Ex-Google RE Head Tells Tenants: Negotiate Harder

Tenants have to be better negotiators and do more thorough due diligence on a building’s infrastructure and systems to avoid paying significant tenant improvement [TI] costs themselves. Chris Coleman, the former global real estate lead at Google, Dropbox and who now represents the Android founder Andy Rubin, warns there is not enough expertise among corporate CRE executives in underwriting building infrastructure – with landlords taking “full advantage of the situation”. Many buildings, Coleman says, “are being upgraded on TI costs”. Coleman talks about the dangers of open-plan offices and the need for small neighborhoods of workers within creative office space; the amenities being offered to workers and how increasing commuting times and a desire by millenials to set their own destiny could result in the growth of co-working spaces and satellite offices.