ULI Louisiana – The Future of the Workplace after COVID-19

On Thursday July 30th, ULI Louisiana hosted five New Orleans area industry leaders in a discussion on “The Future of the Workplace after COVID-19.” The meeting was moderated by Leisha Garrett, Executive Director of the New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce. Panelists included:

Mac Bauer – Stirling Properties
Development Director

Sandra Corrigan – SRSA Commercial Real Estate
Director of Office Leasing

Lyle LeBlanc – Scale Workspace
President

Amy Manley, IIDA – Jacobs
Global Lead of Workplace Performance Strategies

John Zollinger – Home Bank
Northshore Market President

Themes of the discussion included the current state of local office & retail sectors, the uncertainty of what the future holds, overcoming challenges of work from home policies, as well as adapting to coronavirus through new office schedules and workplace layouts.

Select notes per speaker follow for your review.

Zollinger:

• • Home Bank's retail locations – we closed interior spaces to focus on drive thru only
  • Might see some retail locations closed – most retail locations have been under fire
  • Clients do not seem to miss coming into the branch
  • Deferred 30% of our loans for 90 days
    • • About 15% have re-upped another round of deferments
  • Will have to wait for the 3^rd or 4^th quarter to truly see the economic impact
  • We don’t really know what’s going to happen

Manley:

• • For our clients and customers, we have been clear to take your time – there is no rush to return staff to the office immediately (85% of our staff is working remotely)
  • Difficult to determine who is essential on site – who needs to be there and who doesn’t
  • We are all still learning things about how to adapt to the virus, remote work, and how it all affects the organization

LeBlanc:

• • New normal is not normal in the least
  • We have been fortunate – COVID has changed a lot about our business
  • Running a shared work environment is no longer possible
  • Emphasis now in goods – we even built Ochsner face shields
  • Core focus is people who are making physical goods – which is difficult to do remotely or via zoom
  • Phase 1 and 2 have seen more people returning to the workplace
  • Implementing staggered shifts at our offices to reduce risk

Corrigan:

• • A lot more interest in private offices
  • Office tenants want to be spread out
  • Our agents have been staying busy and have a lot of interest
  • Don’t have a lot of rent deferrals compared to retail locations
  • Office market has been fairly stable

Bauer:

• • Don’t know if anybody has the answers
  • National tenants are starting to downsize
  • Talking about extensions with more options
  • Different forms of rent concessions
  • Suburban market type spaces coming available
  • Will have to wait and see

Zollinger:

• • Clients are looking towards early 2021 to make decisions on their future
  • But then you have some people who say now is the time to start so we are ready for when everything goes back to normal
  • We don’t take a lot of risk in the banking world
  • Should expect banks in general to be shy for approving new credit
  • Banks don’t take changes very well
  • Going to be pretty conservative
  • Cash is piling up in the bank – people are not spending money
  • Even though we have all this money in the bank now, we are not lending it

Manley:

• • We want to retain all talent here – loss of talent makes it difficult to recruit good talent
  • We have invested in digital platforms – have changed from Skype to Microsoft Teams
  • We have a lot of ongoing training during this time
  • Surveyed our employees to see how they're doing from home as well as providing regular mental health checks
  • People are transitioning comfortably – a lot of our employees prefer working from home
  • Have not worried as much about staying connected with clients, but we are staying connected with each other

LeBlanc:

• • We are well equipped to build a little bit of everything.
  • We are built to pivot – have taken the approach to just jump into this change
  • Small business community in New Orleans was ready to pivot and make changes – did not want to wait around
  • We are asking ourselves:
    • • How can we help people beat their supply change
      • How can this workplace be flexible – be more than a tenant and a landlord

Corrigan:

• • We don’t see people panicking
  • The infrastructure will survive
  • We have been through tough times in the past and we will move forward

Zollinger:

• • PPP brought all of us together
  • We needed to be able to deliver for our clients
  • Did 2,900 loans in about 2 months – technology helped us through that
  • Allowed loans to be signed electronically
  • Contactless closings – helped to speed things up

Bauer:

• • Have to check in with people that you usually just run into the street – however, we don’t have that anymore so have to reach out to them directly
  • Virtual notaries are now a thing

Corrigan:

• • We have someone in our office that keeps us in check
  • Our spaces always have drones and great pictures – can do initial searches via email
  • People are ultimately going to want to see space
  • Our main priority is for everyone in the office to stay healthy

LeBlanc:

• • Don’t think our new rules are here to stay – hope we’re not having to do this indefinitely
  • We have switched to a four-day work week and have seen a lot of our clients do this now
  • It’s difficult when you are working from home when it’s time to switch from home life and work life
  • People are reacting to it differently

Zollinger:

• • Hard to miss that water cooler talk or work talk
  • Adapting is difficult and a real challenge – forever changing the game going forward
  • Online channels – more people have signed up, used it, and accepted it
  • Coin shortage – probably haven’t noticed it due to everyone using cards
  • We always thought we needed smaller space to do our business

Manley:

• • Huge transformation in organizations on where work gets done
  • Families are focusing on elder care and childcare

Corrigan:

• • Some people are suggesting they need to double their office space in order to spread people
  • May need to extend building hours
  • Some people want to stay in their space and just make it work
  • Nobody is making any major moves, but there is a lot of discussion

LeBlanc:

• • They have even introduced the idea to us of moving walls
  • Need a manager to handle all the cleanliness requests
  • Some tenants need more space or less space – need to adapt to those needs

Corrigan:

• • We're seeing retail get hit pretty hard
  • Office tenants have been stable
  • Office – not using the space the whole time but they are still operating
  • Will probably have to wait until the end of the year to see how they come back for next year
  • Some have seen short extensions where they asked for a 6-month extension just because they don’t know where we will be

Bauer:

• • Best thing to do is to hold tight and see where this thing goes
  • Telling our tenants to think twice before locating
  • The cost of a new space and to mobilize or demobilize are big factors
  • People aren’t spending money because they don’t know when the return is going to be