“Real estate is hospitality,” said William Hardin, acting dean of FIU Business and founding director of the Hollo School. “It’s about making people feel good where they are.”
Watchers at hotel giant Marriott International have seen the trend. “As landlords stayed longer in our residences, we saw how work-from-home behaviors changed,” said panelist Sarah Khalifa, vice president of mixed-use development for the hotel giant. “It became work with the game, taking a work call from the pool or making a deal between spa appointments.”
Before the pandemic, Dart Interests, an Orlando-based real estate development company, was a traditional 9-to-5, face-to-face environment. Upon returning from a lockdown, the company recognized that the office had to rival the home as a desirable environment, said Stewart Brown, another panelist and executive vice president of Dart.
Privileging the face-to-face connection, “we have radically changed our office”, he said. “We realize that our cuisine has to compete with their cuisine.” To move away from isolation and facilitate conversation, many Dart cabins are being replaced with more private and comfortable spaces and conference rooms, he said: “The built environment is meant to collaborate and to inculcate a culture.
How far will the hospitalization trend affect real estate?
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