2024 Ones to Watch - Innovators in CRE: Evan Rusinowitz, Vocon

Evan Rusinowitz’s 10-year career spans a variety of roles in the real estate industry, including real estate transactions specialist at Guardian Life Insurance, senior manager of workplace experiences at RXR, and Workplace Strategy. He’s been a senior workplace strategist with Vocon for the past two years as part of Vocon’s growing strategy studio. As strategist, Rusinowitz plays an integral role in the early stages of our projects, helping us to gain a better understanding of our clients’ needs and ways of working, and to build consensus with clients around project objectives. He uses employee surveys, department interviews, visioning sessions, and more to deepen our understanding of the client, while also researching industry trends and benchmarking completed projects in order to gain client buy-in.

Innovative Outlook:
I believe that the physical workplace is the best place to get work done and to cultivate company culture. The pandemic, as well as the continued development of collaboration tools, have shown us that we can get work done anywhere. But the biggest opportunity for those in commercial real estate comes from our ability to effectively communicate the benefits of physical presence. There are countless experiences and opportunities in the workplace that technology will never be able to replicate. I feel a greater connection to my company when I come into the office, and find great opportunities from being able to have ad-hoc conversations with coworkers. Our challenge is to effectively educate our clients and tenants about what we gain when we come to work.

Innovative Solution:
More than ever, our clients want to be reassured of every real estate decision. With the continued uncertainty around the future of hybrid and remote work, increased scrutiny is being placed on workplace budgets. Responding to these concerns has involved developing our toolkit of information to equip our clients to justify every dollar. I’ve helped to build our database of benchmarked projects, which we use to educate our clients around the metrics from comparable projects and to study trends across industries. I’ve also developed various engagements to better understand our clients and their employees, including focus groups, online surveys, and visioning sessions. Through quantitative analysis and studying our clients’ employees, we are able to assuage concerns around workplace projects and build trust.

“Evan has expanded the Workplace Strategy practice, helping to bring a strategic lens to our office interiors projects. By building our project benchmark database, researching workplace trends, and working with our clients in the early stages of projects, Evan has helped us gain a deeper understanding of our clients’ needs and the best ways to respond to them. He approaches every project with enthusiasm and a deep passion for shaping inspiring physical work environments.” - Tom Vecchione, Vice Chairman, Managing Principal, Vocon, New York