Many prominent commercial real estate developers in the U.S. — including West Conshohocken-based Keystone Development + Investment — are now focusing on other types of projects as well, writes Peter Grant for The Wall Street Journal.

Many are dipping their toes in residential real estate, and some are also adding lab and life-science space to their portfolios.

These efforts are in response to the rise of remote work during the pandemic, which has dimmed the importance of office towers that occupy city business districts.

As a result, shares in publicly traded office owners have decreased broadly, as investors and analysts continue to worry if their growth prospects have been hurt by the potential long-term decline in demand for offices.

But while the office space sector is slowing, other real-estate sectors seem to offer more promise.

This trend is especially evident in the residential real estate market.

“Office is in a state of flux these days,” said Rich Gottlieb, president of Keystone Development + Investment. “But there’s still a housing shortage out there.”

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Read Rich Gottlieb’s Montgomery County Leadership Profile.

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While Keystone Development + Investment specializes in offices, the developer currently has four residential projects currently ongoing in South Florida and the Philadelphia region.

Read more about Keystone Development + Investment in The Wall Street Journal.

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Real estate pundits have been commenting on the status of the nation’s CRE portfolios for months;
these Aug. 2022 observations from Marcus and Millchap CEO Hessam Nadji are fairly universal among experts.