Page 70 - BusinessWest September 28, 2020

Work in Progress
Plotkin calls it a “remote work hub.”
That’s a term he borrowed from a request for proposals he’s likely to respond to, and it describes ... well, a place where people can both live and work. But not like the current work-from-home environment many are now experiencing.
“A remote work hub is basically converging living space with working space; you’re allow- ing people to get out of their house and into a work place that’s safe — and in close proximity to where they live,” said Plotkin, adding quickly that he’s thinking hard about whether 1350 Main St. can be shaped into one of these remote work hubs. He thinks it can.
“I have a design here that works great,” he told BusinessWest. “We have some empty floors, and if we created maybe 20 units per floor and used the three floors that are empty, that would be 60 market-rate housing units. And if you had anoth- er floor that was a COVID-19 pandemic remote work space, which has yet to be designed, I think you’d have something very attractive.
“The idea is to make people feel that they can go someplace to work and not be in their kitch- en, not be in their living room, and actually have some socialization and see other people,” he went on, adding that such a facility would help attract people of all ages, but especially young people, to downtown Springfield.
The fact that Plotkin is thinking about such a dramatic pivot provides more evidence that the commercial real-estate market is changing and there are certainly question marks about how — and how profoundly — the landscape may
change.
The remote-work phenomenon, if it can be
called that, is certainly at the heart of much of this speculation. Indeed, as more workers toil from home for longer periods — some of the massive tech companies have told employees they won’t be coming back for a year, at least — questions are raised about whether such arrange- ments will become permanent, and what this means for major urban centers and individual office facilities.
Barowsky, for one, believes that companies will be less likely to want to tie themselves down with long-term leases for large amounts of space. And that’s one of the reasons why he’s moving forward with Venture X.
A Holyoke native who has seen a number of economic cycles and an ongoing evolution of the area’s retail scene, Barowsky believes this co-work space is certainly the right concept at the right time — and especially the right place.
Indeed, the site, just a few hundred yards from the Holyoke Mall, is right off I-91 exit 15 and only minutes off exit 4 of the Mass Pike.
“This is literally the crossroads of New Eng- land,” said Barowsky, adding that this address makes the Venture X facility attractive for busi- nesses across a number of sectors.
Add all these factors up, and Barowsky doesn’t see this dramatic pivot — away from retail and into co-working space — as much of a gamble. And if it is a gamble, it’s one he believes will pay off eventually, perhaps sooner than later.
Indeed, he said the current timeline doesn’t have him opening the doors for another six months, but he’s already received a number of inquiries about his concept.
Questions and Answers
While Barowsky doesn’t have any doubts about his new development, there is a growing amount of uncertainty when it comes to the larg- er commercial real-estate market.
And it crosses many of the sectors within that realm, including retail — which was already
“I don’t think you get this energy that you have when people are working together in one office, and you don’t see the productivity.
under considerable stress before COVID-19 due to online buying and now is under even more — and especially the office market because of ques- tions about the future of work.
“At this point, I think the jury is still out — the verdict is not in yet,” Plotkin said. “There’s been an abrupt change in how we work, and
it has required us to work remotely. It’s been a complete lifestyle change, and it’s created a fair amount of fear. And those converging factors may prevail over a long period of time; we just don’t know.”
”
Panteleakis agreed to some extent, but said he concurs with JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, who recently told American Banker that he
sees economic and
social damage from
Market
Continued on page 38
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