Commercial Real Estate Outlook
As we move into 2025, the commercial real estate sector faces a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by cybersecurity threats, ESG regulations, hybrid work models, and the surging demand for data center development. The industry continues to grapple with the rise of business email compromise (BEC) scams, which now pose the most significant cyber risk to real estate transactions. At the same time, legal uncertainty surrounding ESG policies presents both challenges and litigation risks, while shifting office space needs force landlords and tenants to rethink lease structures. Meanwhile, data center development is booming, but navigating regulatory, energy, and security concerns remains critical for success. Clark Hill’s 2025 Commercial Real Estate Outlook explores these pressing issues, providing strategic insights and legal perspectives to help real estate professionals stay ahead in an unpredictable market.
Hybrid Work Models and Lease Restructuring
By Chad M. Poznansky and Thomas Ball
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed from the daily lives of workers, its impact on hybrid work continues. While no consensus has emerged, the hybrid work model, which requires splitting the work week between going into the office and working from home, has grown in popularity.
Key Real Estate Considerations for Data Center Development
By Jacques L. Moye and Joshua M. Farber
A rapidly growing area in the real estate industry is the development and operation of data centers. This growth market comes with its challenges for real estate developers and investors, and of course, the attorneys representing them. When evaluating data center real estate projects, attorneys play a key role in evaluating and advising on the critical factors to ensure operational efficiency, reliability, and long-term viability.
ESG & Sustainability
By Lindsay Sherwood Fouse-Hopkins and Maram T. Salaheldin
In 2025, the commercial real estate (CRE) industry will continue to navigate a new landscape influenced by ever-evolving ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and sustainability trends. In particular, with regulatory shifts and deregulatory policy changes on both sides of the Atlantic, CRE stakeholders, including developers and investors, face a wave of uncertainty as to what comes next and whether to continue to pursue ESG and sustainability initiatives.
The Number One Cybersecurity Threat Facing the Real Estate Sector
By Peter Berk and Richard Halm
When we talk to clients about cybersecurity, it tends to conjure up images of ransomware, systems that are encrypted and inaccessible, and stolen data. For the real estate sector, ransomware isn’t the largest cybersecurity threat. According to the FBI’s 2023 IC3 report on internet crime, losses across all industries related to ransomware were approximately $59.6 million.