VOLUME 29, NUMBER 12
©2013 Law Bulletin Publishing Co.
December 2013
Rightsize Facility Performance’s Awtry: Office life is changing. That’s not great for everyone By Dan Rafter, Staff Writer
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he days of cubicle panels that nearly stretch to the ceiling are coming to an end. Replacing those cubicle walls? Often, it’s nothing, as a growing number of companies move to open office environments, a way to encourage collaboration among employees. But there’s a catch here: Companies can remove as many cubicle walls as they want. But that doesn’t mean that every one of their employees will thrive
in the open-office environment that is in vogue right now. Just ask Mason Awtry, who should know. He’s founder and president of Chicago-based Rightsize Facility Performance, a national office interiors and facility services firm that helps provide furniture to clients moving to new offices. “The taller-paneled work station is few and far between these days,” Awtry said. “There is a deliberate push to panel-less work spaces. But we have seen folks who do want that paneled system for at least some level of privacy. The Office to page 20
Tom Holtz: Building a three-decade career one relationship at a time By Dan Rafter, Staff Writer
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he Minneapolis branch of CBRE ranks as the most successful in the Midwest. A big part of this reason? The performance of Tom Holtz, an executive vice president at this office. Holtz has sold about $10 billion worth of investment properties during his career. That's called making an impact. And it doesn't appear that Holtz is ready to
slow down any time soon. During his entire career at CBRE, he's handled some of the biggest investment transactions for single- and multi-tenant office and industrial properties. And that's something Holtz plans on continuing. After all, he's working in the right market for big transactions. The Minneapolis/St. Paul market remains one of the strongest in the Midwest. "The Minneapolis market is very active today from an investment standpoint," Holtz said. "But it's a dif-
ferent market from when I first started. The key difference from 20 to 30 years ago is that Minneapolis is now attracting capital from overseas. In the older days, it would be rare to talk to anybod who had foreign capital attached to an enterprise. Today, in a lot of assignments we are talking to foreign buyers and entities that are partnering with foreign buyers. Minneapolis is clearly on the radar screen of the international investHoltz to page XX