Corporate real estate market trending toward pre-pandemic activity in Huntsville

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) -The corporate real estate market is starting to shift back to pre-pandemic levels as workers are returning from home.

Russ Russell says “for sale” and “for lease” signs on nearly every corner wasn’t always the case.

“We were leasing, selling, Huntsville was rocking along pretty good then here comes COVID,” Russell said. “COVID made working from home from a concept to a reality just like that We’re still trying to find our way: ‘Are we going to work from home? Are we going to go to the office?”

Van Sullivan is the CEO of Trideum, an engineering consultant in the research park. He said his company has found its way already.

“We actually went all in on the work together in a building thing,” Sullivan said.

Trideum has nearly doubled its workforce since the pandemic. Russell said companies like Trideum are starting to trash the traditional cubical-filled office model to convince their workforce to return.

“The owners of these companies want to incentivize these employees more than they ever have to get back into the office,” Russell said.

Sullivan says just four days before Alabama shut down in the pandemic, they cut the ribbon on a new floor of office space.

“Having a space full and really ready to go to work to ‘oh my gosh what are we going to do’ and then ‘oh my gosh how are we going to pay for this lease?” Sullivan said.

“We had some of that certainly, particularly if you look at some of your smaller businesses,” Erin Koshut, the executive director of Cummings Research Park said.

Koshut said in a small sample size, the park saw a slight drop in occupancy in the year since the start of the pandemic. She believes return-to-work mandates will not only help the park survive but thrive.

“The majority of these companies are in aerospace and defense and therefore majority of that work can’t be done at home.

Sullivan said many companies miss out on the aspects of a research park.

He said the relationships between tenants is one of the benefits of being in Cummings Research Park

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