{"id":85294,"date":"2022-12-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retrofitmagazine.com\/?p=85294"},"modified":"2022-12-18T15:25:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T20:25:10","slug":"from-traditional-office-to-coworking-space-retrofitting-for-an-underserved-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retrofitmagazine.com\/from-traditional-office-to-coworking-space-retrofitting-for-an-underserved-market\/","title":{"rendered":"From Traditional Office to Coworking Space: Retrofitting for an Underserved Market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Because of the disruption caused by COVID-19, paired with the rise of working from home (WFH), many commercial real-estate spaces across the nation remain empty, even almost three years after the start of the pandemic. And, while countless office spaces have started to welcome back workers in the past year or so, given the rise of hybrid work and the new way of balancing work and personal life, the occupancy rates in said offices still haven\u2019t bounced back, which is undoubtedly a rising concern for property managers and owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leases in the commercial real-estate sector are oftentimes longer than in other areas, such as residential\u2014typically ranging between three and five years but can easily go up to 10 years for an office space. That being said, the question arises: What remains to be done with those impressive but deserted office buildings and the countless rows of desks that are doing nothing more than gathering dust?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some, the answer comes in the form of adaptive reuse. With leases expiring, or about to expire, some developers are looking to turn unused office spaces into affordable housing or other residential uses to meet the demand in their area. However, for many others, transforming an office building into something that stands at the complete opposite pole, like an apartment building, comes with skyrocketing expenses, especially considering the current economic struggles and rising inflation. In this case, retrofitting comes as a great middle-ground for both owners and property managers, who could still tend to a business environment, only slightly more adjusted to meet today\u2019s work patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coworking spaces are exploding across the nation, with more and more remote workers and freelancers looking for flexible workspaces to conduct their day-to-day business and network with other professionals from different backgrounds. In fact, as data provided by CoworkingCafe<\/a> shows, the number of freelancers in the U.S. has grown significantly in the last years, with more than 6 million of them operating across the nation in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n