With the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of industries have been faced with pivots and retooling. With most companies implementing work from home policies, the real estate sector is one of the markets at a crossroad. But many, like global corporate real estate services company Mohr Partners, is moving forward.

The Dallas-based firm recently announced that has signed a long-term renewal of its headquarters lease at Wellington Centre in the Galleria. The 20,000-square-foot space is a bold decision—but Mohr Partners has a plan.

“With the majority of our peer group companies moving to a highly dense open-plan environment to drive cost savings, we have decided to take a contrarian workplace strategy and add more private offices to allow for social distancing and greater privacy for our team members,” Robert Shibuya, Mohr Partners’ chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

The plan is to focus on “de-densifying” the office workplace. Mohr Partners will facilitate social distancing, even in a post–COVID world, by allowing a high percentage of its workforce to set up in private offices. 

Floor plan courtesy of Mohr Partners.

It’s a growing design trend that other Dallas-headquartered companies, like workspace innovator Vari, have already implemented.

“The trend of an open and shared office space is no longer a viable strategy in the current climate,” Shibuya told Dallas Innovates. “For the health and safety of our teammates, we’ve taken a different approach.”

The decision made by Mohr Partners means that it will maintain its prominent dual North and South elevation building top signage. The firm said it has already committed to investing several hundred thousand dollars to “refresh of its workplace environment,” including interior improvements, refurnishing, and adding a state-of-the-art audio/visual and tech infrastructure.

“The contrarian design and layout we’re implementing follows the strategy that many of our Fortune 500 clients have taken, in actually de-densifying our workplace by increasing square footage per employee, building private offices, while at the same time maintaining the same footprint,” Shibuya says.

Founded in 1986, Mohr Partners has grown to be a global corporate real estate advisor that provides corporate tenants with an integrated set of portfolio services. According to the firm, each year it completes transactions for clients in all 50 states, all provinces of Canada, and various other locations around the world.

It has strategic alliance partners in Canada, Mexico/Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific.

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