Pragma's Quarterly Update July 2022
It has been fantastic to see the return of vibrant airport terminals, buzzing new commercial spaces, and high-energy in-person industry conferences recently.
The opportunity to travel to new locations and client sites is a luxury in our line of work, and recent trips have highlighted some of the impressive innovations and fast pace of change in our key markets.
Across two recent trips to Saudi Arabia, it was apparent that the evolving culture, behaviours, and aspirations are creating a highly engaging environment, with impressive new streetscapes, entertainment options, and cutting edge mixed-use. From the futuristic vibrancy of Riyadh Season’s Boulevard, to the sophisticated dining destination of Ajdan Walk in Khobar, developers, operators, and designers are pushing the boundaries of innovation in reaction to changing consumer demands.
Closer to home, there is renewed energy in the European airport sector, and we are delighted to have been a part of the winning team for the new extension at Zurich Airport (seen above), supporting the team led by BIG and HOK to create an impressive vision to set new standards that deliver against sustainable, operational, and economic requirements.
On a related note, the Pragma team have been continuing to innovate, and have recently developed a new strategic analytics platform, Pulse, to help the real estate world deliver positive impact and asset value across environmental, social, and commercial indicators.
We firmly believe that by focusing on clear objectives that benefit all stakeholders in the ecosystem, we can collectively create and operate destinations that create positive outcomes for people and planet.
Please see below for updates on our latest travel and property work.
Alex Avery
CEO
Pragma Travel News
The return to pre-Covid passenger levels
Pragma’s travel team is beginning to see more activity globally as the pandemic’s grip starts to ease. While we continue to work in markets with high domestic passenger volumes (such as the US and India) where international travel restrictions have less impact on total passenger numbers, we are also now working on European travel hubs as they prepare for the future. This includes Zurich Airport, where we will be working alongside design teams from BIG and HOK to create a retail strategy for a new terminal.
The return to pre-pandemic passenger levels (and some markets have exceeded them) has – particularly for airports – created several challenges, as evidenced in the news recently. Long queues at airport processing functions highlight the difficulties that the sudden rise in passenger volumes can as airports struggle to recruit sufficient staff.
As we build towards the summer peak, airports are engaging us to answer two key questions:
1) given the changes in demographics brought about by Covid, how should they adapt their commercial strategy for both retailers and passengers
2) what will they need to create to cope with the expected growth in passenger volumes in the long term.
Pragma Property News
Our wider impact
The diverse nature of opportunities Pragma's property team engages with continues apace, with projects ranging from understanding the commercial performance potential of the UK market to the amount of commercial space supportable in new, best-in-class developments in the Middle East and beyond.
The consistency in request across projects and territories is a client mindset that is eager to understand and embrace the challenges that the pandemic has presented, and deliver against a wider set of criteria beyond only economic return. Pragma’s team have recently attended both the UK's Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) and the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute conferences, where the impact potential of investment strategies on economic and social performance was the key issue.
The nature of Pragma’s projects and clients, the data we collect and have access to and the insight we have gained makes us particularly well placed to work with our clients to understand the impact of their strategies across the ESG (Economic Social Governance) spectrum.
A recent example of this is our work with a City Council on an asset strategy for a recently purchased shopping thoroughfare. Working with the project team, we were able to establish the criteria that would truly signify success for the Council, identify the measurement criteria to monitor performance, bring forward insight and learnings from other public sector asset purchases and suggest a deliverable strategy that would provide the greatest opportunity to deliver against ambitions.
Whether public or private sector, landlord or occupier, UK or beyond, the ESG agenda will be fundamental to future ways of working.
Pragma Workplace News
Back to the office
The projects for our workplace team this past few months will resonate with most people. They all revolve around improving user experience to get people happily back to the workplace. One large commercial building owner told our team that their initial strategy for the retail spaces on the podium and ground floor of their office building was to focus on delivering services and an experience that would help the office tenants attract and retain staff. Commercial return is not their priority in the retail space.
Pragma is working to ensure that the redeveloped spaces deliver on both experience and commerce, creating a new landmark that will have tenants queueing up to be a part of it, however, it is still interesting to see this shift in thinking from the investment community. This approach to commercial development is really a win-win for consumers, office workers and building owners and fully supports the trend of offering more amenities in the city centre to cater to a growing residential population.
The other trend keeping us busy is how a range of occupiers switched out desks for other forms of furniture and, now that staff are coming back to the office, want to measure what is being used and how effective the new configurations are for the new way of working. Watch this space we are expecting some interesting results.