SAN DIEGO—The relocation of the CBRE Group's central San Diego office in UTC across the street to Westfield's shopping center allows clients greater accessibility, more amenities for employees—and more, managing director Paul Komadina tells GlobeSt.com. CBRE will occupy the entire 32,336-square-foot third floor of a newly developed building that is part of Westfield UTC's ongoing expansion and revitalization. Located at the intersection of La Jolla Village Dr. and Genesee Ave., the building is situated as a primary entrance of the center and will include a concierge staff and valet service for CBRE employees and clients.

The new office is part of CBRE's global “Workplace360” initiative, the company's leading-edge approach to workplace strategy designed to promote flexibility, mobility and productivity through technology-enabled, 100% free-address and paperless offices. It will incorporate leading-edge technology, with dedicated space for Liquid Galaxy—state-of-the-art presentation technology that uses sophisticated mapping data to give panoramic, comprehensive property and market tours, complete with 3D building images and street views.

The new space, the largest of CBRE's three San Diego region offices, features a more-efficient floorplate and design that can house its 160 employees on one floor. We spoke with Komadina about what the move means for the firm's San Diego presence and how the UTC submarket is changing.

GlobeSt.com: What are the implications of this relocation for your firm's San Diego presence?

Komadina: We are here to serve our customers, and they stretch from Otay Mesa to Oceanside and everywhere in between. So, as our professionals service customers in different areas, it's not terribly productive for them to spend 30 to 50 mins in the car driving to the office. It's important to have three offices in San Diego so our people can be close to the office if that's where they choose to go to work every day. We need to support all of our employees with technology that allows them to work anywhere: phones, laptops, paperless offices that promotes accessibility and mobility. It's become increasingly more important in today's day and age to provide this so that employees can work where and when they want.

In the UTC office, we want to be increasingly more accessible to our customers, and we believe being in one of the largest experiential shopping centers in California, with an elevator directly into our space, increases accessibility to our customers and allows people to come into our office at any time.

We think that this new move, because of how different it is, is really going to increase our presence—particularly with occupiers of space. Two years ago, you could meet with a client, find out their space needs, find a location and make a deal, but today it's really important to be talking about workplace strategy and understanding how employees work, incorporating technology, wellness, etc., to create a really well-rounded workplace. For us, it's important to practice what you preach, and with us going through the exact same exercise our clients do, thinking about our space differently and practicing what we preach, it allows us to talk to clients from a place of experience. This will resonate with clients in a way they haven't had before.

GlobeSt.com: Why does the UTC submarket makes sense for this office?

Komadina: It's the second-largest submarket from an office-square-footage perspective in San Diego. We look at our location as second to none. There are multiple points of ingress and egress to our project or any project within UTC. It's also increasingly important today to have an amenity base for our employees: daily needs, grocery shopping, meals, shoe repair. Being increasingly closer to amenities is increasingly important, and UTC is probably the best-amenitized submarket in San Diego County. It's not just sheer square footage, but it's becoming more dense, with multi-use projects converging and coming together in a live/work/play environment. Walking proximity to amenities is important to really create a dynamic environment for all our people.

GlobeSt.com: How is this submarket changing, and how does the relocation play into that?

Komadina: UTC is perhaps one of the most dynamic submarkets in all of Southern California for a variety of reasons. It really revolves around the convergence of office, retail, mixed-use and one other component: healthcare. An increasing amount of life-science companies that have traditionally been in Torrey Pines are coming to UTC. Two hospitals are spending close to $2 billion, and Costa Verde retail is serving residents and employees. The submarket is also adding about 1,000 residential units over the next 36 months.

But I think one of the most dynamic things about UTC is the completion in 2021 of the new mid-town trolley extension. Downtown and UTC are big places to work, and connecting those will change the way people get around in San Diego, which bodes well for the UTC submarket going forward. To go from Downtown up to UTC and terminate at the UTC project, that trolley gives people one more option of how to get to work each day. It's been needed for a long time and is finally coming to fruition.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this relocation?

Komadina: We currently have a large office in UTC, and we're relocating across the street. It's going to be bold, and I'll say this office will be the gold standard for amenitized office environments in San Diego. We're looking forward to sharing it with others in October 2017. We're excited to watch it come to fruition, and we look forward to using it for a long time to come.

GlobeSt.com: What are the implications of this relocation for your firm's San Diego presence?

GlobeSt.com: Why does the UTC submarket makes sense for this office?

GlobeSt.com: How is this submarket changing, and how does the relocation play into that?

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this relocation?

Instant Insights /

CBRE's UTC Move Reflects a Changing Submarket

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