Business

10 years for full workplace market restoration, exec says


Michael Van Every in his office at the headquarters office of Republic Urban Properties in San Jose’s Willow Glen district, January 2023.

Michael Van Every, president of San Jose-based Republic Urban Properties, has leaned on his 25 years in the real estate business to guide numerous Bay Area projects from inception to completion and occupancy. He has overseen housing, office, retail, dining, mixed-use and transit-oriented development endeavors. This news organization recently talked with Van Every about California’s real estate markets.

Q: How do you assess the Bay Area office market?

A: The office market is very challenging in the Bay Area. Fewer tenants are looking to expand. The tenants that are looking for offices want to rent spaces that are smaller in size.

Q: What has caused the weakness in the Bay Area office markets?

A: Pre-COVID, the outlook was that new office space was going to be in major demand. Now, post-pandemic, the reality is we have built too much office space because there is too little demand. We now have an oversupply of office space.

Q: What’s your assessment of the Los Angeles office market?

A: Conditions are similar in Southern California. That area has an oversupply. But Southern California has more diversity in tenant mix compared with the Bay Area. The Los Angeles area has more financial companies, obviously Hollywood.

Q: Is part of the diversity in the Los Angeles office market its geographic size?

A: You have many large cities in Los Angeles County. You have Century City, Hollywood, West Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles, Burbank and Santa Monica, those are all very different office markets. No one wants to be in the Hollywood office market. Everybody wants to be in West Hollywood, Century City or Santa Monica. Los Angeles is such a big metro area.

Q: So do you see the Bay Area and the South Bay office markets as less diverse in tenants?

A: The Bay Area is very tech-dependent. Tech is now working from home 30-40% of the time.

Q: What sort of economy do you tend to see in the Bay Area when it’s so dependent on the tech industry?

A: Tech has always been boom and bust. But the long-term prospects for tech in the Bay Area are like the future. Those prospects are limitless.

Q: Does the office market in the Bay Area have to become more innovative in the post-coronavirus era?



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