15 minute read
What’s Happening
CHANGE AGENT: SCORE Rhode Island host Jeffery Hayzlett will present advice for transforming a business during an online webinar on Dec. 3.
COURTESY JEFFERY HAYZLETT
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EDITOR’S CHOICE How to transform your business
SCORE RHODE ISLAND is hosting a webinar to provide information and resources about transforming a business to improve its operation and function in the new economic landscape. Jeffrey Hayzlett, who is chairman of the C-Suite Network, will provide insight into understanding and protecting a small business and its impact over time. Participants will learn about developing the right culture by gaining a better business understanding; knowing a company’s purpose and how to lead with values; why business as usual, bad moods and mediocre expectations are indicators of a bigger problem; ensuring everyone on your team knows your core values and believes in them; learning to live with and develop a brand; and owning your “hero factor.” THURSDAY, DEC. 3, 2-3 P.M. Free Online webinar. INFO AND REGISTRATION: bit.ly/3cBwMCD
Scale your business
THE MASSACHUSETTS SMALL Business Development Center is hosting a webinar to discuss ways to scale a company’s sales efforts. Scaling a business means setting the stage to enable and support growth in a company. Meghan Lynch and Andy Sherman will provide advice and information, while also exploring practical and tactical tips for driving a company’s sales through employees, partners and customers. Lynch is CEO and president of Six-Point Creative, a brand-development agency that specializes in helping growthoriented business owners scale their brand and marketing. Sherman is president of Apex Growth Advisors, a firm that focuses on companies that are achieving breakthrough sales growth, discipline and accountability. TUESDAY, OCT. 13, 11-11:45 A.M. Free Online webinar. INFO AND REGISTRATION: bit.ly/3lbVbSn
Produce leads to boost sales
THE ASSOCIATION OF MARKETING
Professionals of Rhode Island is hosting a webinar to provide information about how to utilize social media and digital marketing campaigns to produce leads for driving sales for your business or enterprise. Alicia Piazza and Nicole Eller, who are founders of The Spark Social marketing firm, will provide participants with information about social media and its role in the marketing funnel, especially with digital leads being a main source of sales. They will detail three to five ideas of how to build the awareness stage of your marketing funnel; gain a better understanding of using the funnel; and discuss action items that could turn your customers into loyal brand ambassadors and promoters.
TUESDAY, OCT. 13, 6-7:30 P.M.
Members/free; nonmembers/$5 Online webinar. INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/gt71sq
Technology innovation
VENTURE CAFÉ and District Hall Providence will host a webinar regarding Access Rhode Island MedTech and its aims to bolster the medical technology sector in Rhode Island through support, resources and information. This webinar will present the breadth of medical technology
Interested in having your business-related event included in What’s Happening? Contact PBN Researcher Cassius Shuman at (401) 680-4884 or Shuman@PBN.com.
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innovation in Rhode Island and share resources and services to support local, regional and global startups as they develop and commercialize medical technologies.
THURSDAY, OCT. 15, 9:30 A.M. TO 2
P.M. Free Online webinar. INFO AND REGISTRATION: bit.ly/3jkuIkV
Discussing new medical devices
THE NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL Innovation Center, a nonprofit organization, is hosting a webinar to share, disseminate and discuss new technologies, gadgets and innovations in the public domain. This virtual-technology forum will feature Jessica WillingPichs, a research and product strategist, with 20 years in market research, who will lead a discussion about the latest medical innovations and inventions, including digital, connected products, diagnostics, pharmacy and drug delivery, robotics, materials and sensors.
THURSDAY, OCT. 15, NOON TO 1 P.M.
Free Online webinar. INFO AND REGISTRATION: bit.ly/3l8SuAK
Annual assisted living conference
THE RHODE ISLAND ASSISTED Living Association is hosting its annual RIALA Conference in the virtual realm. Professionals in the field will gather for two half-days online, creating a venue for participants to promote their goods and services or network with leaders in the industry. This webinar series will provide attendees with information, tools and resources to help navigate changing industry trends. Assisted-living administrators can earn up to 7.5 continuing-education units by attending this webinar series.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 21, 9 A.M. TO 1:30 P.M. AND WEDNESDAY, OCT. 28,
1-5:30 P.M. Free Online webinar. INFO AND REGISTRATION: bit.ly/36rBcLi
Mentor program
THE RHODE ISLAND BLACK Business Association is hosting a six-monthlong virtual mentor program. The LEAP program, Leadership Equity
UPCOMING PBN EVENT: The 2020 Fall Health Care Summit will be held virtually on Oct. 29 at 9 a.m. To register, visit PBN.com. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Advertising@PBN.com. Accelerated Pathway, is to train and support young adults through their academic and early careers by providing informational programs and services aimed at strengthening their skills to support the challenges they face. The program will take place over the course of six months, starting in November and running through May. Pairs will meet for at least one hour per month and take part in three educational training sessions over the course of the six months. Mentors will be matched with college- through early-career-aged mentees. Mentor and mentee pairs will work together solving attainable goals and resolving challenges.
