Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak

Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak explores the "power of proximity" in her latest Allwork.Space article, “The Real ROI Of RTO".

Included in the article are stats from MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School showing how proximity drives measurable performance. The piece also looks at how/why Instagram is moving to five days a week because in-person teams move faster, think sharper, and create better.

Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak shares a piece that explores how RTO mandates are helping cities come back to life.

Some numbers shared are that in Seattle, foot traffic surged to 95k+ daily visits after Amazon’s RTO shift. NYC recaptured ~76% of pre-pandemic office attendance, reviving restaurants, transit, and street-level commerce. Office Valuations have dropped nearly 30% in San Francisco, showing the stakes when people don’t come back. Each worker returning to an office generates $4,000–$6,000 in local economic activity (NBER).

This is a super short read, with great stats from
National Bureau of Economic Research, Downtown Seattle Association Office of the New York City Comptroller.

Industry analysis contends flexible workspace offers more predictable revenue than traditional long-term leases through six measurable drivers: lead flow, conversion rates, time to close, deal values, agreement terms, and churn rates. Allwork.Space published data showing that office vacancy reached 19.8% in 2024 while sublease availability nearly doubled since the pandemic, undermining traditional lease stability assumptions. The global flexible office market is forecast to grow from $39.6B in 2024 to $136B by 2032 at 17% annual growth.

The piece compares flex workspace to hotels and gyms as operating asset classes that deliver predictable returns through performance metrics rather than long-term contracts, though notes industry fragmentation limits capital market adoption with only one publicly traded operator providing consistent reporting.

A recent article from Allwork.Space suggests landlords adopt a 90% traditional lease, 10% flexible workspace portfolio strategy to balance stability and growth without compromising asset valuations. CBRE‘s 2024 research found that 71% of U.S. office transactions with less than 30% flex space traded within 50 basis points of peer cap rates, demonstrating valuation neutrality when flex allocation remains under 15-20% of building area. The Flex Insights reports that by 2025, half of global companies expect at least 10% of their real estate portfolios to include flexible workspace options.

The analysis positions flex space as capable of lifting NOI through premium per-square-foot pricing, ancillary revenue from meeting rooms and day passes, and higher utilization rates, with implementation options including third-party operator leases, management/profit-share partnerships, or in-house branded operations.

Flex isn’t new. It’s not experimental. It’s been around since the 1960s. And the data is clear: Behavior is consistent. Performance is predictable. With defined agreement terms and measured churn, shorter-term contracts can produce long-term stability.

Hotels and gyms already cracked the code. They’ve built predictable, financeable income models around flexibility — proving that stability isn’t about term length, it’s about performance consistency.

So why do capital markets still treat flexible workspace like a risk? The data exists. The demand exists.

What’s missing is a model lenders can trust — a framework that translates proven operating performance into predictable, underwritable income.

Until that happens, the office reset will remain stuck on the balance sheet. Any ideas to drive faster change? Hit reply.