I recommend to read this excellent article from CORT Blog " Workplace Talks: Operationalizing Flex Space" the article is a chat between Melanie Jones on the workplace team at CORT with Chantal Wirekoh about her perspectives on work, commercial real estate, flex space, and an eye for innovation.
All start with a quote from Kurt Lewin, “If you want to understand something, try to change it”.This is what Circular Impact team put into application with their ModulO concept: ModulO transform the relationship between developer / real estate investors / tenant /manufacturer to lead to the « Office as à Service »
As it is well explain by Chantal Wirekoh "If we think about how to launch a flex space, there are trade-offs to traditional real estate products. When you’re designing a space for 10 years, it makes sense to invest in the fit-out, use high-end finishes, and own your assets.
When you’re designing for a 1–3-year lease, that doesn’t necessarily hold true. It’s an operational challenge. How do you standardize the process to create a productized, lightweight solution at a known cost, rapid speed, and competitive quality? This is where partnerships can unlock cost-savings and minimize upfront capital expenditures. "
Circular Impact develop a platform between Furniture, Fixture and Equipment ( FF&E) manufacturers and landlords to fully equipped a space .The FF&E will be rented by the manufacturer for a fixed duration and each manufacturers will insure maintenance and service to do Churn and furniture move during the operation period. The tenant will only pay what he is using and will operate in a flexible mode. Circular Impact is managing the relationship between the manufacturer and the tenant on behalf of the landlord taking care of space planing arrangement, agreement with manufacturers and small fixture services.
When a new tenant will rent the space ,Circular Impact with ModulO will also organize FF&E transformation to suit the new tenant with incentive for reusing existing FF&E in order to reduce substantially fitting out waste.(Read To reduce fit out waste we need changes in our leasing process.).
It’s all about aligning the flexible space operations with its objectives. If the objective is to deploy a lightweight, solution that can flex to the needs of tenants in quick succession, then rental FF&E just makes sense. Anything to shorten the build-out cycle and reduce capital outlay by spreading costs month-to-month is a smart play . Specially when you create incentive to reuse the FF&E that already exist on the space and reduce wastage — in fact, the dream is a 100% construction-free solution.
