. Plush Mills is located right down the road from OJs Diner and across the street from St. Francis Downtown.

The redevelopment of the former mill, which currently serves as the home of the office and coworking space Venture X, is among a series of development projects underway in the Village, including the revitalized Trehel office building and the expansion of St. Francis.

The project is being developed by Greenville-based M Peters Group, which previously developed the condominium and townhouse complex Cornerstone 1909 and the subdivision Cottage Gate in Easley and the Raven Hill Subdivision in Anderson.

The development will be the first in the Greenville area to use mass timber construction, according to a statement from the developers. The design of the building, by Perkins and Will, pays homage to the local textile industry by using folded fabric as the inspiration for the building faade.

No tenants have yet been announced. Shelby Dodson of CBRE is working with the M Peters Group to lease out space in the building.

The former mill, which was founded in 1925 by Fred W. Symmes and Clifton Corley, was designed by J.E. Sirrine. The mill gained its Plush Mill name for being the first mill in South Carolina to make plush, a fabric known for its soft and luxurious feel. Later the mill produced mohair, velour and auto upholstery. It employed generations of families before closing its doors in 1983.

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Plush Mill campus adding five-story office and retail building - Upstate Business Journal

As expected, the proposed framework for rezoning San Franciscos 84-acre Hub District, a burgeoning area which is effectively centered around the intersection of Van Ness and Market, within the Citys Market and Octavia Plan Area, has been adopted by San Franciscos Planning Commission.

In addition to improving and activating the areas streets, alleys and public realm, the Hub District Plan, which is now formally known as the Market Octavia Plan Area Amendment, would allow for the development of a taller, larger, denser, and more diverse array of buildings and heights, including the potential for a tower to rise up to 650 feet in height at 1 South Van Ness Avenue, cementing the intersection as the visual hub of the neighborhood.

If San Franciscos Board of Supervisors concurs, the public hearings for which will likely commence this Summer, the Plan Area Amendment would allow for up to 9,710 new residential units to rise within the boundaries of the District with room(s) for nearly 20,000 new residents (versus a maximum of 8,070 new units as currently zoned).

And while the plan would result in the development of some new office space as well, such as at the base of the proposed tower to rise at 30 Van Ness, the net increase in the number of new area jobs that the plan is projected to yield, accounting for the loss of existing commercial spaces which would be redeveloped, is now effectively zero as compared to today.

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Plan to Transform Burgeoning Area Approved by Planning - SocketSite

Provided by The Columbus Dispatch Work is progressing on Gravity 2, across West Broad Street from the original Gravity mixed-use development in Franklinton that opened in April 2019. The second Gravity phase will be larger and include residences, offices, restaurants and parking. As work on it moves forward, developers are trying to anticipate how the pandemic will change what people want in their living and working spaces. [Doral Chenoweth/Dispatch]

At least one major Columbus development is on hold and others are being downsized as builders and lenders try to grasp the long-term damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

A plan to build offices, residences and a parking garage on South 3rd Street across from the Statehouse has been paused because of the crisis.

In addition, new hotels planned for Grandview Crossing and in Worthington have been delayed or halted as the hotel industry wrestles with its worst crash in a century. An office building in Italian Village also is on hold.

"There's never been so much uncertainty," said Mike Schiff, CEO of the Columbus development firm Schiff Capital Group. "It makes it tough for anybody to make a business decision now."

For the most part, developments already underway, such as the new Crew stadium and the Hilton hotel tower next to the Greater Columbus Convention Center, continue to move forward.

Other major Columbus projects also are proceeding, including one of the most ambitious the first phase of a massive development on the west side of the Scioto River, next to COSI Columbus.

"The Scioto Peninsula project is moving full steam ahead," said Amy Taylor, chief operating officer of the Columbus Downtown Development Corp., which is overseeing the project.

The first four buildings in that development a hotel, an office building and two apartment buildings are scheduled to come before the Columbus Downtown Commission on Tuesday. Plans for a parking garage are expected to be presented in June, and construction should start in September.

