Landlords are increasingly looking to rooftops to deliver financial and environmental benefits, as well as adding more social value for their tenants and the wider community.
Across a wide range of commercial real estate, vacant roof space is finding new uses, from hosting drone delivery pads to accommodating solar panels or being transformed into landscaped gardens or events areas.
“More investors are looking to the potential offered by the top of their buildings,” says Vince Shiels, Director, Managed Services at JLL. “But the options vary greatly – and are determined by a host of external factors, from location to light, to safety and planning permission.”
Retail real estate investment trust, Vicinity Centres and Google-owner Alphabet’s subsidiary, Wing, launched the world’s first rooftop drone delivery service in Australia last year. Drones are sent out from shopping center rooftops to deliver on-the-go food and drinks to customer homes, with plans to add pharmaceuticals, beauty, and personal care products.
“There’s huge potential for drone deliveries both from and to building rooftops – but take-up will vary depending on local restrictions and rulings regarding low-flying apparatus, especially in built-up, highly-populated areas,” says Andrew Child, Director, Managed Services at JLL in London.
“And cities that were planned on a grid system may prove to be easier for drones to successfully navigate through.”
While some city office buildings already boast helipads for their high-flying executives, the arrival of airborne taxis could intensify the scramble for roof space. In Italy, a flying taxi service from Rome airport to the center of town is now up-and-running.
Globally, some 20 airborne vehicles are either in development or production, according to research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Such services may be many years off in terms of becoming commonplace in cities, but they will need convenient places to land in urban areas – particularly in areas of high density where ground level options are limited,” says Child. “That could point to rooftops.”
