Summer Issue 2021 - 28

Diane Hoskins, Richard Florida, Mark Grinis
A Post-Pandemic Workforce and Its Impact on
the Workplace
Just as many cities have survived over
millennia, cities and their workplaces will
survive-and those workplaces will likely continue
to be focused on the benefits of productivity
and collaboration. But technology and
necessity have enabled models of work that
previously had been given little consideration
to thrive over the past year.
A 2021 ULI Virtual Spring Meeting general
session titled " A Post-Pandemic Workforce
and Its Impact on the Workplace " sparked
a wide-ranging conversation among Diane
Hoskins, Gensler's co-CEO and a member of
ULI's global executive board; moderator Richard
Florida, professor and head of the Martin
Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of
Management at the University of Toronto; and
Mark Grinis, leader, global real estate, hospitality,
and construction at EY.
" What the data shows us is that 15 to 20 percent of
people want to be in the office 100 percent of the
time, and 10 to 15 percent of people want to work from
home 100 percent of the time. The rest want flexibility
or what we're calling the hybrid office. But hybrid is
unique for every [organization]. "
DIANE HOSKINS, GENSLER
Florida said that the " the notion of an
urban exodus is looking more like a myth, "
since cities have survived plagues, pandemics,
and even wars in the past. He said that
the global pandemic has largely been " an
accelerator and not a disrupter. "
Grinis said, " We've tested things that we
had never done before, and we've challenged
business norms. . . . That's the real transformative
thing. " Telemedicine and virtual business
presentations were never considered the
best option in the past, he said, but they may
be the norm going forward.
Hoskins acknowledged the passing of Art
Gensler, namesake and founder of the firm,
who passed away on May 10 at age 85. She
said, " I know a lot of people at ULI knew Art.
He was an enthusiastic believer in cities, and
in many ways his legacy as one of the pioneers
of corporate design was how we design
modern workplaces. I know he would have
loved to hear this conversation today. "
Hoskins continued, saying that when
Gensler is hired now to design a new corporate
campus, the design team is often working
directly with the CEO, because the impact on
corporate culture is so powerful.
" At the same time, we've trusted people to
work from home for 14 to 15 months; we need
to keep trusting them, " she said. " The biggest
change is who is involved in decisions and
what's the basis of those decisions, " including
surveys and pilot programs.
Peter Ballon, Nathalie Charles, Goodwin Gaw, Karen Horstmann, Ralph Rosenberg
Global Capital Flows in Unprecedented Times
Peter Ballon, global head of real estate
for CPP Investments, which invests the assets
of the Canada Pension Plan, assumes the
global chairmanship of ULI in July. He kicked
off the 2021 ULI Virtual Spring Meeting with a
keynote panel of industry leaders from Europe,
Asia Pacific, and the Americas discussing
global capital flows. They agreed that a large
28
URBAN LAND SUMMER 2021
amount of capital remains on the sidelines,
with investors searching the globe for the right
opportunities. The challenge now is differentiating
the market trends associated with the
pandemic that are likely to be short-lived from
those that will be transformational.
Participants included Nathalie Charles,
global head of investment management for
BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management,
which manages more than €30.1 billion
(US$36.6 billion) of European commercial real
estate; Goodwin Gaw, chairman and managing
principal for Gaw Capital Partners, a Hong
Kong-based private equity fund management
company focusing on global real estate markets;
Karen Horstmann, head of equity acqui " This
polarizing debate about work from
home versus work from the office, it will be
solved over time, " Hoskins said. " What the
data shows us is that 15 to 20 percent of
people want to be in the office 100 percent of
the time, and 10 to 15 percent of people want
to work from home 100 percent of the time.
The rest want flexibility or what we're calling
the hybrid office. But hybrid is unique for
every [organization]. "
Florida said he spent part of the last year in
Miami Beach, saying, " It's not just about low
taxes and good weather, it's about flexibility. "
He said that rents and prices in South Florida
have also risen dramatically.
Grinis noted that roughly 30 million Americans
move every year, mainly to look for a
better place to live. " The base of the bigger
cities is so large and so pronounced that it
will, without question, endure, " he said. " The
better question is will it grow as rapidly as
somewhere else? Smaller cities with doubledigit
growth rates do draw headlines, but
understanding those demographic shifts is
imperative. "
BRETT WIDNESS is the Urban Land online editor.
Summer Issue 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Summer Issue 2021
