Join Matt as he sits down with John R. Miller the Senior Managing Director for the Pacific Northwest and Market Leader for the Greater Seattle region, overseeing all CBRE service lines and approximately 2,000 employees, including nearly 200 transactional professionals. In his role, John is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of five offices in Washington in August, including the metropolitan areas of Puget Sound and Portland.
Connect with us:
www.apexfacility.com
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
Join Matt as he sits down with John R. Miller the Senior Managing Director for the Pacific Northwest and Market Leader for the Greater Seattle region, overseeing all CBRE service lines and approximately 2,000 employees, including nearly 200 transactional professionals. In his role, John is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of five offices in Washington in August, including the metropolitan areas of Puget Sound and Portland.
Connect with us:
www.apexfacility.com
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
00:00:03:09 - 00:00:05:11
Matt
Today's guest is John Miller.
John R Miller is a senior managing director for the Pacific Northwest and market leader for the greater Seattle region, overseeing CBRE service lines and approximately 2000 employees, including 200 transactional professionals. In his role, John is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of five offices in Washington in August, including the metropolitan areas of Puget Sound and Portland.
00:00:38:19 - 00:01:06:06
Matt
His work includes promoting the CBRE brand and providing guidance and support to local professionals to produce positive client outcomes. Initially joining CBRE in 2012, John has over 25 years of experience in commercial real estate in the Pacific Northwest, including 15 years of experience managing full-service brokerage offices. His extensive background spans work in property and facilities management, asset management, and construction management.
00:01:07:01 - 00:01:23:18
Matt
His corporate financial background also gives me the skillset regarding lease investment, sales and analysis and negotiation. Prior to that, John was the senior managing director for Cushman Wakefield and was also the corporate controller at Unico Properties. Welcome, John.
00:01:24:09 - 00:01:31:21
John
Thank you. Sounds like I need to update my bio. I think I'm dating myself, but I believe I now have 30 years of experience.
00:01:32:04 - 00:01:41:23
Matt
I was going to bring that up, my friend. You only look like you only got ten years in Young Mays, and you know that young spry look about Gray's keep.
00:01:41:23 - 00:01:43:08
John
Gray's coming in, the Gray's.
00:01:43:08 - 00:01:54:17
Matt
Going in 35 years. I think it was 30. It was 30 years. I took it all the way from your 90 to start with you to go crazy. Time flies when you have seen my friend.
00:01:54:23 - 00:01:57:06
John
That's right. Or when you're in a pandemic.
00:01:57:06 - 00:02:19:05
Matt
One of the. That's you. That's right. Hey, we are super excited to have you. Your perspective is going to really be, I think, impactful here. So let's kick it off with one of the factors in the commercial real estate and leasing industry today that you think I've kind of been altered by it in the last couple of years and kind of how are you guys facing those factors?
00:02:20:15 - 00:02:51:10
John
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of dynamics at play right now, you know, especially in office and industrial. You know, you look at the impact that ecommerce has had on retail and industrial. So, yeah, a lot of different dynamics and right now, I would say the biggest sector that is is the hottest is is investment sales for product types like office industrial or multifamily.
00:02:51:10 - 00:03:13:12
John
So I don't I just you know, obviously, I think we're going to we're going to get more into the office sector here. Right. A little later. But you know, life sciences has been has been really, really big as of late. And and as a result, a lot of venture capital pouring in the life sciences. And so you're seeing life science companies start to expand.
00:03:13:12 - 00:03:47:16
John
And new new life science companies start to pop up a lot a lot of developers are now transitioning some buildings that were traditional office in the life science buildings with the demand. So that's that's all that's that's an interesting trend. And then, you know, the e-commerce side of our business, just with with the pandemic and e-commerce starting to to be a factor, is really effective at retail, even though we've seen brick and mortar retail start to come back quite a bit.
00:03:47:24 - 00:03:49:01
Matt
Right which is.
00:03:49:11 - 00:03:50:05
John
Which is good.
00:03:50:15 - 00:04:07:04
Matt
You know, talking to a local hospitality developer and they're converting a building to life sciences that they had slated for in our market. And I don't know how that's going. You probably are tracking that. But among all the other stuff that you track. But yeah, it depends.
