Trophy Offices On Reset: New Benchmarks 🏢

Table of Contents

• Renewal Strategy Play

• Latest News

• Property Management Upgrade Move

Rocket–Compass–Redfin: Turn On the Hidden Supply

Rocket Companies and Compass are launching a three‑year alliance to route Compass’ off‑MLS inventory to Redfin, potentially adding more than 500,000 listings & converting shadow stock into a searchable supply for nearly 2 billion visits this 2026.

3 quick steps:

1. Plug into the new lead spine: Treat ‘Redfin–Compass’ as one high‑intent funnel and shift your channel mix toward where serious buyers actually start.

2. Redefine affordability with embedded mortgage: Use Rocket’s rate buydown, p to $6,000 credit to keep deals viable when rates and spreads are tight.

3. Use integrated platforms as a diligence tool: Track Rocket–Redfin–Compass as a stack and benchmark your own end‑to‑end digital workflow against it.

Expected result: 

Early adopters shift from a tight, stressful market to a more liquid, concise data where added listings and mortgage savings redefine what feels attainable.

🏢 Trophy Offices: Pulling Away From Older Space

NYC’s Seagram Building is setting the pace for U.S. office rents, with deals ranging from roughly $250 to well above $300 per square foot and a top achieved rent of $310 per square foot. The building is 100 percent occupied, as elite tenants like Citadel and others lock in long term space in amenity-rich, highly curated environments. See full article.

Why this matters (fast take):

• ⬆️ Premium rebound, clearly priced: Standard and collab-prepared towers are proving tenants will pay up for premium market experiences, even as broader office fundamentals remain uneven.

• 🎯 Selective surge, not a tide: Trophy and well located Class A assets are now pulling away from B/C stock, making “flexible, prime, proven” the primary goal for 2026 office capital allocation.

🏙️ ‘Return-to-Office Increases Commercial Real Estate Activity

Royal LePage’s 2026 report sees the office leasing gradually stabilizing as employers roll back fully remote work and bring staffing back into the physical space. 2/3 of commercial specialists expects the demand to either hold or rise, and 42% see vacancies easing even as industrial progression eases under the trade and tariff headwinds. See full article.

Fast move:

• 💼 Office is healing, not surging: The RTO mandates are making the key hubs a bit strict while shifting demand to “better space, not more,” with collaboration and experience driving layouts.

• 🚚 Industrial still the backbone: Around 47% expects the demand to rise for well-located and functional spaces, keeping the logistics and trade corridors in focus despite eased momentum.

🏚️ Office Buildings Are Now Being Converted Into Housing

J.P. Morgan highlights office-to-residential conversions as a way to reuse obsolete offices and add housing, with NYC’s post; 2020’s strategy alone potentially delivering 17,400 units. Hybrid work is concentrating demand in amenity-rich, premium space and steering older B/C towers into either upgrades or taxed apartment conversions. See full article.

Fast move:

• 🏗️ Bones, blocks, and by-right: Factors such as shallow floorplates, walkable and convenient locations, and lastly, smoother zoning decides which offices can realistically become homes.

• 💸 Credits stack the capital: The Historic and LIHTC credits, as well as the TIF and abatements, now anchors the capital stack so conversions make sense where plain debt and equity don’t.

Tracking: Wider Goods Deficit and Growing Inventories

The U.S. goods trade deficit expanded to $98.5B in December as exports fell and imports rose, showing demand leaning on foreign supply. Wholesale stocks went up and retail remain flat but above last year, signaling a cautious yet well‑supplied consumer into 2026.

3 Steps to Roll This Out:

1. Reframe tenant risk by sector: Map clients that prioritize imports rather than domestic tenants as a wider goods break and steady inventories changes which feels margin stress first.

2. Recut your inventory‑sensitive rent story: Link warehouse, showroom, and big‑box rents to local signs of elevated stock and longer dwell times that can trigger space shedding.

3. Tie capital plans to goods cycles: Prioritize aligning the distributions, flex, and retail history bets along with trade and each one of the inventory changes before securing new leases and capex.

Expected result: 

Owners and lenders stop treating macro data as hassle and start using trade & inventory signals as a live demand dashboard to sharpen CRE underwriting and capital bets.

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