Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • August 27, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com FOCUS spaces recently for growing compa- nies in Connecticut. Russo sees a corporate culture shift that aims to attract young workers and invigorate the environment. She cites a Harvard Business Review article affirming the primacy of the individual. "Our advice to traditional companies who want to learn from co-working spaces is to give people the space and support to be their authentic selves," the article states. "The result will be employees who feel more com- mitted to your organization and are more likely to bring their best energy and ideas to the office each day." Russo said she's designing many differ- ent spaces based on a company's culture. "Open floor plans include breathing space between departments and some private offices," she said. Some companies offer lounge areas complete with couches, video games and healthy snacks. For Russo, key elements in recent designs include communal and isolative work areas, pleasant lighting and flexible desks. She calls sit-stand desks "a huge benefit." "Employees don't feel tied down when they can stand up and stretch," Russo said. "They can do more work and continue on their tasks without feeling the need to take a walk." Technological enhancements for such desks include phone apps that pre-set desired heights. These apps also alert workers if they have not gotten up lately. When the time comes for heads- down, isolative work, away from the more interactive shared spaces, Russo has designed library areas where no phones are allowed. She said Remedy Partners, a young, innovative healthcare technology company based in Norwalk, is apply- ing these strategies in its new space. The library, Russo said, is separated visually and acoustically from the rest of the office. "This library concept supports other research that suggests Millennials are comfortable working in libraries, a carryover from college," she said. Another client, Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, which just moved its corporate headquarters to Stamford, has a playful, mixed-aesthetic look for its cre- ative areas, includ- ing marketing and a tasting room, that include open ceilings, rustic oak flooring, re-sawn wood paneling and modern detailing, Russo said. Light and space There's been a definite shift to open space, trying to attract younger staff and invigorate the environment, said Jon Putnam, executive director of commercial realty brokerage Cushman & Wakefield in Hartford. "It can be a motivator and it can cre- ate more experiences," he said. Putnam offered a restaurant compari- son: dark and quiet versus more lively, somewhat noisy, more interactive. In an office, he said the choices are creativity and enjoyment versus quiet and solitude. The most common layout for many companies these days is open worksta- tions with more conference rooms and smaller meeting spaces, Putnam said. He said kitchen and break areas are opening up to be part of the workplace flow, with bar seating and hi-top tables becoming common. Sound attenuation with acoustical panels, white noise masking and noise cancelling headsets are being used to counteract the acoustic problems that an open plan presents. Like Russo, Putnam cited the ben- efits of natural lighting in open spaces. "The window line isn't broken," he said. "This results in a certain level of well-being even if the window is 50 feet away. It can be a morale booster." He also pointed to possible down- sides of open space in a corporate environment. "Some bosses might not think you're working, depending on the culture and the leadership," Putnam said. For Bob Jacobson, CEO of an inter- national management consulting firm, the bottom line is productivity. "Productivity almost always in- creases when a change, any change is introduced," said Jacobson, whose firm, Jacobson Solutions, has offices in Chicago, Phoenix and London. "The question is, 'How long does this effect remain before people start returning to their old practices?' " He cited a productivity study con- ducted by Western Electric over eight years in the 1920s and 1930s at the Haw- thorne Works plant outside Chicago. "They started with changing the light- ing to something brighter and found it increased productivity," Jacobson said. Regardless of whether the employee has a permanent desk, or is transient, the need to have a flexible work envi- ronment that offers different settings is universal, Russo said. >> Workplace continued from. Knowing not every employee will be in the office every day, compa- nies are able to have fewer cubicles, and hence lease less square footage. Another large trend in the market is that landlords are creating more amenities to try to attract and retain tenants. Amenities include fitness centers, common conference facilities, cafeterias, etc. For example, 1 Water- side Crossing in Windsor is installing a sports facility for its tenants, which will include a basketball court, volley- ball court and paddle court. Q. Can you share any major leases that took place during the first half of 2018? A. A few major leases took place in downtown Hartford in the first half of 2018. Virtus Investment Partners signed a lease for about 65,000 square feet at One Financial Plaza (the 'Gold Building'), including the top two floors that once served as United Technologies Corp.'s corporate offices. They will be relocating from 100 Pearl St. Also, the accounting and consulting firm PwC renewed its lease for about 46,000 square feet at CityPlace I. Q. What are you seeing in terms of rents? Is it a landlord's or renter's market? A. Rental rates remained relatively flat in the Greater Hartford office mar- ket during the past couple of years. There are certainly exceptions — such as Glastonbury and West Hartford — where space is at a premium, and rental rates have ticked upwards. The past five to 10 years have undoubtedly been a tenant's market. Tenants have been able to negotiate lower rental rates, more free rent and other con- cessions. While I would say it is still a tenant's market, tenants aren't able to get quite the same concessions they could a couple of years ago. Q. What about office building sales? How is that market shaping up? A. The office building sales front was fairly active the first half of the year. Some notable assets that sold were 100 Northfield Drive (116,000 square feet) in Windsor; 8 Farm Springs Road (107,000 square feet) in Farmington; and 200 Constitution Plaza (130,000 square feet) in Hartford. Q. What do you expect the second half of the year to bring to the Greater Hartford office market? A. I expect the Greater Hartford office market to bounce back after a slug- gish first half. There are a lot of positive signs for the region. One of the biggest is Infosys' announcement that it will open a technology and innovation hub in Hartford and hire 1,000 workers in the state by 2022. Additionally, Seven Stars Cloud Group Inc. announced that it will establish a global headquarters for technology and innovation called Chain Valley on the former UConn campus in West Hartford. This is expected to create 330 jobs over the next five years. I am not sure that we will be able to recoup the negative absorption from the first half of the year, but I believe we will certainly see positive absorption for the reminder of the year. >> Q&A continued Anne Loh Russo, Senior Interior Designer, Amenta Emma Architects Jon Putnam, Executive Director, Cushman & Wakefield Kitchen and break areas are increasingly opening up to be part of the office flow. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

• Cover