The REX Effect: How Kilroy Realty Closed the Experience Gap at Columbia Square, Hollywood
Reading Time: 5 minutesHow Kilroy transformed a broadcasting legend into Hollywood’s modern creative campus.
commercial real estate
From Amenities to Ecosystems: How Buildings Will Become Experience Hubs in 2026
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe commercial real estate playbook is being rewritten. For years, landlords competed on amenities—the fanciest fitness center, the trendiest coffee bar, the most Instagram-worthy rooftop. But as we look toward 2026, leading buildings are making a fundamental shift: from offering isolated perks to creating integrated ecosystems that transform how tenants experience their workplace.
The Class B Renaissance: Why Smart Technology Is the Great Equalizer in the Amenity Wars
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe commercial real estate amenity wars didn’t start with the pandemic; they’ve been escalating since the 1980s. In the office building market, what qualifies as Class A today becomes Class B tomorrow as tenant expectations continuously evolve.
The REX Effect: How Kilroy Realty Closed the Experience Gap at 100 First, San Francisco
Reading Time: 4 minutesHow Kilroy transformed a downtown tower into a living, breathing experience ecosystem
Programming to the Person: Experience Data is Key
Reading Time: 2 minutesUsing Experience Data to Tailor Tenant Offerings & Activation The old real estate playbook said: “If you build it, they will come.” The modern version? “If you personalize it, they’ll stay.” In today’s tenant-driven market, one-size-fits-all programming doesn’t cut it. Landlords and operators now have the data—and the tech—to design experiences that actually resonate. Through …
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Bridging the Home–Office Divide: How Offices Must Compete with the Comforts of Home
Reading Time: 1 minuteWhen independent workplace assessors, Leesman, surveyed hundreds of thousands of employees, one finding stood out: many believe their home environment supports work better than their office. That’s a wake-up call for commercial real estate. At home, people control their world—lighting, temperature, noise, even background music. Offices? Not so much. Leesman data consistently highlights the gaps: …
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The Great Real Estate Reset: Why Trophy Assets Are Winning the Post-Pandemic Market
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Real Estate Reset Has Begun After years of uncertainty, the commercial real estate (CRE) market is finally finding its rhythm again. Cities like New York and Boston are leading the charge — trophy assets are outperforming, leasing volumes are rising, and developers are breaking ground for the first time since 2020. This recovery isn’t …
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From Office Floors to Data Floors: How Cities Power the AI Era
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Real Estate Market Is Missing the Signal If you want to understand the next decade of commercial real estate (CRE), stop tracking vacancy rates and start tracking voltage. The global AI boom isn’t just a software revolution — it’s a physical one. Every large language model, chatbot, and digital twin needs compute power, and …
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STRATA 2025: Where The Built World Meets What’s Next
Reading Time: < 1 minuteOn October 16, 2025, HqO and MIT’s Center for Real Estate hosted STRATA, uniting leaders shaping the future of cities, technology, and real estate.
The Value of Variety: Why Workplace Seating & Spatial Choice Boost Tenant Experience
Reading Time: 2 minutesFor decades, office design and workplace seating strategies have been driven by extremes—assigned desks for everyone, or total free-for-all hot-desking. But Leesman’s research, The Value of Variety, suggests the truth sits somewhere in between. Their data shows that workplaces offering a range of settings—private, semi-private, informal, and collaborative—score significantly higher on employee experience. The key …
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The Data Blackout: Why Real Estate Needs Smarter Systems
Reading Time: < 1 minuteWhen Washington goes quiet, commercial real estate (CRE) starts guessing. A government shutdown doesn’t just pause paychecks — it cuts the power to the real estate data systems that keep the market breathing. Overnight, agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau stop publishing the data that lenders, investors, and developers depend …
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Kevin Mull at STRATA: Retrofitting Cities for a Smarter Urban Future
Reading Time: 2 minutesOn October 16, 2025, a select group of leaders will gather for STRATA, a summit co-hosted by HqO and the MIT Center for Real Estate Cities were not built for EVs, autonomous delivery, or real-time data, but that’s where we’re heading. As aging infrastructure collides with next-gen demands, the call to develop smart urban infrastructure …
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Acoustic Interventions: Reducing Workplace Noise
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Hidden Cost of Office Noise If you’ve ever tried to focus while someone nearby argues with a printer—or worse, takes a sales call on speaker—you already know: workplace noise kills productivity. Leesman’s data backs it up.* 👉 70% of employees say noise levels are important, yet only 34% are satisfied. That gap isn’t just …
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Jennifer Strong at STRATA: Navigating Urban Change in the Age of Acceleration
Reading Time: 2 minutesOn October 16, 2025, a select group of leaders will gather for STRATA, a summit co-hosted by HqO and the MIT Center for Real Estate Cities are designed to evolve slowly—layer by layer, decade by decade. But today, the pace of change is anything but slow. AI is reshaping the workforce. Autonomous vehicles are redefining …
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Robert Lair at STRATA: Investing in the Future of Urban Innovation
Reading Time: 2 minutesOn October 16, 2025, a select group of leaders will gather for STRATA, a summit co-hosted by HqO and the MIT Center for Real Estate As the built world enters a period of seismic change, the question of how to finance that transformation has become more urgent—and more complex. From entire cities being built from …
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