The new urban office? It feels a lot more like home.
That’s the thought from Aaron Zaretsky, leasing director with Urban Innovations, a Chicago-based real estate investment company specializing in the acquisition, development and management of office and residential buildings.
Zaretsky shared his thoughts on what businesses are looking for in urban office space today. The takeaway? Today’s city offices are warmer places, bicycle-friendly and open. Inner offices no longer hog all the sunlight. And creaky floors? No longer.
“More and more folks today are looking for what I like to say is a more refined space,” Zaretsky said. “Loft space still has appeal. But it’s not old-school New York-style loft space that people are looking for. They don’t like the creaky floors as much. They want something that has appeal for their employees.”
Zaretsky’s tenants want lots of natural light flooding their office sapces. They want bicycle rooms and fewer outdoor parking spaces. They want their offices to be located close to train stations and bus stops.
Kitchen spaces are an important factor today. Zaretsky says that many of the larger tenants in Urban Innovations’ offices are building kitchen spaces that are as large as 1,000 square feet. Some even build kitchens that are the focal points of their offices. They are gathering spaces and are often the first thing that visitors to an office see.
Another change? Interior offices no longer suck up all the window space. More tenants are building offices on the inside of their space instead of along the window line. This means that the employees working in cubicles have direct access to natural light.
“In essence, a lot of things have flipped,” Zaretsky said. “Tenants want to make sure that their spaces work for their employees. They want to make the office an inviting place.”
It helps that most of Urban Innovations’ office tenants tend to be companies working in technology or creative fields. Urban Innovations doesn’t usually attract law firms or accounting firms.
The company’s office spaces then — most of them located in the heart of Chicago’s River North neighborhod — are perfect fits for Urban Innovations’ tenants.
And Zaretsky says that he spends a lot of time listening to his tenants. This helps him and Urban Innovations adapt to his tenants’ ever-evolving needs.
“We learn from what the tenants tell us,” he said. “We learn more, in fact, from the tenants that don’t sign a lease with us. They tell us what we didn’t offer that they wanted. Some of the best information we receive is from the never-were tenants.”