In a downtown missing its office workers, tourists and museum visitors, work on the Frank Gehry-designed $1-billion Grand complex reaches the halfway point.The South Bay real estate market, which includes El Segundo, was one of the few in Los Angeles County that gained more rented office space than it lost in the fourth quarter, CBRE said. Among the largest deals was an agreement for Fisker Inc., a maker of electric cars, to take 72,000 square feet in Manhattan Beach.
CBRE attributed that in part to the area’s large share of small companies in tech and entertainment. Small companies run by a few decision makers can be nimble, and many contracted quickly when faced with the pandemic, said Eric Willett, CBRE’s regional director of research. How companies will want their offices to look when they return from the pandemic is unclear, but Willett doesn’t predict a big drop in the use of space. CBRE clients “are stepping back from this work-from-home experiment,” he said, and not conducting wholesale reevaluations of their office needs.
In order to compete for the reduced number of tenants in the market, landlords are offering other inducements, such as months of free rent and generous allowances for tenants to build out offices the way they like.