00:04:07:04 - 00:04:40:08
John
On which one we're discussing. But yes, they've had a lot of life science demand and then also they've had a traditional office component. If it's the same if the same building we're talking about, right? We can talk about specific clients out there. But yeah, but yeah, that, that has been that certainly has been a factor. You know, the, the whole switch on the retail side to curbside pickup and an online pickup in stores, expanded delivery options.
00:04:41:13 - 00:05:00:02
John
That's, that's been huge. Even though our retail investment sales business has actually been really, really strong over the last, I'd say six months. Right. And then again, just e-commerce in general, has has had an unprecedented demand on on industrial.
00:05:00:02 - 00:05:33:12
Matt
So yeah, we feel that we you know, we have a little over 100,000 feeding cans with a vacancy rate I think over five. And our renewal rate the last time around about three years ago was double we started with five years before that year before. So and I know this market has really stayed consistently. You know, those dollars where those lease rates were pretty reasonable for a lot like 25 years, they didn't change and then bam, they've doubled.
00:05:33:12 - 00:05:36:19
Matt
And I think in some of these triple yeah.
00:05:37:12 - 00:06:08:05
John
I agreed. It's the demand for industrial has been unbelievable, especially in the region and as a result, our investment sales business for industrials. Absolutely. We're crushing it right now. Yeah. So you know, the, the the only other thing I would add around some of these trends is just the uncertainty around the pandemic. You have some other uncertainty in the world that I don't think is necessarily had a an impact on on local real estate.
00:06:08:05 - 00:06:36:20
John
But but certainly the pandemic has forced a lot of investors to to look at real estate because real estate is such a tangible asset. And as a result, you know, a lot of class-A office industrial multifamily buildings are just going for for very, very low cap rates. Wow. And, you know, I think investors want to go someplace where they feel safe.
00:06:36:20 - 00:07:02:24
John
And certainly in our market with the job growth patterns as they continue to to to be strong, even though, you know, we'll talk about hybrid workplace. I know that. But but even though, you know, you're starting to see a lot of office tenants try to become more efficient, it's still a very, very the the fundamentals in Seattle are still very, very strong.
00:07:03:14 - 00:07:36:07
Matt
Yeah. I mean, I always like to let people know who aren't from our market, hey, we're in the center universe for cloud computing. So a lot happens here with not just the big guys, the Microsofts, the Amazons, the media, the Apple, the others. Google's big here as well. But there's a ton of of transactional activity in on a real estate world for those next tier companies that are potentially the next media, which is the start of the startups.
00:07:36:07 - 00:08:01:12
Matt
And I know we have it seems like every week we have a new unicorn here in Seattle, you know, with guys who would startup and get $1,000,000,000 valuation with all of the funding rounds that they're going through the year. Do your real estate your be your commercial office teams or do they sense and smell a return to kind of transactional activity?
00:08:01:12 - 00:08:09:00
Matt
I know you know, it's been a tough couple of years, and I know this is a long sales cycle for your teams as well.
00:08:09:00 - 00:08:30:24
John
So well, I need to be candid because I think, you know, we're still seeing a struggle out there on the office side. You you certainly feel it in downtown Seattle more than Bellevue, just because vacancy so low. And Bellevue is direct vacancy. It's about half of what it is in Seattle.
00:08:32:00 - 00:08:34:16
Matt
Which is a complete turnaround. I mean, it used to be the opposite route.
00:08:34:23 - 00:08:35:07
John
Right?
00:08:35:17 - 00:08:35:24
Matt
Yeah.
00:08:37:10 - 00:08:39:02
John
But, you know, I think.
00:08:39:14 - 00:08:40:01
Matt
Companies.
00:08:40:01 - 00:09:05:04
John
Are still trying to figure this out. You know, nobody has it completely figured out. We're we're trying to figure it out in Seattle right now. You know, we are we we are becoming more efficient. And our model, we're going to be moving into new office space, which is is pretty exciting for us. The new workplace of the future but but we've also started to change our.
00:09:06:00 - 00:09:06:14
Matt
Our.
00:09:07:23 - 00:09:31:10
John
Occupancy models because we're you know, we've gone from the it's 1.2 employees per space to 1.5, which is a huge it's a huge change for us. And, you know, it's it's got us a little country around whether or not we have enough office space yeah. But I think we do. I think we do at the end of the day.
