FEATURE — Rise of the Creative Office
La Brea | Los Angeles, CA
Rise of the Creative Office
Creative office space helps mixed-use properties target millennials, tech and design By Eric Hohmann
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ixed-use properties have long thrived in part because they are carefully tailored to the demographics of their market and their consumers. This strategy remains crucial but as the workforce demographics and culture shift in major markets across the country, mixed-used properties must be more flexible than ever before in meeting the needs of not only consumers, but also of tenants and local business owners. In urban areas, industries such as entertainment, design, publishing and technology – as well as the workforce of young professionals they attract – are shaping the office real estate scene. As a result, there is one major emerging trend that has demonstrated strong and growing appeal for mixed-use properties in city neighborhoods: the creative office. Creative office spaces have long been popular within the technology and innovation sectors. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple occupy notoriously sprawling campuses featuring open floor plans, creative design, and on-site amenities like gyms, game rooms and catering services for employees. In fact, the creative office has become synonymous with the culture of the growing technology/innovation world: laid-back, open and consistently modern.
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So it’s is no surprise that the creative office concept is now branching far beyond Silicon Valley. Technology companies and smaller technology-based startups are moving into city centers across the country with an especially strong presence in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and New York. In these cities (and others), technology entrepreneurs attract hoards of young, urban employees, many of whom enjoy significant disposable incomes. Incorporating creative office space into a mixed-use retail property can create significant buzz around a center and also attract high-value tenants who understand that convenient retail, dining and entertainment options increase their space’s desirability. As a further sign of creative office popularity, The New York Times recently estimated that “virtually all American workers now spend time on teams and some 70 percent inhabit open-plan offices, in which no one has a room of one’s own.” One of Madison Marquette’s most recent acquisitions, the Bellevue Galleria, exemplifies a synergy between office and retail offerings. Located just outside Seattle, the Bellevue Galleria features 30,000 square feet of creative office space. This space has been leased to gaming company Bungie, once
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