The Next Phase of the Office Market Is Already Forming

The office market is often described as either recovering or collapsing. The data increasingly suggests neither explanation fully captures what is happening. Office usage is rising again, but not evenly. Simultaneously, new office construction has slowed to a near standstill. Together, those two forces are reshaping how the office market will evolve over the rest of the decade. The result may not be a traditional recovery cycle. It may be a reorganization of the office market itself.

Are Malls Making a Comeback?

For years, shopping malls felt like a fading part of the retail landscape, shaped by store closures, declining foot traffic, and the steady rise of e-commerce. But in 2026, that narrative is starting to shift. Malls are not just recovering, they are being rethought around how people actually want to spend their time.

Market Tales x WCBC: Missoula, MT with Kelsey Ward

This Market Tales × WCBC special, recorded live at CBC Global Conference 2026, features Kelsey Ward in conversation with Ashley Wilson on agility, influence, and next-gen CRE leadership — plus an exclusive Women of CBC lightning round with Jenna Hille. Kelsey’s path from architect to broker is anything but linear — she brings a rare design-meets-dealmaker perspective to creative financing, adaptive reuse, and what it means to build a career and a reputation at the same time in commercial real estate.

AI Buildout

Artificial intelligence has pushed data centers to the center of the commercial real estate conversation. Capital continues flowing into digital infrastructure as cloud providers and technology firms race to expand computing capacity. Development pipelines are growing across major markets, and investors increasingly treat the sector as one of the most attractive areas of institutional real estate.

The Geography of Corporate Investment

Corporate expansion decisions leave a visible footprint. When companies build manufacturing plants, logistics hubs, data centers or office campuses, they are making long-term bets on labor markets, infrastructure, operating costs and regulatory environments. Taken together, those decisions form one of the clearest indicators of where commercial real estate demand will emerge next.

Coworking 2.0

Coworking is making a comeback, but it looks very different than it did five years ago. The pandemic, combined with the high-profile struggles of companies like WeWork, raised questions about whether shared office space could survive in a remote-first world. But instead of disappearing, coworking has quietly evolved. Today, a new generation of flexible workspace models is helping bring the sector back to life.