00:09:31:21 - 00:10:06:10
John
But, you know, all of these companies want to go to more employee flexibility, more collaborative spaces and improved technology and as a result, you know, you're starting to see growth patterns that are a little more aggressive on an employee per square foot basis but we also have to think long term around job growth in this market and the just the, you know, the market in general and the livability in Seattle and and you know, we think that we think that going forward, much, much of that space will get gobbled up.
00:10:06:18 - 00:10:07:04
Matt
But in the.
00:10:07:04 - 00:10:09:01
John
Interim, we're still seeing some.
00:10:09:01 - 00:10:38:14
Matt
Pain. Yeah. And in Seattle, a week ago, down a pretty severe rabbit hole. And I don't want to really go that direction, but I know we have and are still struggling with our street life conditions and some massive closures with retail and hospitality on the street levels that really compliment you know, employee participation in the offices. I mean, you know, the there's a few a few restaurants are open in downtown Seattle.
00:10:38:14 - 00:11:02:05
Matt
But when I come into town, it's like limited options. A challenge still with a lot of closures. Doesn't look like it's you know, it's like the chicken and the egg scenario. To me where, you know, what's going to be back first is that the employees with no retail and no access to hospitality and retail or is it going to be retail hoping if we build it, they will come.
00:11:03:03 - 00:11:20:00
Matt
What are your insights just quickly on Seattle? I know we have some alone. It could go it could go deep and we don't want to go there. But just high level, I do feel like it's it's getting better. And I know we've got a new mayor and, you know, we're cautiously optimistic things are going to change. But yeah.
00:11:20:03 - 00:11:49:08
John
I mean, I can't get into politics too much. But I would say that I think things are certainly looking better. And we do anticipate with, you know, Amazon and they're needing to bring some of their their workforce back either part time or full time. You know, I don't think anybody's ever going to be able to convince their employees to work full time in an office anymore.
00:11:49:18 - 00:11:50:02
Matt
Right.
00:11:50:02 - 00:11:58:01
John
So that but I do think that the demand will go up. I mean, I'm risk averse. So if I'm a retailer, I'm not open up until they come back. But.
00:11:58:08 - 00:11:58:17
Matt
Right.
00:11:59:09 - 00:12:09:14
John
But some are, you know, much more bullish and and I will say, yes, I agree with you. Options have been limited in downtown Seattle, and that's been a factor in bringing workers back.
00:12:10:07 - 00:12:22:21
Matt
You know, it's it's all connected. It's a system right now. Let's talk a little bit about your new office. I mean, you're I mean, we really weren't saying this as a question, but I'm excited to talk about that, too, because you go into unassigned seating, aren't you?
00:12:23:22 - 00:12:28:10
John
Yes. We call it free address. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we are very.
00:12:28:10 - 00:12:29:23
Matt
Progressive, my flight.
00:12:29:23 - 00:12:49:19
John
So luckily, we've already dipped our toe into these waters in Bellevue. Bellevue has been a free address office for five years now on a much smaller scale than. Right. What what our employee base is in Seattle. But but it but it's worked really well in Bellevue. The you know, there is a lot of trepidation around it.
00:12:50:16 - 00:12:52:00
Matt
Some of the older guys like me.
00:12:52:05 - 00:13:28:20
John
From guys that always had their own space, you know, put up their pictures, whether in an office or a cube. Yeah, but but we found that it does create a lot more collaboration and people get used to the you know, the the fact that they if they have a confidential conversation, that they can go into a a private area, whether it's a lake out room or what we call an office for a day, they have a lot of calls to to utilize it and and they've gotten used to it.
00:13:28:20 - 00:13:52:05
John
And I think they actually enjoy it more. You see guys that would prefer to sit out in that environment and be in a closed environment. So you know, we it's CB luckily we've had over the last 50 years, we've had a more open environment even you know, we had no brokers in offices, which is much different than a lot of right.
00:13:52:05 - 00:14:14:04
John
We want additional virtual competitors. So there's so much used to just being out in a bullpen and and the buzz that is created, you know when you have more people talking it does it it's not as as distracting than if you only have one person talking and but you know these these guys I'm in Bellevue right now. They love it.
00:14:14:18 - 00:14:15:20
John
Yeah, they love.
