Flexible Workspace Leaders Plan on Being Relevant for the Long Term

For Industrious, 2020 started out as a banner year, one that was expected to see the Lower Manhattan-based workplace provider launch an initial public offering. Then the COVID-19 pandemic came to the U.S. For Industrious and other flexible workspace operators, life hasn’t been the same since.

However, on an Oct. 1 webcast organized by Dionis Rodriguez and The Crimson Connection, the conversation among leaders in the sector made it clear that they and their platforms intend to be around long-term. Yet, the panelists—Industrious CEO Jamie Hodari, Convene CEO Ryan Simonetti and Thais Galli, head of Tishman Speyer’s Studio platform—also made it clear that they don’t expect the post-pandemic world to look like the pre-pandemic one.

That tenants in both the flexible/co-working space provided by Studio and the more traditional leased offices that comprise the bulk of Tishman Speyer’s offerings will come back isn’t in doubt, said Galli. The question is how they’ll come back—for example, whether they’ll make full- or part-time use of their spaces.

Simonetti said individual employee choice, and accommodating that individual decision-making, will be a greater priority for office occupiers than in the past. He predicted a “hybrid” approach going forward.

“Will working from home and at remote locations have a bigger share than it has in the past? Yes,” said Simonetti. “Will it be 100%? No.”

Much of Convene’s revenue has derived from in-person events, and the pandemic forced the company to pivot to creating a “virtual venue.” Although live events in Convene spaces are also expected to come back, “We know that virtual is here to stay,” Simonetti said.

For space providers as well as space users, the overnight shift to remote work meant rapid adjustments. “Instead of thinking in a closed box about what we thought tenants would need, we got on the phone” and asked them, said Galli.

Hodari told an anecdote about a senior executive in another industry who went to visit his son, a yoga teacher now living on an island off Greece. He expected to make short work of his visit, but bad weather intervened and for days there was “no boat” available to get him back to the mainland, not even a chartered yacht.

Similarly, for flexible space providers, “none of the normal avenues were available,” including the expected quick resolution to the pandemic. Therefore, it was necessary for them to figure out—as that senior executive did in re-establishing his rapport with his son while waiting for a boat—how to turn the changed circumstances into an opportunity, said Hodari.

Both Industrious and Convene had to downsize their teams as revenues took a hit at the height of the pandemic. Now, Simonetti is in the process of retooling for what he called “Convene 2.0. The idea that we can thrive again has been an incredible challenge.”

Commercial real estate veteran Craig Robinson, most recently global head of WeWork’s Powered by We platform, moderated the hour-long conversation.

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny