With the onset of the COVID-19 crisis came a greater emphasis on hygiene, health and wellness, and Parkside Realty, Inc., the development team behind Fulton East — a 12- story, 90,000-square-foot boutique office and retail building in the heart of Chicago’s Fulton Market District — quickly pivoted to redefine the workplace of the future.
Just a few months away from the completion of Fulton East, veteran developer Bob Wislow, chairman of Parkside, devised plans to modify the already wellness-focused building with technology designed to halt the spread of germs. Key additions, such as the world’s first new-building installation of MAD Elevator Inc.’s Toe-To-Go hands-free elevator system and the first multi-story office installation of airPHX’s air and surface disinfection system, ensured a safer, more hygienic environment within the building. Scheduled to open in September 2020, the building’s biophilic design, featuring conference-room sized balconies on each floor and floor-to-ceiling windows enabling maximum natural light, launched a blueprint for next-generation office space for the post-COVID-19 era.
Taylor Johnson worked with the Fulton East team to develop strategic messaging and public relations outreach, including the creation of a digital press kit, for a successful campaign around the design updates. As a result, Taylor Johnson placed stories about Fulton East’s next-generation health and wellness features in print outlets such as the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, online outlets such as Forbes.com, Bisnow, RE Journals, Global Construction Review, Chicago Construction News, Connect Chicago, FacilitiesNet, Urban Matter, KHL and Smart Cities Dive, and broadcast outlets such as the WLS-TV (ABC7) 10 p.m. primetime news, WGN radio, and the Real Estate for Breakfast and Invisible Forces podcasts. The Forbes.com article was then named by National Real Estate Investor as a “must-read” for the CRE industry.
Traditional print, online and broadcast placements from outreach around the building’s next-generation features earned nearly 49 million impressions. TJ also led social media outreach, establishing a presence on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and worked with Parkside’s construction and architecture partners, Clayco and Lamar Johnson Collaborative, to promote the project on their own social media channels, earning a total of more than 25,000 targeted impressions from posts on LinkedIn (as of September 2020).
TJ continues to identify additional opportunities for Wislow to discuss insights on COVID-19- related market trends, including interviews with separate Bisnow reporters for a pair of stories about whether the urban core will continue to be a draw for businesses and how boutique buildings with small floor plates provide the easy workplace access that will be in higher demand for tenants and employees.