Commercial Real Estate Owners Are Embracing AI, Risks and All

The opinions of commercial real estate owners on artificial intelligence range from enthusiasm seasoned with nonchalance to its risks to reluctant acceptance of humanity’s fate under the yoke of algorithms and machine learning. In the meantime, they are capitalizing on it.

It’s already benefited New York and San Francisco office leasing in particular as AI firms take more space. Plus, the tools within the likes of Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT are already daily — even hourly — parts of owners’ workdays.

“Demand is increasingly concentrated in the highest-quality buildings in the strongest urban locations,” Hilary Spann of BXP said. “We’re seeing clients expand as their businesses grow and office utilization increases, particularly across financial services, AI and technology. Some companies that reduced their footprints during the pandemic are now finding themselves undersized.”

When asked how long we have before AI destroys humanity, Spann in her response to our Owners 2026 questionnaire was unconcerned: “The hysteria baffles me.”

AI-driven technology, too, is helping owners consolidate building management systems, allowing them to micromanage their properties for optimum efficiency.

Fisher Brothers is not only embracing AI from top tech developers, it is also one of those ownership firms making its own proprietary machine learning software to optimize its portfolio while cutting out the middleman.

“We see plenty of value in off-the-shelf AI tools, but the real opportunity is figuring out how to connect them in ways that are specific to our business,” Winston Fisher said. “AI is making software development and customization much more accessible, which gives us the ability to build solutions around how Fisher Brothers actually operates rather than relying entirely on third-party providers. That lets us capture efficiencies, identify new revenue opportunities, and iterate quickly as our needs evolve.”

Fisher, however, declined to share how long humanity has left on the clock.

Michael T. Cohen of Williams Equities believes that AI was one of the most important aspects of the leasing renaissance in Midtown South, with the concentration of highly amenitized buildings making the Manhattan submarket not only a mecca for tech, but also the creative industry as a whole.

AI leasing, too, seems more resilient to going bust compared with the dot-com boom a generation ago.

“Despite the superficial similarities, AI is not retreading the path of the so-called dot-coms of the early millennium,” Cohen said. “Today’s startups have compelling products, recurring revenues and realistic business plans, rather than just catchy URLs. While I do expect there to be an eventual culling of the less successful AI startups, many will succeed and merge into larger, more established tech consolidators, or go public themselves.”

Residential developer Hal Fetner prefers a more amiable chatbot.

“Claude. It’s friendlier,” Fetner said when asked to name his preferred platform. “My grandson might have to worry [about an AI takeover].”

Other owners believe we have 20 to 100 years before the Battlestar Galactica-esque toaster reckoning, and many owners said it will “never” happen. Let’s just hope Will Blodgett of Tredway isn’t right. According to him, we have “hours.”

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.