SUNDAY, NOV. 1, TO MONDAY, MAY
31. Free Online webinar. INFO AND REGISTRATION: mentees: rb.gy/gvvger; mentors: rb.gy/1entyo
Cancer research
THE CANCER ACTION NETWORK is hosting its seventh Annual Cancer Research Breakfast in the virtual space. U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and local cancer experts will speak during this event, which will provide information and discussion about groundbreaking strides in cancer treatment and care in Rhode Island. A panel of experts will highlight impacts of innovation in the health care sector and discuss how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted treatment of cancer patients and the ongoing research being conducted.
FRIDAY, NOV. 13, NOON TO 1:30 P.M.
Free Online event. INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/j9x0d3
Eric S. Lichatin
vice president, commercial lending elichatin@centrevillebank.com 401.827.5286
Nayeli Munrayos
mortgage loan originator, NMLS#1207936 nmunrayos@centrevillebank.com 401.263.4118
Now open – and lending – in Providence.
Providence Loan Offi ce
66 South Main St., Providence 401.821.9100 Appointment only
When our customers speak, we really do listen.
We’re here in Providence to show our appreciation to the many customers who asked for more access to our helpful personal loan offi cers and supportive commercial lending experts.
Contact Eric Lichatin or Nayeli Munrayos today to schedule an appointment and see what it means to experience banking the way you want.
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CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
WORKPLACES
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skyscraper that throngs of people who used to spend their workdays at the office are still at home.
Indeed, demand for office space has evaporated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, when workplaces closed and people started working remotely en masse to slow the spread of the virus. Commercial brokers say it’s as if someone hit a pause button.
“People are nervous,” said Giuttari, president of MG Commercial Real Estate. “They don’t know what to do. The architects don’t know what to do, in terms of new design. People don’t know who is going to come back to work.”
Fear of causing a COVID-19 outbreak before the release of a vaccine is playing a part in keeping some away, but there are other factors, too, such as parental obligations to children who are at home, attending school virtually.
For many, questions about when, or even if, offices will be chock full of workers again continue to shake up the real estate landscape, altering what office construction is planned in Rhode Island, what spaces are leased and what properties are bought and sold.
And the uncertain future of traditional offices goes beyond mere real estate, with changed habits and routines threatening to reshape carefully cultivated company cultures and upending other businesses that rely on office workers as a source of revenue.
IT’S COMPLICATED
Not all offices are empty. Far from it.
Many companies have seen employees return on a voluntary basis, while other businesses have instituted rotating schedules, with alternating days or weeks at the office.
Citizens Financial Group Inc., for example, has reopened its 123-acre campus in Johnston, where up to 3,000 people were working before the pandemic. Employees are now coming in on a voluntary basis and in limited numbers. The same goes for the bank’s corporate headquarters in Providence. Despite videoconferencing technology, face-to-face interactions remain highly valued by Citizens, according to bank spokesman Rory Sheehan.
“Over time, we anticipate that more of the workforce will phase into working from the office,” said Sheehan.
That said, the workforce at most workplaces isn’t close to full strength.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, which employs more than 700 people, said its office workers have remained home, except for a core group of 10 to 15 employees. There are no immediate plans for others to come back, spokeswoman Jill Flaxington said.
Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, estimated that no more than 20% of the local workforce has returned to their offices, based on a recent Chamber survey of its members.
“It’s fairly clear that returning to offices, in most cases, is not happening now,” White said. “People are looking at January 2021 to evaluate it again.”
That timeline didn’t surprise White.
She said larger businesses – offices of 25 people or more – are more apt to have employees mostly working from home, while smaller businesses have had more returning.
The Chamber itself has few of its employees working in the office. Two or three people are there regularly, White said.
The virus is a concern, although White said she senses most workplaces have adapted to the facemask and social-distancing requirements needed to keep employees safe.
“The issue with returning to the workplace is complicated, and it’s complicated for a number of reasons,” she said. “Not the very least is the school situation.”
The fluctuating schedule with most schools – certain days in class, other days virtual, some grades or schools not having children back at all – has left parents of school-aged children with little recourse but to keep working at home.
“It’s huge,” White said of the impact of school schedules on offices. “It’s a very significant determinant in whether or not men and women, mothers and fathers and other caregivers, are able to return to work.”
Case in point: The 130-employee XRA Medical Imaging, headquartered in Cranston, was considered an essential health care business because it processes diagnostic images, but in the past several months more of its administrative workers have returned, such as 15 billing employees. They’re able to keep a safe distance from each other.
Philip Lynch, the executive director, said the company has remained flexible for those workers who need to work from home, including those caring for children.
“We have a person who comes just in the afternoon” because her child needs help with online classes in the mornings, Lynch said. “And we have some people who just can’t come back.”
Just how many offices are permanently empty?
As of Sept. 28, the vacancy rate for downtown Providence office space stood at 10.6%, according to figures compiled by Washington, D.C.-based CoStar Group and provided by Providence-based Hayes & Sherry Ltd., a Cushman & Wakefield Alliance member.
That number is slightly lower than the 10.7% vacancy rate in the second quarter, but indications are that it could climb again as the pandemic lingers.
