Like dinosaurs, the suburban office park is a throwback to a previous era. With vacancy rates for suburban office real estate at more than 18 percent, savvy real estate developers are rethinking these “Jurassic Office Parks” before they become extinct.
Attorney Nellie Shipley leads Womble Carlyle’s Sustainable Practices team, and she discussed this issue with Forbes. One solution is to bring urban-style amenities, such as restaurants, retail and recreation, to the suburbs.
“Anyone who is NOT proactively moving toward being a mixed use park is being unrealistic,” Shipley tells Forbes. “If you can’t bring the suburban office building to downtown, then bring downtown amenities to the suburban office building.”
Click here to read “Jurassic Office Parks: New Life for Old Suburban Campuses” at Forbes.com.
Nellie Shipley represents parties in the acquisition, financing, entitlement, development, re-development, operation, and disposition of real property. She represents developers, investors, corporations, lenders and governmental entities with commercial real estate interests in the Southeastern United States. She also has earned LEED Professional Accreditation, the leading professional accreditation in the green, or sustainable, construction and development industry. Shipley practices in Womble Carlyle’s Raleigh office.