Let’s start with the unfortunate truth most brokers don’t want to admit: They’re still pushing long-term leases — not the flex strategies enterprises actually need.
Meanwhile, most companies don’t know where their people are doing their best work — or where they should be investing in workspace. That’s more than an inconvenience. It’s a liability.
A liability measurable in empty floors, capital locked in bloated portfolios, and employee sentiment scores. And the typical “advice” on offer? Outdated playbooks that ignore the realities of hybrid work.
In 2025, portfolio agility isn’t optional. It’s a strategic imperative.
The 10-year lease is a liability.
The old playbook was built for a different era—when employees were conditioned to the HQ commute, ten-year commitments felt safe, and “strategy” was derived from broker market surveys and gut feel.
Today, that lease is no longer stability. It’s a straitjacket.
It locks you into space you don’t need, strips away agility you do, and quietly drains millions from your P&L.
Take one Fortune 100 telecom: when hybrid adoption surged, they found themselves with 2 million square feet of underutilized space. The leases were inked in a different world, but the costs hit the current one. It wasn’t a portfolio—it was ballast.
And yet, many CRE leaders are still pressured by brokers to repeat the cycle. Longer terms. Bigger blocks. More of the same.
That era is over.
The rise of the smart workplace.
Forward-looking companies—T-Mobile, Airbnb, Allstate—aren’t waiting for the “future of work.” They’re building it now.
At the center is a flexible portfolio strategy:
A living system that blends HQs, hubs, and on-demand space with scenario planning and real-time data.
No more static portfolio plan.
Now it’s portfolios of possibilities—footprint that flexes in rhythm with employee behavior, market conditions, and business priorities.
- T-Mobile uses on-demand spokes and regional hubs to connect distributed sales teams while cutting legacy leases.
- Airbnb uses on-demand space to enrich its Work From Anywhere culture and eliminate the cost of low-utilization hubs.
- Allstate is “making distributed work, work” with a hub-and-spoke approach that aligns workplace with where employees actually live.
The lesson: agility beats scale.
The best workplaces aren’t bigger—they’re smarter.
From guesswork to ground truth: scenario modeling.
Here’s the unlock: scenario modeling.
Every CRE leader has asked: “What if?”
- What if we close this office?
- What if hybrid adoption climbs?
- What if the CFO demands another 20% cut?
Traditionally, those questions triggered spreadsheet paralysis, broker book reports, or gut feel decisioning. None of which stands up well to cross-examination in a boardroom.
Now, enterprises can model dozens of futures before making a single move:
- What if 25% of employees prefer working near home?
- What if your NYC lease expires next year and 60% of the workforce is hybrid?
- What if shutting three field offices unlocked funds for managed hubs?
- What if you implement a 3-day-a-week RTO policy and restack your current leased office?
Instead of speculation, you see the trade-offs—side by side:
- Cost implications
- Employee engagement potential
- Carbon footprint impacts
It’s like giving your CRE team a flight simulator for portfolio and workplace strategy. So when the board asks: “What’s the ROI? What’s the risk? What’s the plan?”—you can answer with confidence, not caveats.
Hubs, not hunches.
Another legacy habit that needs to go: picking locations from a broker’s relationship pool.
Let’s be blunt: brokers are incentivized to lease what they already control—not what’s optimal for your people. That’s not strategy. That’s self-dealing.
The progressive model starts with demand signals: booking behavior, employee location data, and collaboration patterns.
That’s how enterprises are:
- Replacing ghost-town offices with vibrant hubs where work already happens
- Converting stranded leases into flexible options
- Building ecosystems that adapt as fast as their teams do
One global bank discovered that its most active collaboration zones weren’t near HQ at all—they were in secondary markets where teams gathered organically. By listening to their people, not their broker, they doubled engagement while cutting millions in stranded space.
Spoiler: your next hub probably isn’t where your broker thinks it is. But your people already know.
Why brokers can’t be your strategy.
Brokers still matter—for big, bespoke projects. But if you’re relying on them to run your flex program, you’re flying blind.
Most brokers:
- Don’t track utilization in real time
- Can’t model hybrid trade-offs
- Aren’t incentivized to recommend flex
- Lack visibility into the long tail of workspace supply
That’s not malice. It’s misalignment.
Your needs evolved. Their toolkit didn’t.
From space management to outcome orchestration.
Here’s the real shift: the modern portfolio isn’t static. It’s orchestrated.
What does that mean?
Think about a symphony. Every instrument matters, but without a conductor, the result is noise. A workplace portfolio works the same way. You’ve got HQ leases, managed hubs, flex space, and on-demand bookings. If they’re not coordinated, you end up with stranded assets, culture gaps, and wasted spend.
Orchestration means connecting those moving parts into one system—so they reinforce each other instead of working at cross purposes.
- Strategy → You can simulate scenarios and test “what ifs” across your entire footprint before making decisions.
- Operations → You can govern budgets, renewals, and license management in one place instead of in fragmented spreadsheets and broker emails.
- Access → You can activate the right mix of HQ, hubs, and on-demand space instantly, with visibility into every transaction.
When these three layers are orchestrated, you don’t just manage space—you manage outcomes: lower costs, higher utilization, smaller carbon footprint, and better employee experience.
This is why orchestration matters: it elevates CRE from being a cost center to being a strategic lever for the whole business.
The executive lens.
Portfolio agility doesn’t just matter to CRE leaders. It’s a board-level concern:
- CFOs want predictability, cost savings, and ROI. Portfolio modeling lets them see financial impacts before commitments are made.
- CHROs want culture, choice, and retention. Hub strategies aligned to employee demand deliver collaboration without resentment.
- CEOs want resilience and growth. A portfolio that bends without breaking becomes a strategic lever, not a cost center.
Portfolio orchestration is how CRE earns a seat at the table—not as a cost cutter, but as a value creator.
What it looks like in practice.
We’ve seen what best-in-class enterprises do differently:
- Data-first planning: They start with behavioral data—where people actually work—not assumptions.
- Scenario-based forecasting: They run simulations before making any move. Real estate decisions are modeled, not guessed.
- Demand-aligned hubs: They build ecosystems where collaboration naturally happens.
- Tech-enabled portfolio management: They use unified platforms to connect strategy, operations, and access.
- Broker collaboration, not dependence: They work with brokers on large-scale deals—but keep flex strategy under their own control.
The results: less waste, faster decisions, and more engaged employees.
The shift starts now.
If your CRE strategy is still a lease ledger plus a broker relationship, you’re not just behind — you’re exposed. To shocks. To stranded assets. To disengaged employees.
But here’s the good news: you can shift — right now.
Start with scenario modeling. Let your people show you where hubs belong. Build a portfolio that bends without breaking.
Three questions to ask your team this quarter:
- Do we have real visibility into where our people do their best work — and can we model the impact of shifting that mix?
- How much stranded cost is locked in our portfolio — and what’s the ROI if we redeploy it into flexible options?
- If market conditions or leadership priorities changed tomorrow, could our portfolio flex — or are we stuck with broker-driven commitments?
If those answers aren’t clear, it’s time to rethink the model.
Stop renting strategy from a broker. Own it.
Your future workplace isn’t a floor plan. It’s a living system of possibilities. And the leaders already orchestrating it? They’re proving the future isn’t something you wait for.
It’s something you design.
