Phoenix Office Nears Reopening: Here’s How Owners Are Preparing
As office workers return, owners are focused on routinely cleaning common spaces and providing amenities, including restaurants and safe socialization.
Phoenix offices are gearing up to reopen, and office owners are preparing to safely welcome employees back to the workplace. This includes creating safe and clean spaces—as many owners have already done throughout the pandemic—as well as preparing amenity spaces to safely return to some appearance of normalcy. Arcadia Management Group has been focused on preparing office assets to meet the pandemic’s needs at 3550 N. Central office tower in Phoenix’s Central Corridor.
“Building owners are focused on keeping spaces clean and safe while ramping up the amenities that attract both full- and part-time returning workers. At 3550, we recently constructed a hospitality suite for our tenants with food and drink, games, private conference rooms, and a gorgeous rooftop deck. We have a great Italian restaurant, Alexi’s, on site and Elev8te fitness is downstairs,” Gary Shaw, president of Arcadia Management Group, tells GlobeSt.com. “These common areas offer fun experiences and a sense of community that has been missing for the last year. We are seeing that community slowly start to come back at 3550 and all over Phoenix.”
Arcadia has also focused on necessary upgrades to enhance the safety of the property. “The pandemic has fast-tracked many upgrades that were already very viable additions to commercial properties, and that would be popular with or without COVID,” says Shaw. “For example, the air purifying systems that many of our clients have installed will always be a good idea. Same with the hand sanitizer stations near high-touch point areas like elevators and lobby doors. Properties that have these amenity advantages will be more marketable than ever.”
These changes aren’t necessarily new. Property owners and managers have been focused on following regulations related to the pandemic for the last year. “Arcadia’s core focus has always been on keeping our staff and tenants safe and healthy,” says Shaw. “In the beginning of the pandemic, we had to immediately secure and post signage that conveyed new COVID-related guidelines and ramp-up cleaning and sanitization services. Significant time was also spent contact tracing cases and communicating the ever-changing local and federal guidelines with staff, tenants and property owners. Today, our focus is still on maintaining healthy, clean buildings that make workers excited about a safe return to the office.”
The amenities at 3550, however, surpass upgrades related to the pandemic. It includes a 3,200-square-foot patio features seating and dining areas, overhead bistro lighting and panoramic east and west views extending from downtown to Camelback Mountain and a 2,400-square-foot indoor hospitality suite with seating and dining, a shuffleboard game area, high-tech conference room and full-service canteen. “For most people, working from home doesn’t lend itself to meeting new people, grabbing an impromptu cup of coffee with a coworker or enjoying a lunch hour downstairs at the local café,” says Shaw. “We are seeing a gradual return to the office – some full-time workers and some part-time. In both instances, it has been fun to see our tenants start to gather in these new and improved spaces, and to enjoy the added comfort and conveniences that we’ve been working hard to create for them while they’ve been away.”