Real Estate in Flux: An Industry Adapting to Suit Millennial Preferences

The second annual RELA-Baruch Joint Conference was recently held at The William and Anita Newman Conference Center at Baruch College to discuss various topics in the New York real estate market.

The event featured panels of prominent New York State real estate attorneys, developers and brokers. 

The first panel, “Real Estate in Flux: An Industry Adapting to Suit Millennial Preferences,” featured moderator Mark Edelstein, Morrison & Foerster and Panelists Lauren Cahill, AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; Byron Carlock, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Michael Hedden, Houlihan Lokey; Marc Ehrlich, Rose Associates and Jonathan Kaufman lger, William Kaufman Organization. Discussion focused on the state of commercial real estate in the city and the need for office space to be reconfigured to suit the emerging workforce. As work spaces become more open and square footage per employee keeps shrinking, more thought has to be put into how this affects the needs of employees. While open spaces may be great for creativity and less square footage per employee can affect the bottom line of companies, how does this affect efficiency? How do we address the need for privacy? In order to meet these goals, spaces need to become more dynamic. Rooms are being added to allow employees to make private phone calls or to work privately so that they can be more efficient without the noise.

Technology is another major consideration. As Mr. Ehrlich stressed, “Every company is a technology company.” Technology plays a huge role in the real estate market today. Work spaces are being rewired based on technology. Owners are working with technology companies to develop apps that will allow employees to adjust the heat or air conditioning and to book meeting rooms and conference rooms.