Podcast: FTI Experts’ Hub: From 2020 Office Forecasts to 2026 Realities
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December 24, 2025
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Listen to the Podcast | Read the Full Feature
In the FTI Experts’ Hub podcast hosted by Commercial Property Executive, Senior Editor Laura Valean speaks with Jahn Brodwin, Senior Managing Director and Co-Leader of Real Estate Solutions, and Benjamin Steele, Senior Director in FTI Consulting’s Real Estate Advisory team, about how early pandemic office market forecasts compare with today’s realities. They revisit Jahn’s April 2020 predictions for the office sector and examine which assumptions held up, which fell short, and how the market has evolved in the years since. The conversation explores shifts in tenant behavior, the uneven recovery between CBD and suburban markets, the rise of quality as the new currency in office demand, and what resilience and reinvention look like for owners and investors heading into 2026.
Time Breakdown:
- Was the office market a “zero-sum game” after all? (1:23)
- What stood out to Benjamin as especially prescient of Jahn and where he thinks Jahn missed the mark (2:57)
- How persistent remote work has reshaped the office sector (5:37)
- Developing culture remotely (7:40)
- Why quality is the new currency in office demand (13:34)
- The “flight to quality” trend (17:58)
- Which office owners and operators stayed ahead of the curve (20:58)
- What will separate the winners from the rest going forward (24:13)
- Benjamin Steele’s long-term outlook (29:27)
- The office market’s trajectory since 2020 in one word (31:36)
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Published
December 24, 2025
Key Contacts
Senior Managing Director, Co-Leader of Real Estate Solutions
Senior Director