NAIPartners-Annual-2018-1

2018 ANNUAL
NAI Partners’ report on Houston Coworking
featured in Forbes
Our report on Houston Coworking has been featured in
Forbes, in an article entitled Coworking Space Occupies
Only 0.7% Of Houston Office Market, Report Finds.
The story also quotes our own Dan Boyles on Houston
Coworking heavily:
A less anecdotal assessment, by NAI Partners’ office
market study of coworking space in Houston, finds the
trending concept “continues to be a hot topic but is less
pervasive than expected.”
The city’s current inventory of 115 coworking venues is
dispersed around the metro area. Their combined space
totals 1.5 million square feet, which the report ranks as
“a mere” 0.7% of the 207 million square feet of office
space in Houston’s 17 submarkets.
Dan Boyles, partner in NAI’s office tenant group, says
the report explored a real estate segment getting a lot
of attention from the industry and investors but lacking
metro level data to track historically.
“The report dispels the myth,” he says.
As defined by the study, coworking properties encompass
a variety of workspace delivery and workspace-use
experiences, from a strictly open floor plan and “hot
desking” model with community-building culture, to
more traditional executive suites with assigned offices.
Coworking locations are starting to flourish near large
employment centers around the city, especially where
the urban density is increasing, Boyles notes. Ditto in
the suburbs, which have a lot of office space—and room
for more given the lack of physical barriers to growth, he
says, something many large cities encounter.
Houston’s outlying southwest and northwest submarkets,
for example, weigh in with 2.7% and 2.3% of coworking
space, the report shows, with a majority of submarkets
hovering below 1%. The NASA/Clear Lake submarket
located southeast of downtown hovers at just under 2%.
Coworking properties appear to be attracting tenants at
both ends of the scale spectrum, Boyles notes. Small
users (such as startups, entrepreneurs and so-called
“creatives”) are seeking short lease terms and synergy
opportunities within collaborative environments. Larger
companies are looking for turnkey office solutions, handy
for getting satellite operations up and running.
“It’s still a fairly fragmented business,” Boyles says. “The
traditional office will continue to dominate the market for
the foreseeable future.”
56