By Matthew Cofone, PE, Rock Brook
The outlook for 2023 seems to be mixed, with many calling for a brief recession or a soft landing in the first half of the year.
The economic climate has dampened new project builds in the industrial and retail sectors with major players rethinking their physical space and redundancy in distribution facilities.
For corporate office space, the choice of companies seems to be settling at a hybrid workplace approach. Once rates are stabilized, many office occupants are likely to renew their focus on more collaborative workplaces with more amenities and located in live/work/play environments. The sector seems ready for a move away from the open office benching solution which has been popular in the recent past.
Life Sciences has been through a major boom regionally and nationally for several years, but new projects for the incubator and startup spaces will slow in 2023 due to a pull back of investor capital.
Healthcare will likely continue to be “recession proof”. medical office space could continue to see a boost as investors look for safer avenues for investing and health systems look to continue a move toward decentralized care to satisfy patient preferences of convenience. There is a good chance for some collaboration between the two players. It remains to be seen whether the push and pull of the demand across the various sectors in the industry will help loosen supply chain struggles experienced since the start of the global pandemic, along with overall costs to build.
But we’re looking for an economic improvement in the second half of 2023 to be accompanied by a push to relieve pent up demand in some sectors.
Matthew Cofone is executive VP at Rock Brook.
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