CBRE Group (Global Commercial Real Estate), one of the largest commercial real estate (CRE) service and investment firms in the world, announced today that it is opening a new high-tech office in Richardson, Texas, according to a press release.
The firm says that the new 131,000-square-foot office at Galatyn Commons is intended to enable hybrid work and create a seamless experience for in-office and remote participants and will house the company’s Dallas-based digital and technology, finance, people (human resources) and supply chain/procurement staff.
It also noted that the new office is part of the company’s “future-focused approach to workplace strategy, called Workplace360.” It says, to accomplish that strategy, the company is testing various collaboration technologies to enable hybrid work.
These technologies include a camera view called “smart gallery” that follows a speaker as they move around a room, touchscreens to promote mixed-presence collaboration and touch-free video conferencing that allows employees to control presentations using voice activation and personal mobile devices.
“As we look to the future of the office, our efforts will showcase how corporate clients can support hybrid work models through a combination of technology-enabled physical spaces and virtual collaboration, learning and development, and wellness,” stated Peter Van Emburgh, Head of Corporate Real Estate for CBRE, in the release.
In addition, the physical office also features an XR (extended reality) studio, which the company intends to use for exploring and testing applications for CRE in the metaverse. It added that it has already developed an exploratory-stage virtual office in the metaverse that is being tested with select teams within the company.
Josh White and Chelby Sanders represented CBRE in the office lease transaction, with CBRE’s consulting group providing location incentive services, workplace strategy and change management services. CBRE said its in-house design team provided workplace design.
In other recent proptech news, Reggora and Clear Capital partnered to offer improved appraisal quality control services. Asteroom also launched a desktop appraisal data collection service to meet new guidelines set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.