00:14:15:20 - 00:14:39:02
Matt
It. Well and I don't want to go too far down the rabbit hole with your teams, but you have just a powerhouse of commercial real estate professionals. Tenant rep guys are off the hook, even the lease and everybody. I'm super impressed. You built a tremendous team over the last few years, especially recently, having known many of those folks for ten, 20 years.
00:14:39:10 - 00:14:55:09
Matt
I can only imagine that this environment will complement the growth and development of the younger people, being able to sit next to some of the key players that have shaped the market for the last 15, 20 years. I mean, unbelievable opportunities there.
00:14:56:06 - 00:15:22:03
John
Yeah, well, first of all, remind me to Venmo you for being my new PR guy. But, but we've had a lot of success recently and it's killing it. Luckily, you know, we've had, we've had some, we've lagged behind the market in certain areas and I think we've, we've addressed those areas which is, which is a great I do have an interesting story around that.
00:15:22:03 - 00:15:31:01
John
We recently brought over a team that shared an office or two and we're used to sitting in an office and when they arrive.
00:15:31:01 - 00:15:33:05
Matt
Built that office. By the way, that team.
00:15:34:12 - 00:16:06:10
John
I know which team or talks. Yeah. Well, they, they, you know, they saw where they would be working and, and they hadn't seen it until they actually made the move. And so I said, this is where you guys are sitting. And, and they initially were really, really hesitant around the environment, around them. And for the first couple of days, I mean, they were screwing us into a breakout room almost immediately with they and then they came to me and said, Hey, listen, I think we'd be better off in, in another area.
00:16:06:10 - 00:16:26:14
John
So we had designated an area and said, okay, we'll move over this area for, you know, in a couple of days. The following Monday. Well, on Friday, they said, you know what? This isn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Maybe we should just stick it out for a couple of days. And and ended up, you know, Monday it rolled around.
00:16:26:14 - 00:16:34:12
John
They said, you know what, I think we're going to stay where we're at. And a discussion with them yesterday, two weeks later, and they said they love it. It's not as this.
00:16:34:18 - 00:17:00:01
Matt
This is it we thought it would be. This is exactly what I think people have to do, which I think I call it mini experiments. When we come back to the works workspace, engaging the folks who are in the workspace working daily to have an experiment. It doesn't have to be full long term. It doesn't have to be forever if you let them actually have a free experience just to get a feel for it.
00:17:00:04 - 00:17:20:19
Matt
I think they it goes pretty darn well. And, you know, I think this also speaks to you as a leader because you're engaging them and they're driving and you're basically I think I'd call you a servant leader in some cases. In this case, that would be a way to say it because they do for themselves, Judge. And this is a very prominent team in Seattle.
00:17:20:19 - 00:17:34:04
Matt
I mean, these these are some serious deal doers, men and women. And I know exactly the personalities you're dealing with, my friend. And the fact that you can hear the cats is unbelievable. Well.
00:17:34:21 - 00:17:40:14
John
They're not they're not the most difficult to you know, they are very easy to get along with. So, no.
00:17:40:20 - 00:18:07:14
Matt
They're good. I mean, I'm talking about as a whole. Yeah. Because you've got a lot of powerhouse personalities in this group. And so I'm really I've always been very impressed with that. So thank you. Quick shifting gears, we've seen some in the last, say, five to ten years, some kind of focus to the startup community. And those communities in Seattle that are going through funding rounds, trying to capture those deals, but they're in smaller, shorter lease terms.
00:18:08:03 - 00:18:32:13
Matt
Can it? Do you feel that's a pressure? I mean, I believe it is a pressure on the commercial real estate industry, which is really, I guess, foundationally financing and managing the financial side of the buildings based on longer term leases, five and ten year leases. These are three year deals. And a lot of these clients I work with are simply looking for sublets to just to grow through them and not be obligated.
00:18:32:13 - 00:18:40:13
Matt
Do you find that's a pressure on your business and you still see the five in seven and ten year deals well, no.
00:18:40:13 - 00:19:06:05
John
I mean, there is definitely an increased need for flexibility right now in lease term. And and so you're seeing a lot of times where a company hasn't brought their employees back or only some of their employee base is coming back at this point. They want to sublease some space, but they also want the flexibility should those employees come back.
