James Horrocks, MRICS, Senior Director of Global Occupier Services, and Alex Cooper, Senior Director of Flexible Offices, with NAI UK, discuss NAI UK's new enterprise, CORE Working, and the advantages that flexible office spaces have over traditional ones.
With flexible office space making up 8% of occupancy in London – a number that is expected to surpass 10% fairly soon, James Horrocks, MRICS and the Senior Director of Global Occupier Services with NAI UK joined his new colleague, Alex Cooper, Senior Director of Flexible Offices with the firm, to talk about NAI UK’s new enterprise, CORE Working.
Like the other business operations of NAI UK and COREP, CORE Working provides advisory services to companies seeking serviced offices – a distinction from traditional office space wherein most companies sign leases for 5-10 years and often face significant capital expenditure (CapEx) or fit out/tenant improvement costs prior to occupancy.
Alex Cooper was recruited specifically to launch CORE Working just 6 weeks prior to the podcast recording. Cooper and Horrocks discussed the forces that led to the new business unit.
Prior to a focused discussion on the new enterprise, Horrocks provided an overview of recent NAI UK Corporate Services work and talked about how well the firm’s integration with NAI Global has gone since joining over two years ago.
Flex or co-working office demand has soared since the pandemic, with hybrid work patterns becoming part of the reason for greater occupancy of flex, or as Cooper says, ‘serviced’ office space.
The U.S. parallel to the growth of flex demand is the current flight-to-quality trend, and strong preference for highly Class A space with a plethora of amenities. The same thing is happening in London with demand rising for prime space. Flex is really taking off, with Horrocks asserting that companies of all sizes must now consider flex space when choosing office occupancy. By comparison, flex space was previously considered an alternative, or temporary bridge to more permanent office-lease commitments.
With CORE Working, NAI UK has positioned itself to be the UK’s leading provider of serviced office space and occupier requirements. Listen to the podcast to learn why.
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