JLL Designs Its Minneapolis Office for ‘Disruptive Innovation’

When JLL was looking for a new office for its Minneapolis employees during the pandemic, the company knew it had to create a space that would draw its workers back to the office.

The real estate services firm wanted an office that was professional without feeling too buttoned up, especially since its workforce in the Twin Cities skewed to a younger demographic. The space had to focus on facilitating collaboration in an activated environment that made people want to come to work.

So, it set up shop in an 18,000-square-foot suite in the city’s new RBC Gateway Building, a mixed-use property comprising the Four Seasons Hotel, 34 condominiums on the top levels, and five stories of office space. With the help of architecture firm Nelson Worldwide, JLL created an office inspired by the concept of “Disruptive Innovation,” to activate the workspace in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood.

“The space was designed to create multiple moments for interaction and intentionally provides a center of socialization that requires teams to cross paths to meet,” said Scott Hierlinger, principal, market leader and vice president of interior design at Nelson’s Minneapolis office, explaining the concept’s intent. “We all know that interaction creates innovation, so the goal was to create as many touchpoints [as possible], both visually and physically for teammates to see [each other], talk or otherwise engage.”

The result is a sleek and modern workplace that exudes professionalism, energy and illustrates the flight-to-quality phenomenon currently rippling through the office market.

The office design goals hinged on employee preferences for their workspace. Even though executives were involved in the decision-making process, Hierlinger said the project was “not C-suite driven.” JLL is a global brand and designs its individual offices all within the same general brand parameters, but each office is approached differently based on the location. The company conducted internal surveys of its employees to gauge what they were looking for in their next space.

“There were things employees were requesting that weren’t aligned with what JLL corporate guidelines dictated. For example, the size of the offices — we made them smaller than what was suggested. The break room is bigger than what they would normally allocate square footage for. We didn’t add a training room. So, we reallocated a lot of space to collaboration spaces,” he said.

While many office footprints on the smaller side opt to skip a dedicated reception area and place the break room in the main entry, JLL still carved out a reception area for clients directly adjacent to its main gathering space.

Entering the space, JLL’s signature red color pops and a branded graphic representing the company defines the front reception area, as do custom art pieces that display employee photos, chosen by them for how they wanted to represent themselves throughout the office.

“We wanted to reference [the brand and culture] right away. I always feel that your space needs to reflect you, and not just be a space a designer designed. When you walk in, it’s important for people to understand that thought was put into this,” Hierlinger said. “We worked with the JLL team on graphics because we wanted to push the boundary beyond art. Art is great, but it isn’t inspirational [in an office setting] because it doesn’t inform you. So there was a lot of thought put into portraying the team, the location in the city, and other elements so people could see their personality portrayed.”

The collaboration space is dubbed the Hub, a versatile amenity space with a hospitality feel for both work and breaks. “We all know that once someone leaves the office, just to get a cup of coffee or grab lunch, it takes forever. So we planned a lot of options within that space — beverages, coffee, different seating arrangements, and a warm aesthetic that you don't need to look outside of the building for,” said Hierlinger. “It's very much where they gather. It's their heart of the space.”

But while providing those spaces is important, Hierlinger emphasized that creating a narrative around how the space should be used and making sure it is activated is even more vital.

“Everyone talks about all the amenities you have to throw into a space. But it’s also about how you publicize and engage them. I tell our clients to think about who is going to own the area. How will you engage this area and make people understand how to use it?” he explained. “It doesn't matter if you build something that's astronomically great, because if there's nothing going on in it, no one cares. You have to activate it so people feel the FOMO [or fear of missing out] of not being there.”

In the cold winter climate of Minneapolis, taking advantage of natural light to keep the space feeling bright and airy was key, so the designers maximized the use of glass walls so light from the floor-to-ceiling windows could stream through all areas of the office.

All the universally sized offices are built in the interior core of the space with glass walls, while the departments’ workstations are organized into “neighborhoods” broken up with meeting rooms and collaboration spaces along the perimeter, allowing everyone to take advantage of the suite’s city views.

Hierlinger also sought to vary the types of conference room setups, features and sizes to encourage a more open dialogue among team members during meetings. “I'm a true believer that sitting around a table changes a dialogue, and it's not always a good dialogue that way. So, creating meeting spaces that are a little bit more lounge-like, where you can relax, enjoy yourself, and speak more openly than you would around a more formal table is important.”

Many employees are taking advantage of working in person, though JLL’s hybrid policy and geographically-dispersed workforce means the office needs to have a seamless technology and AV set up that is easy to connect to and use. The office also features Zoom rooms with JLL branded background walls to elevate video calls.

“Technology is running the show post-COVID. Everything has to be easy, or people will just work at home. And you have to improve upon and be better than their home environment,” said Hierlinger.

In another pandemic lesson learned, Hierlinger recommends incorporating flexibility in seating arrangements by setting up workstations on a post and beam system, where desks and storage can attach to the central support skeleton from a variety of angles, instead of more static bench seating, like desks arranged as longer tables.

“The panel-based benching system everyone used to use — that’s dead. You’re facing each other so you have a lot of sound bouncing back and forth; and due to working from home, people aren’t used to having to hear each other anymore. But with a beam-based setup everything can be pulled off the beam [and rearranged], and you can easily do it yourself to reorient the desks for a team or even just for the day,” he said. “You can densify or de-densify. That flexibility is ultimately so important and we are building it into everything we do.”

The success of the project underscores the current flight to quality trend seen in office leasing since the start of the pandemic, as tenants now favor potentially smaller footprints, though of much higher quality space likely for the same cost.

JLL has a hybrid work policy, but Hierlinger mentioned the company has “a very good in-office rate right now. They’re in more than not, because everyone loves the space and the collaboration, and gets energy from being around their peers in a social environment.”

JLL moved its previous office in the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis to the North Loop warehouse district, a hot spot for activity just west of downtown. “It’s the hottest area of the city to be in and has the most activity and life. JLL wanted to make sure, number one, that their employees felt that they were in a [beautiful] new building with a lot of amenities.”

The city of Minneapolis was hit hard by the pandemic, and major employers in the city — including Target, United Health Group and Prime Therapeutics — are allowing employees to work remotely. Some are offloading large blocks of office space and this has led to record high vacancy rates and negative absorption, “making Minneapolis the only major market in the country to record demand losses in every quarter since the pandemic's onset,” stated CoStar, publisher of LoopNet, in its most recent market report on Minneapolis. Most of the space returned to the market is in the downtown central business district, while the North Loop has proven to be one of the strongest neighborhoods for office leasing in the city and has seen rents increase even with so much available space on the market.

“A majority of the office stock in the North Loop consists of creative space, which has attracted an array of companies, including tech startups, professional service firms, and satellite offices for Fortune 500 companies,” stated the CoStar report. “The area's unique, high-demand office stock and live/work/play atmosphere have allowed landlords to aggressively raise rents with success.”

The five floors of office space in the RBC Building are occupied by financial and professional services firms, a sector which Hierlinger said is very active in the city. The five-star building is almost fully leased at 99%, and posts asking rents of $32 per square foot according to CoStar, a figure that is higher than the submarket average.

“This building is not experiencing what you hear about no one going to the office — the professional services and financial industries are very much at work,” Hierlinger said. “They know how important their employees are and want to elevate their brands, so it’s important to them to be in the right spot and have an energetic atmosphere.”