Brokerage Hires Jenny West for New Project Management Role
Major commercial property brokerages across the country are investing heavily to expand their workspace design services and stay ahead of the seismic shift in how office tenants are using their spaces. So when Cresa kicked off its national search to fill a newly created project management role, it knew it needed to find someone to help the firm stand apart from the crowd.
Cresa found that person in Jenny West, who has decades of experience working at some of the world's most prominent design firms.
West joined the Chicago-based brokerage as its new vice president of workplace solutions and project management. She is based in Denver, where she's lived for the past several decades with her husband and two young children.
In her new role, West will focus on helping to solve one of commercial real estate's million-dollar questions: How can companies create workplaces that entice their employees to return to the office?
Office occupiers across the country are grappling with how to persuade employees during the pandemic to come back to the office. In many cases the standard issue workspaces employees left in March 2020 aren't doing the trick and companies are turning to their brokerages to help figure out what to do.
"The office conversation has shifted from how many days a week do people want to more macro explorations with questions such as 'How does our workspace foster innovation and attract high- performance teams?'' West told CoStar News. And with more employees now able to work remotely, West said, "The pressure is on for our offices to deliver the right experience when people do choose to show up."
The Kansas State University graduate knows a thing or two about how to create office spaces where people want to be. West's resume strings together top-level roles at firms such as office design company Knoll and Gensler, where she worked directly with companies to design spaces reflective of their fast-evolving needs.
"Before and now, the physical workplace fosters a basic human need: a sense of belonging," West said on the importance of in-person working, "Since the pandemic, we have pressure tested this role and have seen the byproducts of human isolation. The office must be a sought-after place where people feel a greater sense of purpose."
While West's role is focused on the value of space inside an office, she also knows how important the outside is, too.
Cresa's headquarters may be several states over, but because the firm set no geographic requirements on its yearlong search for her position, she and her family has been able to stay put in Denver.
"You just can't beat the lifestyle in Colorado," she said of spending her weekends ferrying her children around to sporting events, cruising in her 1970 SS Chevelle and balancing her side passion as a professional artist.
Even better, Denver has all the hiking, skiing and "glorious sunlight all year round," she said.
This article was written and published by CoStar News.