A March 2021 survey from Harvard Business School of 1,500 employees revealed that 81% either don’t want to come back to the office at all or would prefer a hybrid model of work. Of those, 27% hope to remain working remotely full time, while 61% would prefer to work from home two to three days a week. Only 18% want to return to in-person work full time. So, what’s an employer to do as offices reopen and workers are expected to transition back to commuting after working from home the last year and a half?

Mission 50 in Hoboken – formerly the Hoboken Business Center – has reimagined an 80,000-square-foot boutique office building and coworking community that responds to evolving workplace needs and fosters collaboration, creativity and productivity.

Situated at 50 Harrison St., the facility offers multiple workspace environments including shared coworking spaces with the option of coworking seating or dedicated desks; privacy pods, allowing for undisturbed solo or teamwork; private office suites to accommodate individuals or small teams; and traditional, fully customizable office concepts. Virtual offices/mailboxes are available as an add-on for members or as an option for businesses that require a work address but either do not need or are not quite ready to take on physical office space.

The property has a long history of serving businesses in the Greater New York City marketplace. And as employees look for familiar routines to “return” to office life, JDA Group Chief Executive Officer Greg Dell’Aquila offers a coworking space that mimics the experience of working at home.

JDA Group is a full-service real estate development company based in Hoboken. Dell’Aquila spearheaded the transformation of an underutilized industrial property into the Hoboken Business Center. He also orchestrated the ground-up construction of The Lexington, a 50-unit, multi-building apartment complex in the city. JDA continues to be a player in Hoboken’s revitalization and growth and the company is currently planning a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use development project in Hudson County.

After a year-long redesign, expansion, and rebranding initiative under the Mission 50 umbrella, companies that are now reassessing their space needs may find what they are looking for at Mission 50. As Dell’Aquila put it, “We made this place … is just, I mean, I don’t know how else to describe it. It is kick-ass.”

The multi-million-dollar renovation of Mission 50 offers a work environment characterized by bright, lively décor and a functional yet playful design. These spaces are paired with a wide range of amenities that cater to entrepreneurs of all types ranging from solo workers and growing startups, to seasoned businesses and traditional enterprises.

“We brought on a marketing company that worked with the interior design firm. And we started swapping out light fixtures. We started swapping out furniture choices, swapped out the wallpaper choice, wall cover choices, flooring choices. We pretty much did a complete overhaul.”

In Dell’Aquila’s opinion, those who come back to office life at Mission 50 are not going to want to leave work to go home. “We are in a really creative environment and we set up our home offices to work productively and have all the comforts of home at our disposal. Now, we need to have those comforts back in the office setting.”

Dell’Aquila started the rebrand and redesign of Mission 50 before the pandemic, but as the state and country closed down he took it as an opportunity to be ready for when business was going to come back online because he knew people wouldn’t stay away from the office forever.

“Human beings were not just going to disappear. We are social animals. So, whether people like to take that one or two days – a hybrid scenario, they can do that to ease into it. But coworking and working more collaboratively have been trending for many years, and while COVID-19 was a bump in the road, the new generation of workforce still expects an immersive work ‘experience’ and to be part of a larger community regardless of one’s business or profession,” Dell’Aquila said. “That is what we are providing at Mission 50.”

Office life has always been evolving and during the great work-from-home experiment of COVID, it evolved at an even more rapid pace. But at the end of the day, according to Dell’Aquila, companies need to oversee their staff. They want to see each other. Why not do it in a setting that has all the comforts of home, yet is productive and collaborative?

“People ask me, how are you going to get people to come back? I think we are providing all the things they need. We even have an outdoor space that has games, heat lamps, lounge furniture. We built a bike shed so people could store their bicycles and scooters.”

Many of the features would look normal in any home. Some not so much.

“You come in and there are Andy Warhol reproduction hand-printed wall coverings.” And for those after-work gatherings, Dell’Aquila is creating what he is calling the saloon. “It has everything from Pac-Man arcade games to old vintage Sega Genesis Nintendo 64, and it has a full bar.” HG is even in the process of getting a club license so that members can go in and grab a beer after work.

The tenants of Mission 50 are varied and it is home to a diverse collection of individuals and businesses that really bring the space to life every day. Members benefit from carefully curated events and community programming built around the interests and needs of the community.

Ensuring a safe and healthy work environment was a top priority at Mission 50. As a building owner Dell’Aquila looked into the most advanced filtration systems and for him it wasn’t even a question. He wanted his tenants and their employees to feel safe coming back.

“I just made the investment in every property that we have and in every unit. Even including the common areas. Plus we added hand sanitizing stations and temperature checks devices at the entryways. We did that immediately, right at the get-go.”

Dell’Aquila concluded that he isn’t sure if the country will ever go back to being fully normal, and that’s what drove all his decisions around Mission 50 and what helped him continue to move forward with confidence. He knows one thing: “As social creatures, we have a need to gather and I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but there’s no way that people are going to say, I’m just going to work from home for the rest of my life. That’s not realistic. But that’s why there’s a Mission 50.”