Any contemplated change in design or layout by a tenant should account for the fact that, like the Spanish Flu of 1908, COVID-19 won’t be around for long. When it leaves, a company’s office design and configuration needs to make sense and needs to be cost effective. A blind rush to the latest and greatest could be very costly.
The same happens in commercial real estate. When one tenants moves out, another will be moving in. If the current tenant cannot vacate in time, that exposes the successor tenant who won’t be able to move in on time. One holdover begets another holdover. Luckily for the real estate world, these broken chains are usually few and far between and the impact can be mitigated through overtime workers, temporary space or even paying some punitive holdover rent. Now, however, we’re in completely unchartered waters.