Also moving ahead: a $200 million complex on the North Market parking lot that will include a hotel, offices, residences, restaurants and a parking garage.

Jim Merkel, CEO of Rockbridge, a key player in both the Scioto Peninsula and North Market projects, is confident they will proceed on pace despite huge uncertainties in the hotel and office industries.

"The reality is some people will be able to get their projects moving forward and some will not," he said.

In Franklinton, work is proceeding on Gravity 2, the second and largest phase of the Gravity development on West Broad Street, said its developer, Brett Kaufman.

"The COVID situation has made things more complicated and has slowed things down, but we're still moving forward," said Kaufman, CEO of Kaufman Development. "We're taking this opportunity to make sure we're adapting our product to what the new world of offices will look like."

Kaufman said the project has been tweaked to include touchless elevators and doors, antibacterial surfaces and a more sophisticated air-circulation system.

Work also is moving ahead on the redevelopment of the Trolley Barn site in Franklin Park, a key project in the revitalization of the Near East Side.

"When this happened, there was a period of unknowns when we slowed down because we didn't want to put people at risk," said Brad DeHays, with the developer Connect Real Estate.

"We were supposed to open at end of the year. That will be a tough timeline to hit," he added. "The next six months will determine if we can get back to our original schedule."

DeHays and others worry about the long-term damage to Columbus' growth that a slowdown could cause.

"If we stop new developments now, we're going to have a huge hole in our economy in a few years," he said.

Other developers are stepping back until the coronavirus dust settles.

One of the largest projects on hold is a mixed-used development on the northeast corner of East State and South 3rd streets across from the Statehouse.

"At this point, we have paused our development efforts," said Chris Ruess, president and CEO of Capitol Square, which was developing the site with Elford Development.

"We have taken our foot off the proverbial pedal to see where this situation leads us. But we remain prepared and eager to quickly move forward when current market disruptions subside."

Offices, which made up a key part of the Capitol Square project, are facing enormous uncertainty as companies wrestle with the long-term implications of working from home.

"Every company we're talking to is evaluating, first and foremost, their remote working strategies and what that means for offices moving forward," said Robert White Jr., president of the Columbus office builder Daimler, which is still planning to build a 240,000-square-foot speculative (without a tenant) office building on the Scioto Peninsula.

Wagenbrenner Development also is facing office-related questions as it moves forward on the final stages of its Jeffrey Park development in Italian Village, which was originally scheduled to include a major office building overlooking Interstate 670.

"We're confident office will still lease there, (but) it's definitely delayed," said Mark Wagenbrenner. "There's users circling, and we're entertaining those users, and we could react quickly if a user came along."

A hotel planned for Wagenbrenner's Grandview Crossing development also will be pushed back at least a year, he said.

"We've postponed the one hotel project, but the residential remains strong, unbelievably strong considering what we've been through," he said.

While Wagenbrenner expects a hotel to eventually be built at Grandview Crossing, that's not the case with the redevelopment of the former Holiday Inn site in Worthington.

The developer, the Witness Group, announced in April that the project will not include a Tru by Hilton hotel. Instead, Witness hopes to fill the space with high-end offices.

Developers agree that the safest projects now are residential, where demand seems undiminished by the pandemic.

But even those projects are being delayed, in part because cities and townships have struggled to hold the necessary meetings to approve projects during the pandemic.

"We're definitely seeing demand," said Tre Giller, CEO of Metro Development, which is working on nine apartment complexes in central Ohio right now.

"The real issue is, if you didn't have a project approved and ready to start before the pandemic hit ... you're now 60 to 70 days behind where you thought you would be."

Giller said three Metro Development complexes with about 1,100 apartments have been in limbo for much of the spring.

"It's causing delays that are starting to kill projects," he said. "Landowners don't want to wait forever. The market changes; situations change."

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

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Some major Columbus development projects on hold while others move forward - msnNOW