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Welcome to the next installment in the Commercial Real Estate Insights series. These reports, created in partnership with the Alabama Center for Real Estate, represent CCIM Institute’s commitment to providing thought leadership at the highest level to the industry during a time of historic change. The first report, which was released earlier this year, was titled “Amazon HQ2: A Reset Button for Site Selection.” Driven by the thorough analysis and unique perspective of CCIM Institute Chief Economist K.C. Conway, that report garnered widespread media attention and provided commercial real estate professionals with insights into what corporate RFPs will look like in the future. The response from both the press and CCIMs was overwhelmingly positive. If you haven’t read it, I urge you to visit www.ccim.com/insights.

The changing nature of work is driving new trends in office space. Some factors are constants in the commercial office market -- Construction costs. Occupancy rates. Employment rates. Availability of skilled labor. But landlords and real estate professionals now are contending with a new slate of elements as a result of a new labor force, technology, and the changing nature of work itself. These factors are driving an evolution of office space that's changing the look and feel of today's workspaces. “Work is increasingly more fluid today,” says Christian Beaudoin, research director for JLL in Chicago. “People work from home, work from third places. Offices today are changing to meet those needs, so workplaces are necessarily becoming more fluid.”