A report by Moody’s Analytics published in August estimated that offices in U.S. cities and suburbs may reach a historic vacancy rate of 20% by 2021.
Office occupancy had already been declining before COVID-19, the report found. Its projection
ACTION! Employees at (add)ventures make use of the advertising agency’s video production center in East Providence. The company says it’s in a “pop-in” phase in which employees can work at the office when they need to, as long as they check in ahead of time.
PBN PHOTO/PAMELA BHATIA
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 has vacancies hitting 19% this year and staying around the 20% mark for two years. Rents could fall by 10% this year, Moody’s reported, with some cities, including New York, having much steeper declines.
In August, sales data collected by the New York-based commercial property data firm Real Capital Analytics found relative stability in prices from July to August, falling by 0.5 percentage points year over year. But the number of transactions dropped by 73%.
Because office leases typically run five to 10 years, the impact of the pandemic may not be appearing yet in the rental statistics, said Peter Hayes, co-founder of Hayes & Sherry and partner at Cushman & Wakefield.
But it’s clear there has been an impact.
“The leases we were working on – we even had leases that were ready to be signed for five to 10 years – I think all of them, they put the brakes on,” Hayes said.
In renewals, tenants want changed terms. Most companies are saying they want to wait 18 to 24 months before they agree to specifics, according to Hayes.
“They’re kicking the can,” he said, because businesses are unsure of how much space they will need and whether people are going to want to continue to work from home.
Will Providence and the Rhode Island suburban markets hit a 20% vacancy rate? “Who knows,” Hayes said. “I don’t think it’s unfathomable.”
RIPPLE EFFECT
The changing habits and movements of businesspeople have caused a seismic adjustment for many ancillary businesses that rely on the existence of office workers.
Robert Wheeler, president of Friends of Toto LLC, a Pawtucket dog boarding, grooming and day care business, said people working from home means his day care business has fallen by about half. He also no longer has business travelers dropping off pets for boarding.
The silver-lining? “Pandemic puppies,” dogs adopted by people working from home, need somewhere to burn off energy while their owners work. “A lot of our regulars are not coming in,” Wheeler said. “But now we have a rush of new dogs.”
He’s also added a delivery service – shuttling dogs back and forth to pet-grooming appointments – in an effort to hold on until travel rebounds. “Business travel, in particular, was a big part of our revenue stream,” he said. “That’s definitely out.”
Roger Gross, 74, has more than 50 years of experience selling business suits, but he’s never seen anything quite like this.
His store, Franklin Rogers Ltd. on Westminster Street in Providence, was once among seven men’s clothiers downtown over the years. Now he thinks he may be the last. But he’s determined to outlast the COVID-19 pandemic, even though it has cleared out his most dependable clients: wellheeled executives.
“What is missing is the guy, especially this time of year, who comes in and just loves clothes,” Gross said. “We’re not getting that customer. The person who simply loves clothes. There’s nowhere to wear it, so they’re not buying it.”
Instead, Gross has shifted his advertising to the internet. Now he’s getting younger people, and more people from the suburbs on weekends. He’s selling more suits for weddings, business interviews and funerals.
“I hate to sound ghoulish, but funeral services,” Gross said. “All through this process, in the last several months, we’ve had a kick-up obviously in people who are dying.”
The pandemic has also brought about a chill in construction of new offices.
In recent weeks, two prominent developers have indicated they’re pulling back on plans for new offices.
Developer Fortuitous Partners recently reworked its $300 million Tidewater Landing project in Pawtucket to shift a portion of the plans away from offices and toward multifamily housing.
Brett Johnson, Fortuitous founder and principal, cited the impact of the pandemic on traditional offices in a statement to the Pawtucket City Council.
And Wexford Science & Technology LLC, which has built an office and innovation building in Providence’s I-195 Redevelopment District, has renegotiated its purchase of additional land, getting another two years to decide whether to pursue additional office and research space.
The chairman of the district commission doesn’t fault Wexford. The new agreement reflects the softening of the office market.
“They have a fair amount of office space in the district that is not occupied,” said Robert Davis. “They’re just being cautious.”
CULTURE CONCERN
Many companies have found they’re more productive working remotely than expected. Others have found downsides.
Virgin Pulse Inc., which has about 350 employees based in Providence, has some employees clocking in at the office on a voluntary basis. Perhaps 20 employees are at the Providence Journal Building at 75 Fountain St. on a given day, according to CEO David Osborne.
Since moving its global headquarters to Providence in 2017, the company has put a heavy emphasis on fostering a lively office culture, with pingpong tables, a roof deck and even a basketball court on the fourth floor.
The pandemic has changed that. Osborne said he feels that the company culture is missing that collaborative interaction of employees all working together.
“There’s no doubt,” he said. “There are little fissures in the culture, in collaboration, in
UNDETERRED: Charles Wiff, left, vice president of Aurelius Coworks, tours the 11th floor of the Turk’s Head Building in Providence with startup manager Jessica Piche. Aurelius is the parent company of Westwey Club, which has launched a coworking location in the building during the pandemic. Wiff is banking on more companies needing flexible office space in the future.
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
