FTI Experts’ Hub: From 2020 Office Forecasts to 2026 Realities

December 9, 2025

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In this podcast with CPE's Laura Valean, Jahn Brodwin reviews how his 2020 predictions held up, while Ben Steele weighs in on what's next for the sector.

In this FTI Experts’ Hub podcast, we look back at one of the most pivotal moments in recent commercial real estate history—the early months of the pandemic—through the lens of two specialists from FTI Consulting’s Real Estate Solutions and Real Estate Advisory practices: Jahn Brodwin and Benjamin Steele.

Back in April 2020, as uncertainty gripped the industry, 40-year veteran Brodwin wrote a thought piece titled “The Office Market After COVID-19: Will It Be a Zero-Sum Game?” In it, he explored the opposing forces he believed would shape office demand in the years ahead, and he shared those same ideas in an early episode of FTI Experts’ Hub.

Nearly six years later, his predictions offer a compelling starting point for understanding just how differently the office sector has evolved. In this podcast with CPE Senior Editor Laura Valean, Brodwin examines the assumptions behind his 2020 outlook and reflects on which dynamics unfolded as he anticipated and which surprised him. He discusses shifts in tenant behavior, the uneven recovery of CBD and suburban markets, and how quality has emerged as the new currency in office demand.

Joining him is Benjamin Steele, part of the next generation of CRE advisors at FTI Consulting. Steele adds a fresh, data-driven perspective on the sector’s trajectory and challenges some of the 2020 assumptions with today’s realities. Together, they unpack what resilience, adaptation and reinvention look like for office owners and investors heading into 2026.

Whether you’re tracking tenant trends, capital flows or long-term asset strategy, this conversation provides a clear-eyed look at where the office market stands and where it’s going. Here’s what you’ll hear about:

(1:23) Was the office market a “zero-sum game” after all?
(2:57) What stood out to Steele as especially prescient of Brodwin and where he thinks Brodwin missed the mark
(5:37) How persistent remote work has reshaped the office sector
(7:40) Developing culture remotely
(13:34) Why quality is the new currency in office demand
(17:58) The “flight to quality” trend
(20:58) Which office owners and operators stayed ahead of the curve
(24:13) What will separate the winners from the rest going forward
(29:27) Steele’s long-term outlook
(31:36) The office market’s trajectory since 2020 in one word