00:19:06:08 - 00:19:28:17
John
Yeah. And so in a lot of cases, you're finding these sublease opportunities where there's a there's actually a nice marriage between a smaller company who needs some flex space to go in for a short term deal. And and they're willing to give up that space for for two to three years with the expectation that eventually they're going to they're going to fill it back up right.
00:19:29:10 - 00:19:38:06
John
So but, you know, when it's a direct deal, especially if if it's a build a you're going to need a ten year commitment kind of build. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:38:19 - 00:19:39:17
Matt
I think that's meant that.
00:19:40:16 - 00:20:00:06
John
Be you're going to have to put in the space. Absolutely. But so you're seeing some deals get done in ten years. We've seen others. They've done it three. You know, they you want some some flex space to flex in and out of I will say that in a lot of those cases they are getting higher.
00:20:00:06 - 00:20:07:03
Matt
Rents are kind of a premium for that right. Right. They're getting almost more work environment.
00:20:07:07 - 00:20:25:05
John
They're not not putting as much they're not putting it they're not having to give up as many concessions, especially to to build out the space because it's only going to be short term. So in some cases it may work. I think they're you know, you're seeing a lot of those where there's it's a win win for some of those for both companies.
00:20:25:16 - 00:20:48:07
Matt
I mean, we're all about talking about how change is impacting the business that we do and know that those are the nuances around those deals. Of aligning tenant with sub tenants is obviously an art form. And I know there are a lot of ins and outs and challenges for brokers to do that. And I know some are. It's a tricky business, right?
00:20:48:07 - 00:21:04:03
Matt
I mean, it's constantly changing. What other factors? I mean, I know that that's a big change and I know that's been coming. And for us in the office environment, all these changes were happening before the pandemic. They were just expedited. You know, by the last couple of years, what other things have been. And they were.
00:21:04:09 - 00:21:12:03
John
And they were compounded. I mean, yeah, it's been much, much more of a change than we ever anticipated. We always expected that gradual change. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:13:11 - 00:21:15:05
Matt
But now it's it's on steroids.
00:21:15:10 - 00:21:24:24
John
Right. Right. Well, when you say other factors maybe maybe a need to clarify that more.
00:21:25:04 - 00:22:00:14
Matt
Well, what other seems like we see a forcing factor of workspace flexibility. It was there before and now it's really, you know, desire. I mean, I do a ton of reading and there are too many lines of thought. Well, mine, I thought was to build a space that attracts people back that you can't live without. And, you know, and just short of putting a chef's making meals in your an office environment, I don't know exactly how that's going to pay off because of the pressure on short term and flexibility on leases.
00:22:00:14 - 00:22:04:19
Matt
And the cost of build out and making these spaces available. Yeah.
00:22:05:07 - 00:22:31:04
John
I yeah. I think I think where you're going with this is the traditional office now has to compete with for use against other places, employees will want to work, including from their homes. Right. And and we have we have drastically redesigned our new office space for that in our existing office spaces. We're providing all kinds of new amenities that we did before.
00:22:31:04 - 00:22:57:08
John
I think No one technology is big, right? The stand desks the the the curved monitors. Yeah all of the things that allow people to be much more efficient. You need to bring them back into the office. I mean, I'm at home. I don't have a curved monitor that allows for multiple, multiple documents on my screen or to have a zoom call while pulling up my documents.
00:22:57:08 - 00:23:16:04
John
It's it's much more of a pain in the butt. Yeah, probably. Well, no. Yeah. The other thing in yeah, I know it sounds really cheesy, but we started to feed our employees a lot more and provide them with snacks and lunches that we bring in ad hoc. I mean, we over the last month and a half we brought in Chipotle label.
00:23:16:13 - 00:23:22:12
John
We brought in Dick's Burgers. Oh, so yeah. Just to get people coming back and.
00:23:22:15 - 00:23:25:07
Matt
Experiencing that strawberry shake, please. Yeah.
00:23:26:14 - 00:23:39:22
John
Enjoying the environment. Yeah. We're now it's funny because I have I give a lot of people crap because they come down from another for grab lunch and go right back to their desk. I'm like, hey, dude, come over here and talk to me. Yeah.
