Emerging from the Pandemic Stronger and Building a World-Class Team: A Q&A with Prologis

The coronavirus pandemic has profoundly impacted the industrial real estate industry, from the way brokers conduct business to the price of materials and the availability of labor. Los Angeles, like the rest of the world, was not immune to the initial economic effects of the shutdown.  After a very brief pause, however, the warehousing and distribution space has not only regained its footing, but has roared back to record levels in terms of lease rates and sales prices. Today, fueled by global trade and growth at the Port of Los Angeles, e-commerce and logistics remain a strong driver and market demand has outpaced supply.

Rob Antrobius has had a front seat to the pandemic’s disruption and the recovery. As the market officer for Prologis’ Los Angeles office, Antrobius oversees a portfolio of over 35 million sq. ft., with more than 500 customers such as Amazon, Puma, and FedEx.  He leads a team of 34 who manage, lease, and operate in one of the fastest growing markets in the world. In this interview, Antrobius spoke about how the company is navigating the challenges posed by the quarantine and the adjustment to the new normal of 2021.

Q: Your customers have needed to adjust to the challenges posed by the pandemic. But so has your team, in serving tenants. How did the Prologis team make the transition to working from home?
Unfortunately, a pandemic playbook didn’t exist so this was a situation we could never really be prepared for.  However, thanks in large part to our IT team, we were already prepared to cope with remote working.  Prior to the stay-at-home orders, Prologis had already been taking steps to facilitate remote productivity.  All field employees were already equipped with hardware such as laptops or iPads to best suit their particular roles.  Additionally, we had invested in software tools like Zoom, Salesforce and Workday pre-Covid to make working just as efficient as being in the office.  Thus, once the stay-at-home orders were carried out, our team was able to continue functioning at a high level.  Prologis didn’t stop there; the company recognized that kitchen tables and dining room chairs may not be the most conducive for a work environment and so employees were provided with an allowance to purchase additional home office equipment.

Q: How have you maintained a vibrant workplace culture while working from home?
Prologis recognized the importance of flexibility and continues to make efforts in supporting and accommodating employees and their evolving work/home situations.  We have all become experts at dogs barking interrupting Zoom calls and children jumping in our team video meetings, while continuing to foster a teamwork environment.  The office culture remains strong and has been nurtured through virtual happy hours and trivia contests between offices.  Lastly, during the past year where many people faced concerns with layoffs due to Covid, Prologis actually went through a strong hiring period.  Today about 30% of our workforce has been onboarded in the past year and a half.  This has reinforced Prologis’ commitment to its employees and the communities they serve in.

Q: We’ve discussed some of the economic ramifications the industry has faced, but we can’t forget the pandemic’s long-term societal impact as well. In what ways did Prologis support the local community in 2020?
We regularly provide facilities for the fire and police departments to conduct training exercises throughout Los Angeles County.  Further, our team continues to rally together to provide back to the community at a time of great need.  For example, during the onset of the pandemic, our team donated warehouse space to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank as part of our Space for Good program.  Additionally, we have not wavered on our community workforce initiative; we continued working with EXP, a nonprofit organization here in Southern California, and connected our customers to EXP to facilitate internships for local high school students.

Learn more at Prologis.com.

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