Michael Ablon

Generation Connection, or Gen C, is growing and has strong and defined tendencies, and the outer ring of suburbia is its next hub.

Imagine, if you will, you are to be matched in a game of chess against a chess master. Hypothetically, your first step would involve immediate engagement with the board, in addition to the challenge of moving pieces while always thinking several moves ahead. During this continual iteration of offensive and defensive moves and countermoves, one would expect to experience a constant sense of trepidation.

In a time when information is now ubiquitous on the web, exposure to the world is at your fingertips, and, accordingly, expectations are inherently unending. We have entered "The Age of Scarcity." If we have access and exposure to everything, how can there be scarcity? Beyond the obvious scarcities caused by the Baby Boomer-led residuals of dirty water, dirty air, and the prevalence of dirty debt, one can find the more sublime examples in real estate.

In a highly fluid environment where companies are quickly changing their products and services or their recruiting needs, making an assumption of future needs based on past actions can often lead to a mistaken offering. The same is true in real estate. To craft a proposal for space needs for the next 10 years based entirely on the tenant's needs in the last 10 years could make for a huge miss.

In a fat economy, being merely above average was sufficient to drive business, as there was a growing customer demand base. In a side sliding economy, where quality is valued more than quantity and branding and customer identification is the essence of differentiation, office leasing decisions are following in a direct and corollary manner. Commodity space, just like commodity products, becomes nothing more than a highly discounted temporary filler. What constitutes best of class, whatever class it might be, will be driven by culture.