00:23:40:07 - 00:24:05:22
Matt
Today you know what the the beauty and it sounds like you probably have an emphasis on technology for meeting space as well, which I hear is just huge because the people are getting away from these long rectangular tables where there's hierarchy of positioning on the table and going to more of a soft seating or more of an audience style, you know, like a movie theater, almost intimate with a screen.
00:24:05:22 - 00:24:29:07
Matt
And so I, I see technology at the core of a lot of these change is with sit stand tables and all the other things. You know, we, we add an add on to a standardized, you know, system. So we're, we're all on the same laptop. We all have the same access to monitors when we can sit down at any station dock up.
00:24:29:07 - 00:24:44:15
Matt
And it works theoretically most of the time. But that whole simplistic approach and or using the leveraging technology, it's got to be something that's going to give you guys an advantage going forward. Yeah. Well.
00:24:45:01 - 00:24:52:17
John
We have decided that one of the major draws to bring people back to the office is to collaborate aside from the snacks.
00:24:54:00 - 00:24:54:06
Matt
But the.
00:24:54:06 - 00:25:18:02
John
Collaboration. And and so we have design much more collaborative areas. We have a war room that is going to be an interesting add for us where teams can go in and practice their pitches and have a screen and in high bar tables and, and it's more of, hey, let's spread out all of our stuff and figure out how we're going to approach this.
00:25:18:12 - 00:25:46:13
John
And, you know, we have a library for people to go and, and if they need just a quiet think time, they can go into the library and it's supposed to be quiet. You know, people have to have earphones in. Yeah, we have Liquid Galaxy, which we haven't had in the past. And that's a technology that it's a presentation technology that's it's probably, I would say it by an eight by ten screen.
00:25:46:24 - 00:26:08:24
John
Maybe it's got to be more than that. But it allows you to move, you know, to to look at demographic information on the screen, pull up downtown Seattle, zoom in on Google Earth. It's going to it's going to be a life changer for us in Seattle. You know, we've had other other offices across the country, most offices, large offices that have had this technology for a long time.
00:26:08:24 - 00:26:13:08
John
And we've sort of been in the Dark Ages in Seattle for some reason, ironically.
00:26:13:18 - 00:26:14:01
Matt
Yeah.
00:26:14:08 - 00:26:38:04
John
No kidding. Yeah. Well, yeah, I think creating a lot more collaborative spaces for us was key. We have a huge cafeteria that we're going to use as a just a a you know, a fun party type area. And and hopefully people utilize that for lunches and and just collaborate a lot more.
00:26:38:08 - 00:26:59:22
Matt
So is there any kind of formal hybrid work strategy that you I know you have workplace rule, not I won't say rules, but just workplace there will be a shift in behavior based on the quiet zone. Got to be quiet. You know, we know there are some guys who won't ever be able to go there right I know those guys.
00:26:59:22 - 00:27:20:10
Matt
And then there are some places that the young guys are really going to see, you know, based if I were sitting next to half a dozen of your guys and I was near the commercial, I would have an immediate course on how to overcome objections and handle issues and problems and deal doing. So is there the hybrid strategy is there anything formal that you're working?
00:27:20:10 - 00:27:21:04
Matt
No, we have not.
00:27:21:04 - 00:27:41:09
John
We have not finalized our formal hybrid strategy. There will be a hybrid strategy. We know that employees are not going to want to come back to work five days a week, you know, 8 hours a day, five days. We just know that. And so so we are planning to roll out the hybrid strategy. But we have not we have not officially formalized it at this point.
00:27:41:11 - 00:27:53:18
Matt
And I would imagine it has to be more custom to the culture. And then you have a different culture in Portland than you do in Seattle. And even somewhat of a different culture in Bellevue in some ways than you may have in Seattle. So I imagine you have that flexibility of those cultures.
00:27:53:19 - 00:28:05:07
John
And what I will tell you is that the influx of talent that we've had over the last three months has brought a lot of people that wouldn't have come back to the office. Back to the office. Yeah. We feel like they're missing out, which has been great.
00:28:05:14 - 00:28:13:04
Matt
And if I was one of your long term dudes, I'd want to come in and meet the new people, too. And I know them as competitors, but now coworkers. How great is that?
00:28:13:10 - 00:28:39:03
John
Right. Right. But, you know, the staff is what we're really missing. We've had we have a really great dedicated support staff all the way across the board. And and I think we over so we try to you know, they they would argue against it, but I think we over support of brokers teams. Well, but we're having a hard time hiring is is we all are one of them.
