Many businesses and employees are still trying to figure out how to work from home in the remote world. How many days should be required in the office for hybrid working is a question that continues for many businesses. The answer is not the same every time.
There is uncertainty in the suburbs’ commercial real estate market. Huge office campuses have been sold. Last year, the campus of Allstate was sold near Northbrook, and this year, the campus of Baxter International is for sale. The hybrid-working trend is a reason not to keep a lot of office space anymore. Other high-profile campus sales include the AT&T campus inHoffman Estates that became Bell Works Chicagoland, and of course the Sears campus in the Northwest suburbs.
Local officials are calling on businesses to get their workers back in smaller office complexes that have been partially unused.
There are signs that the suburbs can adapt to this new working world.
First of all, the trend of co-working space. Offices full of desks and chairs, or even couches, and complete with high-speed internet as well as conference rooms, plus snack and coffee vending or even a lounge or cafe are being opened throughout the suburbs.
In the Bell Works campus, a place called CoLab opened last year. A new chain called Brick and Mortar will open in a former clothing shop in downtown Wheaton next year, and it already has locations in Park Ridge, Deerfield and Glen Ellyn. The owner of The Office Clubhouse has just purchased more space in Grayslake to expand.
Other examples abound as the trend that started before the Pandemic now grows, with workers wanting neither to work at home all the time nor make long commute – and employers accommodating, sometimes even by renting out coworking space for them.
Building owners are finding other things to do with their properties Health care professionals are interested in meeting patients closer to where they are in the suburbs, so landlords are renting out medical office space. The campus aspires to become a distribution center.
A 411-unit apartment building is to be built on the site of four empty office buildings. Some of the apartments will be built with dedicated office space, but the central area will have work and conference spaces. Residents could take a break from work to work in another office in the same building.
These businesses and developers didn’t force outdated lifestyles to return and create solutions for the changing working world.
The paper of record, The Daily Herald.
Businesses anddevelopers can figure out the remote work trend.
