There’s good news and bad news to be had in the subject of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). First, the bad news. The commercial real estate industry still has a long way to go. The good news is that years of progress have all-but vanquished the Good Old Boys Network.

“We’ve made great strides,” says Marcus Rose, senior real estate manager for NFI in Camden, NJ. “We can see efforts across all the disciplines, as well as in leadership. Of course, there’s always room for improvement.”

Indeed. But real estate isn’t alone.

Here’s a little irony for you: Coworking, which has been a tenant’s option in the office market for about four decades now, has gained serious post-pandemic steam as office tenants continue to reevaluate (and often cut back) their office requirements. And yet, coworking in the industrial sector is gaining steam specifically for the opposite reason: There’s too much space demand.

Now for some disclosure. The industrial coworking (or co-warehousing or shared space) market is embryonic. As such, growth statistics are hard to come by. In fact, a good handful of IAMC members contacted for this article hadn’t heard of the trend, and if they had, they hadn’t seen it in local action. 

Who speaks for the corporate tenant when a new distribution center is planned for a local community? The short answer is: Everyone, from the economic development corporation (EDC) and the community leaders to the corporation itself. 

But this collaboration assumes that there’s been adequate homework by the appointed site selectors and service providers to ensure–as much as possible–that the local community is indeed the right fit for the project at hand. 

“We have to accept what we’re dealing with and do the best we can.” Thus, Dmitry Dukhan wraps up the essential truth of the current inflationary economic environment. The Medline Industries VP of Real Estate, Facilities and Security takes a sort of laissez faire approach to the issue, categorizing it as “one of those geopolitical issues I have no control over.”

The leasing landscape is changing. Not so much in the transaction itself as much as what comes after (in the reporting) and, as a result, what comes before (in the preparation to remain in compliance). For the majority of industrial assets, the triple net deal is still the industry darling. How we report those deals, however, is now transitioning, thanks to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). And that implies a new measure of caution in how we approach certain deals and how they turn up on our books. We’ll get back to that shortly.