December 17, 2004—Corporate real estate industry leaders say in a recently released survey that buildings are better protected on the East Coast then in other parts of the country. But, by a wide margin, executives say that overall, corporate facilities are more secure today than they were prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks.
The respondents corporations—said that security was most relaxed at buildings in the Midwest, South and West.
The survey was conducted by CoreNet Global, a professional association of corporate real estate professionals.
More than a third of the respondents 42 percent—said that security procedures are more stringent on the east coast than in other areas of the country. Of those, 45% say building security in the Midwest is the most relaxed, followed by 35% who say it is most relaxed in the South. Eighteen percent of respondents say building security in the West is most relaxed.
According to the survey 78% of the respondents said facilities are more secure today than on September 11, 2001. Twenty-two percent said building security was unchanged since the attacks.
Even within individual companies, security is not equally stringent from region to region. Fifty-five percent said their buildings are protected equally regardless of location, but a large minority, 45%, said they are not. Respondents say security is tighter when a building is located near a perceived high risk target, such as a government office or military installation, or when the facility is an iconic structure, easily identified around the world.
CoreNet Global also asked whether legislation designed to mitigate some of the risks to building owners has worked. The survey revealed that the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 by a 66% to 34% margin has failed to do as Congress intended.
Meanwhile, as part of its quarterly benchmarking of corporate real estate industry trends, 46% of survey respondents say they are planning for a net increase in the amount of office space occupied over the next six months. But 36% say they plan to decrease their office space, while 18% say the amount of space they occupy will stay about the same. Those numbers are an improvement over the last quarter when only 32% of respondents said they would be increasing office space occupancy and 35% said office space would be decreasing.
In the industrial office space sector expect to see the status quo as 62% of respondents say the amount of space occupied will stay the same. An equal amount, 19%, say they will either increase or decrease the amount of industrial office space they will occupy over the next six months. That compares with 23% of CRE who last quarter said they would be decreasing industrial office space.
For more information, contact CoreNet Global.
