Rethink, Adapt, Evolve:
Real Estate Development in a Post-Covid Economy

The Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the U.S. and global economy, resulting in the steepest—and perhaps quickest—recession in history. As we write, the United States is by no means out-of-the-woods and many challenges still lie ahead. For the business and real estate community, however, many of these challenges are already here. The way we work, build, and do business are all poised for major changes. Now is the time for business leaders and developers to rethink, adapt, and evolve.

With respect to Capital Hall Partners’ current Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) projects, we find ourselves in the very fortunate position of being able to adapt quickly to the new normal. Some of the critical ‘future-of-business’ trends currently underway play into our favor, serving as tailwinds—not headwinds—to the direction we are headed.

Two prime examples are in the Greater Boston Area, where we are developing the Gateway Innovation Center and Brickyard @ Assembly projects. There is serendipity in the fact that we are developing two Life Science campuses right now, given the profound spotlight currently shining on the Biotechnology and Life Science sectors. But the reality for us is that we saw major potential in the sector well before the first cases of Covid-19 appeared in the world, and we view the Greater Boston Area as the mecca for work in this critical field. As demand for scientific research and development rises in the wake of the pandemic, we believe this market will experience more job growth, more wage growth, and higher demand for housing, office, laboratory, and data center space.

Job Growth

We are very enthusiastic about having a foothold in this market. The Greater Boston area hosts the largest concentration of life sciences and biotech companies in the world, with blue-chip companies like Biogen, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and world-class medical campuses like Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital all calling the Life Sciences Corridor home. Our Boston Gateway QOZ and Brickyard QOZ projects put us squarely in this thriving area—the Capital Hall Partners’ sites sit within a commercial planning area zoned for life science/lab, residential, and office (amenity retail), with density permitting development of 1.6 million square feet and 650,000 square feet, respectively.

Our Phoenix QOZ project, called the HUB, may appear at first glance to have greater challenges ahead. The HUB is a functionally obsolete warehouse being redeveloped into an office, which has a much different post-pandemic outlook than biotech office buildings or data centers. Many major companies (particularly in the tech sector) are rolling-out reconfigured work-from-home policies, giving employees greater flexibility and arguably reducing reliance on traditional office spaces.

Because the HUB is not a traditional office space, and because the pandemic arrived during an early phase of development, we essentially have a “blank canvas” to rethink, adapt, and evolve our design, addressing the needs of the moment. This blank canvas provides us with an exciting opportunity. We can build a de facto lab to pioneer new designs and layouts, to experiment and learn, and ultimately set a course for leading future projects.

Capital Hall Partners’ mission is to develop projects that are environmentally sustainable, socially responsible, and physically responsive. By staying true to this mission, the HUB is in a position to adapt quickly and effectively to the “new normal.”

Rethinking and Adapting The HUB

The HUB is a single-story building.  This is a key advantage because it reduces the complexities of sharing corporate healthcare policies with multiple companies, including screening, cleaning, and other common safe practices. There are no stairs or elevators that need to be adapted for physical distancing. The blank canvas also enables higher employee density without renovating or blocking off large areas of the floor plate. The expansive structural grid will create fewer obstacles in the workstation layout, providing the opportunity for more flexible work areas and corridors wide enough for two-way travel.

Social Distancing

We are currently working with designers and furniture manufacturers to configure the work areas to provide maximum densities without sacrificing separation. The openness of the building space allows us to develop a plan that prioritizes physical distancing. The HUB can be planned to address Desk Settings, Bench Settings, Collaborative Settings, Individual Work-Point Settings, and Neighborhoods without sacrificing employee density. Future flex spaces are designed to be converted, enhancing collaboration in a safe way. There is no need to install plexiglass dividers to address separation as the HUB will design and configure movable whiteboard spaces that are functional and amendable.

Social Distance

Disinfecting

With sanitizing and cleanliness two of the top priorities for individuals returning to work, we will encourage our tenants to plan, communicate, and enforce cleaning regimens to support services and employees. The HUB will incorporate touchless technology into future tenant improvements. This technology will include ingress/egress doors, doors into restrooms and other common areas, plumbing fixtures (sink faucets, toilets, urinals, and towel dispensers), and lighting and mechanical system controls. We are currently exploring the viability of nano-coatings that are anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal. These coatings claim to reduce surface contamination and are self-cleaning.

Outdoor Workspaces

The ability to work and meet outdoors is a hallmark of the HUB, which features a covered 14,000-square foot outdoor workspace. Early research indicates the risk of community transmission outdoors is relatively low, particularly if physical distancing is being maintained.

