215. The U.S.' Largest Employer Awards Flex Office Contract

Mark Gilbreath is the CEO of LiquidSpace, a real-time booking platform for offices and meeting rooms by the hour, month or longer.

On Wednesday, August 18th, GSA, the federal agency responsible for managing the world’s largest workplace, a 700M sf real estate portfolio serving over two million employees,

announced that they have awarded LiquidSpace a contract to provide Flexible Coworking Services (FCS) to government employees.

So, what’s the backstory?

18 months ago, in January 2020 the GSA issued an RFP as a part of their Total Workplace Program stating that "Working beyond the confines of a traditional office had become common" and that they sought to "equip government employees with the tools and the spaces to work from anywhere". With the announcement of the GSA’s awards, it is now evident that the government is poised to become one of the world’s largest consumers of coworking.

Others included in the contract award:

The GSA is the world’s largest employer. The award stresses four core focus areas for government employees:

Diversity in the workforce
Economic efficiency
Workplace experience
Sustainability.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why the GSA has decided to offer flexibility to this workforce and what it says about the broader employee choice trends.
The GSA’s 50/50 approach to awarding every other “task order” going to small businesses (with less than $30M in revenue). What does this mean for boutique operators?
How might the 50/50 approach might impact supply over time?
Will this award encourage landlords to add flex offerings to the Liquidspace platform?
How will the GSA’s move serve as a signal to other enterprise businesses still trying to figure out their approach?
How does an operator get added to the platform so that they can be considered for GSA business?

Resources Mentioned in this Podcast: