Austin’s W4 Office Carves Out Creative Space With Post-COVID Advantages

Imagine returning to an office where secluded outdoor space envelops your serene work area and indoor air quality is paramount. You enter the building each day through a dedicated entryway and elevator bay accessible only to you and your coworkers. Clients can be greeted through their own entrance, and your firm’s interaction with an array of adjacent shops and restaurants can be as limited or intertwined as you’d like.

That’s the reality for future tenants of W4 — a 4,439-square-foot, second-floor office in Austin, Texas’ Domain Northside outdoor mall. The anticipated occupants signed their leases prior to the pandemic without knowing just how preferable it would be to not share space with other tenants of a large office tower in a core business district.

Dallas-based developer Northwood Retail wrapped up construction of the Mark Odom Studio-designed boutique office space in March, just as the coronavirus pandemic began forcing offices across the country to close. It’s plan had been to carve out a distinct nook for a creative company looking to plug into Domain Northside’s Rock Rose — an “art-infused streetscape surrounded by unexpected discovers and bustling with visitors,” according to its website. The results, however, ended up serendipitously catering to a post-COVID-19 office environment in which firms are seeking to actually limit interaction with those outside the company.

The movement of companies, particularly in the tech world, from the “conventional tower landscape to some of these quirky, creative spaces that provide that unique experience for office users,” was already in full-swing, Northwood Retail development manager Ryan Muscott explained to LoopNet.

As a specialist in the retail sector, Northwood had also witnessed the dwindling demand for retail space even prior to the coronavirus, particularly in mall environments.

When these trends in mind, Northwood set out with its partner, architecture firm Mark Odom Studio, also based in Austin, to buildout the second floor in a first-generation, double-volume retail space with an experiential retail tenant on the ground floor, with the hopes of appealing to a potential small creative office user who wanted to be nestled into a dynamic mixed-use environment.

A key element of the retrofit involved including outdoor space to allow users to interact with the Rock Rose district below. “They are getting the best of both worlds — the amenities of a very cool district to be a part of, as well as their own workspace and outdoor space where they can work and interact with each other in a different environment than the conventional office might allow,” Muscott said.

As the design was geared toward plugging in a distinct office space amid a bustling retail district, it naturally featured “built-in seclusion with elevators, access points, private balconies or patios,” that Northwood has come to realize will be even more important than it had initially envisioned, Muscott said.

“Although we had been designing it for some time, we kind of fell into this perfect situation,” Muscott said. “It has worked to our advantage from a leasing perspective.” The burgeoning emphasis on wellness through seclusion in the current environment has led Northwood to double-down on positioning assets in its portfolio in this way, he added. “Now we see that it is probably going to be something that future tenants are looking for.”

“There is an appeal for dedicated office space that does not have to be shared with other tenants — no shared elevators, lobbies, stairwells or restrooms,” Muscott said in a press release earlier this year. “All these factors reduce the possible interactions people may have and helps reduce transmission. As a result of the current pandemic, more tenants are drawn to and feel at ease in that type of dedicated space.”

Designing the space with health top of mind was standard for Mark Odom Studio, explained owner Mark Odom. “We always make sure we’ve got a wellness factor that gives us an abundance of natural light and fresh air, however big or small that may be.” In the case of W4, Muscott explained, “Odom’s team got creative with the use of skylights to bring in additional light to the space. On a 30-story office tower, you can’t do that, but in this boutique building we brought in additional light to make it light and airy.”

Some features of the space were opportunistic, Odom said. “It had the real advantage of a public entryway facing an eclectic street of restaurants and offices, and so we were awarded a jewel of an entry that allowed a specific, private entry for clients, with a stairwell and elevator,” Odom explained, “along with a private entry from the rear side that staff can use for themselves. That, during these times, is something that will trend forward if we’re given that opportunity. And if we’re not, we’re still trying to be subtle and intentional in how one enters and exits offices. Sometimes you have several offices in one building and there are ways to navigate that to maintain privacy and social distancing, but, either way, it will require careful study and planning in the future.”

Though the turnkey space is leased, the team doesn’t know who the tenant is yet — only that they are in the oil and gas industry, which is not necessarily the business sector it had expected. “We often design these spaces without knowing who the tenant is, but we at least try to creative a narrative for who they might be,” Odom continued. “We think they will use it how we planned it. It is an easy space to lend itself to the moments we envisioned,” Odom added. “It has unisex restrooms, a big kitchenette that leads to a huge roof deck in the back where it’s quiet and tranquil with a trellis to provide moments of quiet for staff to gather themselves. There’s another large balcony on the front side where you can sit and be seen and see retail activity. Each outdoor space has a different response to the environment.”

Though the new tenant was still working from home at the time LoopNet spoke with Muscott, the space is also catered to a post-coronavirus world in terms of germ-conscious features, Odom said. “The move toward touchless and hands-free features were already here and coming, and we were already implementing it in projects. It’s a no-brainer and everyone will do it. But what we look for are the spatial differences and lifestyle spaces to make things better.”

For instance, Muscott said, “Turning what was a regular roof that housed mechanicals into a useable patio, those type of things — that creativity —is paramount for tenants that are looking for that differentiator between the conventional office and creative office environments.”

“The younger generation values health and lifestyle and wants to know their office has all those sustainable elements that will trend toward the healthier side of life,” Odom continued. Yet air quality, he said, is often pushed down on a development budget in favor of “wow factors” such as roof decks and eye-catching lobbies, so mechanicals are often designed simply to meet code. “Air quality is one of the most important aspects to consider for the difference it can make in day-to-day life.”

The current pandemic might influence a code change, he added, but in the meantime, “it will be up to architects and designers to push it … so we try to pick owners and developers that have the same mindset and values as we do, to do better on things like air quality.”