The HUB’s outdoor workspace will be landscaped to create additional shade and a comfortable environment, providing tenants the ability to use this area for outdoor conferencing, teamwork, and collaboration.  The area is overlaid by photovoltaic panels that will generate electricity for the building and sell the balance back to the grid.

Outdoor Workspaces

Isolation

An unfortunate reality of the current moment is that most, if not all, office buildings will need to provide ‘isolation’ rooms for employees exhibiting symptoms or feeling ill. The HUB can accommodate these feature rooms equipped with materials conducive to disinfectant cleaning, as well as having special ventilation and/or negative air pressure to further reduce exposure to others in the area. Since the HUB is designed to accommodate individual packaged HVAC units, the ventilation can be planned for this specific use rather than an expensive adaptation.

HVAC Systems

According to the Centers for Disease Control, many viruses—including the novel coronavirus—tend to spread rapidly indoors through close personal contact, but also via circulation from building ventilation systems.

The design and engineering of HUB’s mechanical system will become important in establishing and maintaining a healthy building. One way to dilute airborne contaminants is to increase air exchanges and increase filtration. The HUB’s plan provides for several locations and sizes of individual package HVAC units, allowing for an increase in the fresh air intake. This feature, combined with the large roll-up doors, will help achieve this goal. The HVAC system is designed and engineered to incorporate a high level of filtration such as high MERV or HEPA filters.

The HUB is also designed with limited entry points. This layout was originally planned for safety and security, but can now be used to set up a thermal scanner before an employee enters the workspace. While the thermal scanner won’t be able to detect Covid-19, the non-contact scanner can detect fever-level body temperatures.

Finally, pandemic-related matters aside, the HUB has a distinct location advantage. Tempe is the strongest submarket in a Greater Phoenix market, which boasted record absorption of over 3 million square feet in Q3 2019, record construction numbers, and healthy pre-leasing activity. Since 2010, Greater Phoenix vacancy has dropped 40 percent, and the outlook for 2020 and beyond remains strong based on a large influx of companies moving into the market. Tempe maintains a vacancy rate of 4.9 percent, significantly ahead of the second lowest submarket (the Southeast Valley at 11.7 percent). Tempe also posted the largest asking rate increase quarter over quarter, according to a CBRE Q1 2020 report.

The HUB is in the center of five major freeways, one mile south of Arizona State University (named #1 in Innovation for five consecutive years), Tempe Town Lake, and the Mill Avenue Entertainment District. Four miles to the southeast is Sky Harbor International Airport, which ranked as America’s Second Friendliest Airport in 2019, the 44th busiest airport in the world, and 13th busiest in the United States. The confluence of these market and location strengths should benefit the HUB as the economy recovers.

Conclusion

The pandemic is reshaping business and society in many ways, but we would also argue that many of these changes were already well underway. Demand for data centers, multi-family housing, biotechnology breakthroughs, and environmentally sustainable, socially responsible, and physically responsive workspaces has been on the rise for some time. The pandemic is merely accelerating these trends.

The Capital Hall Partners’ approach fits neatly into this new normal. The pandemic has not forced us to alter our mission, and in fact has done just the opposite—it has confirmed we are on the right path, applying the right processes, and building in the right markets. The current environment is chock-full of opportunities and challenges, which in our view gives urgency of the need to rethink, adapt, and evolve.

For readers and investors who want to learn more about our projects in Qualified Opportunity Zones, the terms of investment, and/or who have questions about how Qualified Opportunity Zones work, please reach out to us at info@caphall.com. We’d be happy to talk with you.


 

Capital Hall Partners is a privately held real estate investment and development firm. We have over 50 years of experience over multiple real estate cycles, with a current focus on value-oriented investments in Qualified Opportunity Zones in the Los Angeles, Phoenix, & Boston areas. Our commitment to investors is to preserve capital, deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns, be trustworthy and transparent.

If you would like to learn more about Capital Hall Partners, Qualified Opportunity Zones, or how to invest, please contact us today at info@caphall.com or by calling 310-264-1504.


This is presented only for informational and educational purposes and is not intended to interpret laws or regulations. This is based upon information generally available to the public from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty representation, express or implied, has been made as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein and is not an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security or other instruments. Additionally, this is not intended to represent advice or a recommendation of any kind, as it does not consider the specific investment objectives, financial situation, applicable risk factors, and/or particular needs of any individual client or investor and should not be relied upon as the basis for investment decisions.