SPECIAL: Corporate Campuses Get This Developer's Nod

Corporate campuses often offer the best of central business districts and suburban office parks, he concludes after reviewing for GlobeSt.com the best and worst of CBDs, SOPs and CCs found in Central Florida.

"The location of corporate facilities is a critical strategy that can have a tremendous effect on a company's productivity," says Livingston, founder/chairman of Realvest Partners Inc. in suburban Maitland, FL. He says CBDs, SOPs and CCs offer their own unique advantages and disadvantages.

CBD offices generally are nearer to government offices and the courts; telecom connections are usually the best in the area; and CBDs are often the first in a region to use new technology.

CBDs also offer less tangible advantages. "The matrix of activities that most CBDs encourage, from art and theater festivals to sports, dining, entertainment and transit options, create an energy level that can effect productivity and enhance the value of employment at a company just as CBD 'trophy' office locations can enhance the perceived value of doing business with a firm," Livingston says.

But housing for employees and office space itself is generally more expensive in central business districts. Future office expansions are not always practical or physically possible in the same building. And if workers live in the suburbs, there is the commuting hassle, "the bane of the CBD and what rush-hour is all about," the developer says.

For professions and businesses that need "prestigious visibility and telecom connectivity," however, battling daily rush hours and paying parking garage fees may still be worthwhile, Livingston says.

At the other end of the spectrum, class A space in suburban office parks, or SOPs, including stand-alone buildings, are often less expensive than comparable CBD quarters. Expansions are easier. More and less expensive housing categories are generally available for workers. Free surface-level parking and nearby schools, colleges, universities and airports are obvious pluses.

Newer SOPs even offer amenities such as on-site day care, automotive services, dry cleaning, dining and fast-food facilities. Telecom and other enhanced power connections almost comparable to the newest CBD modes are also offered at some parks.

Corporate campuses, a third office category, are adopting the best of SOPs and CBDs, Livingston finds. They are "attempting to create 'downtown' energies that can be focused purely on productivity."

More important today than ever before, the developer notes, "Wall Street likes the trend toward corporate campuses." He says, "Well-developed sites are frequently snapped up the moment the companies go public."

Another big plus: "CCs offer companies tremendous advantages in controlling their own growth and expansion," Livingston says. "Design builds and build-to-suits are much more common, with a wide variety of options, including sales and leaseback, that can make locating there a significant advantage" over CBDs and SOPs.

Besides the plate of amenities found at SOPs, the newer CCs add to them with trendier dining and entertainment alternatives, health and fitness centers, elder care, sports and recreational options and other retail options such as media centers, video rental stores and similar on-site outlets.

Livingston finds "business often finds it easier to integrate several uses--administration, R&D, manufacturing, distribution--within corporate campuses."

For example, helicopter pads are common. "Some CCs even incorporate residential options, from rental apartments to luxury homes for sale on the golf course," he says.

The developer concludes corporate campuses can be viewed as an extension of the 'edge city' planning theories that became popular in the 1990s.

"They are, in many ways, the modern democratic, capitalist version of the 'company town' of the early industrial age," Livingston says.