The telecommuting/work-from-home trend continues to challenge traditional in-office working norms because of worries over COVID variants, mask usage and fluctuating vaccine requirement protocols. As a result, more and more companies are pushing back their return-to-work dates, ensuring the continuity of the remote worker. Thankfully, malls and retail spaces have addressed this trend with safe, social distancing solutions for those at-home workers who want to either have a temporary office environment or a safe meeting space with other at-home workers. This hybrid work/home model is especially attractive for companies who are in-between office occupancy during these chaotic times. Both ZenSpace and Flip the Switch are trending concepts that have popped up recently in the retail world and that appeal to those retail space owners hoping to attract live/work/play customers in their own community hangout spots. These new office concepts are expected to be ideal for filling vacant retail spaces.
ZenSpace has developed the SmartPod, which is a modular enclosed office space set-up that can seat up to four people, and features a working table, noise-reducing glass walls and a fully tech-enabled interior with electrical power, Wi-Fi access and USB ports. Access is granted through an app in which the customer can reserve and pay for pod time and share the booking information with other potential attendees. The SmartPod kiosk spaces are 50 s.f. each but are generally set up in a cluster that encompass 200 to 500 s.f. Of space. Inline units up to 5,000 s.f. will also work for these ZenSpace office configurations with minimum tenant improvement requirements, which can include co-working spaces and meeting rooms.
These in-mall, soundproof ZenSpace “offices” have sprung up this year in three Northern California malls. Two are owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW): the Westfield Oakridge mall in San Jose and the Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara. The third is at the Metreon mall, owned by Starwood Retail Partners, in downtown San Francisco. Up to four more malls in the San Francisco Bay Area are expecting to see new ZenSpace units before the end of the year. Two are planned for Simon Property Group malls: The Great Mall of the Bay Area in Milpitas, Calif., and the Stanford Shopping Mall in Palo Alto, Calif. Two units will also come to Brookfield Properties malls: Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, and the NewPark Mall in Newark, Calif. ZenSpace expects to open approximately 20 to 25 more of these in-mall office units by the end of 2021, while expanding its concept to all major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City and Chicago, by 2023. In July, it was announced that the former head of worldwide sales at Zoom Video Communications became an advisor and a major investor in ZenSpace.
Another retail-themed office work concept is Flip the Switch, conceived by the development company, North American Properties (NAP). Its most recent Flip the Switch project debuted in November in the upstairs portion of the former Barnes & Noble building that is part of Newport on the Levee, a retail shopping/entertainment center in Newport, Ky. Flip the Switch is move-in-ready office suite space, in the 4,000- to 20,000-s.f. range, within a retail setting. The office space comes complete with amenities such as flexible furnishings and Wi-Fi coverage, and is available with shorter lease terms, from six to 18 months. NAP has also invested in UVC lighting technology, which eliminates airborne bio-contaminants through the air filtration systems. This “pop-up office” concept is especially attractive to business owners that are in-between locations, are unwilling to commit to long-term office building leases, do not want to invest in interior furnishings or are attempting to appeal to their employees with a more conducive setting closer to retail and entertainment hubs.
With Flip the Switch occupying the upstairs building location in Newport on the Levee, the downstairs area encompasses “The Exchange,” an artisan pop-up-shop marketplace featuring a rotating collection of local brands, many of which ultimately become permanent mall tenants, including the Little Spoon Café coffee shop, and the home décor store, Bluegrass and Sass. Other popular retail tenants in Newport on the Levee include GameWorks, Five Guys, Cold Stone Creamery and AMC Theatres. North American Properties first debuted the Flip the Switch concept on two separate floors within two different buildings in its Colony Square mixed-use mall in Atlanta in July of 2020.
