Q3 2019 | Houston Office | Research and Forecast Report

HOUSTON - Oct. 15, 2019 - PRLog -- Commentary by Taylor Wright | Vice President

"Co-working" and, more specifically, WeWork continue to dominate the CRE news cycle. With billion-dollar annual losses, the recent withdrawal of their initial stock offering, the removal of the founder as CEO and seemingly a different executive vacating every day, both your average newsreader and our commercial real estate colleagues are questioning the viability of WeWork specifically and co-working in general. After meeting with different well-known flex space operators and talking to landlord's who lease space to various co-working companies (not necessarily WeWork), our view is a little more positive. The concept of co-working is nothing new, but the way people and companies today are viewing their workspace occupancy has definitely changed.

The total co-working footprint is miniscule in Houston's overall office occupancy (an estimated 1.3 million square feet out of 230.7 million total square feet). We believe co-working has a place in occupancy solutions, albeit a relatively small one.

When discussing flex space operators with landlords, we hear that they serve as a valuable building amenity. For example, in the instances where tenants face a time crunch between vacating their previous space and... To read the full report, click here: https://www2.colliers.com/en/Research/Houston/Q3-2019-Houston-Office