The new parent company of Liberty Flexible Workspaces, The Happy Workplace Group, has launched a new commercial real estate business called Felix Real Estate. Felix aims to cover the market, from helping landlords add flex to their buildings to partnering with occupiers.
Felix also helps businesses, including clients of Liberty, navigate their commercial real estate journey, identifying solutions appropriate to businesses’ individual needs.
Establishing the new group has seen a reshuffle of the senior leadership team with Jamie Vine becoming Group Chief Executive of The Happy Workplace Group making way for Paul Miller to take the reins as Liberty’s new CEO following a decade as Chief Operating Officer. Dan Clarke, who joined Liberty in January 2022 after spending 4 years at Knight Frank and almost 2 years at Ray White Commercial, will lead Felix as its Managing Partner.
For occupiers, Felix connects the dots between flexible workspace and conventional leases, helping to manage the transition between the two, using our strong landlord relationships and vast experience across flexible workspaces, hybrid managed offices and conventional leases, we help businesses make better real estate decisions at every stage of their journey.
Jamie Vine, Happy Workplace
The company believes that traditional office use is being challenged by ‘The Future of Work’ and businesses must ‘earn the commute’ of their workforce by making their office environment a place where people want to be. Employees expect more from the office than ever before and the ‘war on talent’ is a critical issue. This trend provides challenges for both occupiers and landlords post pandemic, with both needing to react.
“Landlords have to respond to this rapidly changing landscape, and they need help” said Jamie , “it is not as simple as building a couple of meeting rooms and providing some hotdesks.”
Their research shows a shift in corporate demand for flexible workspaces and forecast it will grow from 3% of the office inventory to 30% globally. They see that demand is coming from corporate occupiers seeking agility, efficiency, and a more hospitality-driven experience for their employees and that flex space is no longer a nice to have, it’s essential.
Dan Clarke, the Managing Partner of Felix Real Estate added, “Liberty has been successfully partnering with landlords and occupiers for over a decade, operating high quality flexible and managed space, but transitioning clients into commercial leases has been reactive, until now. The opportunity to connect the dots and proactively manage the transition is enormous for landlords and occupiers.”
~~
