In article in Quartz about the makers of WordPress, there is a lot of discussion on how their team of 260 successfully work without the need for expensive office space. This in turn got me thinking about the future of CRE. As today’s children come up living with tablets and connected devices while watching the work from home movement grow, there is going to be less and less need for traditional offices.
50 years from now the age of companies needing to occupy 15 floors in a New York skyscraper is going to be gone. There will be new uses for the space and there will always be oddball companies that want to show off by occupying the top floors. But the return on investment of $90 per foot real estate is going to be unjustifiable.
Between technology growth and user acceptance of such people can have any job they are qualified for while working from wherever they want while not giving up face-to-face interaction.
This is where the modern revolution ends. This is the end of commercial real estate as we know it. 50 years from now kids are going to look at skyscrapers with curiosity the same way that kids today look at phone booths.