00:28:39:03 - 00:29:10:11
John
We're just you know, you still have a pretty high unemployment rate for Seattle. Historically, they have, you know, better paying options in some cases. We tried to adjust a lot of our compensation, but we're down to research people right now and we're down a couple of support folks that are key support folks for us. So it's you know, we're having to we're having to really make up for it.
00:29:11:11 - 00:29:35:21
Matt
In joined the chorus I mean, we're all in that boat. Yeah, we have it all. But hey, just kind of at the end, I wanted to talk a little bit about technologies in the work space. I know CBRE recently acquired Building II, which I think is an amazing acquisition. I we've looked at integrated workspace management systems and we've we've partnered and deployed systems for our clients throughout North America in a lot of cases.
00:29:36:05 - 00:29:42:11
Matt
Did are you guys planning on using a reservation tool and a reservation system and kind of how is that working out so far?
00:29:42:11 - 00:30:05:12
John
Well, we already had. We already do, actually. Oh yeah. During during during the pandemic. And we just recently, I'm going to say in the last two to three weeks, opened all all of our cubes up in Bellevue, which was our free address office. So I can I can only use that as an example because in Seattle, everybody has a dedicated work workspace.
00:30:05:24 - 00:30:34:24
John
But but in Bellevue, because we needed to maintain social distancing, we had every other desk that was blocked off or taped off. And and as a result, we had to go to a reservation system where people had to reserve the office because we only had limited availability and and we had to monitor that pretty closely to maintain social distancing.
00:30:34:24 - 00:30:50:08
John
So we were bumping up against that a lot in Bellevue, where we just didn't have enough desks available or offices for a day or breakout spaces for our employees. We had, I think at one point we had a limited to 20 people.
00:30:50:16 - 00:30:50:24
Matt
Right?
00:30:51:06 - 00:31:10:21
John
So so we are already on a reservation system and and we continue to be now we have a lot more spaces and it's bustling today. I mean, I'd say just based on what I see in other offices and I know about for technology companies, we are having a high percentage of our employees back in the office.
00:31:11:05 - 00:31:37:02
Matt
That's great. I mean, you know, we, we see that as a leveraging tool for integrated workspace management systems with specific reservation systems and reporting tools and all of that as key to the return to the workspace. Because then, a, you can truly give your employees the freedom to reserve space and get into the space and have it when they show up.
00:31:37:02 - 00:31:43:08
Matt
And because commuting in Seattle is we want to talk about that, it's always been a challenge, but I think it works.
00:31:43:08 - 00:31:43:23
John
By the way.
00:31:44:06 - 00:31:44:16
Matt
We are.
00:31:44:24 - 00:31:47:24
John
Not taking it's almost back to pre-pandemic levels.
00:31:47:24 - 00:31:48:04
Matt
For.
00:31:48:21 - 00:31:53:05
John
Getting into the office the the amount of time it takes me in downtown Seattle.
00:31:53:05 - 00:32:16:03
Matt
And that's a forcing factor as well. For people to really stay at home and have that preference. You know, this is the time you spend and commutes in Seattle is ridiculous. And we have all kinds of pressures on our teams from cost of living and everything else that pushes them further and further out, that it takes longer and longer for them to get into Seattle for the work that they do for us.
00:32:16:20 - 00:32:37:10
Matt
But ultimately, I think the long and the short of is that it also tells the client or the tenant you really the utilization reporting is something that in the next year or a year or two will really drive decision making, I think more so factually and in and rather than kind of intuitively, you know what I'm saying. Yep.
00:32:37:11 - 00:32:57:23
Matt
Don't. Yeah. So John, our 30 minutes are up and I could go as we as we talk and have lunch I always love to chat with you so I could go on forever. I really appreciate you coming on board today and sharing your thoughts. And as the leader of CBRE in the Northwest it's really been amazing to watch you grow your teams in your Oregon.
00:32:58:10 - 00:33:01:11
Matt
Congratulations and thanks again for coming on translating.
00:33:01:17 - 00:33:09:10
John
My pleasure man. Or is fun visiting with you so I appreciate the time. All right. All right. You take care. Thank you. Thanks.