In order for a building to become a top-notch commercial office building, it often requires tenant amenities that enable employees to have a “one-stop destination” such as a food cafe and wellness facility. There are five popular trends in amenities that office buildings are upgrading to satisfy building tenants.
“It’s really about services, creating the ability for folks to get everything they need during the day in these spaces,” says Lauren Coughlin, a design director and workplace strategist for D2 Groups LLC.
She emphasizes that a building doesn’t need to be an entertainment center. Improvements can be made by adding simple upgrades like outdoor seating to a food café or hiring food trucks for events or lunchtime and creating common spaces for tenants to gather.
1. Full-Service Café
Commercial buildings may keep their tenants feeling connected if they consider such offerings as a full-service café. This enables tenants in the building to have a designated place to gather and socialize. “A lot of people can feel like they can work there, socialize there and have their own sense of space,” said Coughlin.
2. Outdoor Spaces
Tenants value an outdoor space to take a break during their workday and to literally get a breath of fresh air. Adding outdoor tables, seating and sufficient walkways in the surrounding areas give employees the ability to get some exercise during lunchtime.
3. Wellness Facility
Tenants not only want a gym to go to, but are increasingly interested in workplace wellness rooms, which is a space with a variety of uses. It may be a space used for yoga or meditation, a private place for mothers to pump milk for their newborn babies, or just a comfortable place to have a reprieve.
4. Break Room Upgrade
A break room no longer just needs to be a place where the coffee machine is located, but a location for spontaneous gatherings of employees to share ideas and discussion. If a full-service café is not possible in a commercial office building, then a break room may be the perfect place to provide some healthy food options beyond the office vending machines filled with candy. “It’s small things like that where people can go and easily grab something, instead of having to go out somewhere and buy it and bring it back,” said Dean Stier, a design and marketing expert with National Business Furniture. “It’s those little things I think that can help the connectivity between employees, and it creates more collaboration and bonding.”
5. Event Space
Another popular amenity is an event space that can be incorporated in the lobby area or even the rooftop of a building. A rooftop event space particularly adds a “wow” factor to building amenities offered to tenants.
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