The folks at Principal Financial Group know what this is all about, and by later this fall so will workers who move from Kum & Go’s offices in West Des Moines to the Krause Gateway Center in downtown Des Moines. Forget an office cubicle, in the contemporary world you are sharing space, or hoteling.

That was among the many changes discussed today during the Business Record’s Commercial Real Estate Forum. Talk about transformations. The event was held at the Curate events center, a remodeled, an oldtimer might say overhauled, structure at East Third Street and Court Avenue that was home to Kryger Glass Co. before developer Jake Christensen and partners bought it.

It was projects such as that that resulted in Christensen being named the Business Record’s Commercial Real Estate Professional of the Year.

True to form, Christensen gave much of the credit for his success to others — his wife, Susan Fitzsimmons, contractors, subcontractors, designers, business partners — before the start of a panel discussion.

Members of the panel were Brian Clark, director of real estate development for Ryan Cos. US Inc.; David Maahs, executive vice president of economic development for the Greater Des Moines Partnership; Dylan Mullenix, assistant director of the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization; Cara Underwood, managing director for capital markets for Principal Real Estate Investors; and Bill Wright, senior vice president and managing director at CBRE|Hubbell Commercial.

The hotel or neighborhood experience, as it is also called, has emerged as a key to attracting and retaining talent across all ages. In many ways, the panel discussion was about trends to attract and retain folks across the spectrum of commercial real estate.

How do you keep shoppers in malls that are failing? Find a way to get them there and keep them there is an answer, attract and retain. With that in mind, Flix Brewhouse at Merle Hay Mall makes perfect sense, a medical office building going up at Southridge Mall is another example, as are the multifamily developments that have sprouted and will sprout near the mall. A pickleball arena in the Jordan Creek area of West Des Moines is another. Expect to see similar solutions for the several hundred thousands of square feet of space that will open as Younkers shutters its four stores in Greater Des Moines.

Amenities are drawing office users — should we call them guests? — to downtown Des Moines and they are shaping work experiences in new and refurbished office buildings in the suburbs.

Another trend shaping up in Greater Des Moines is an uptick in investors from outside the area, drawn by a stable economy and top-notch real estate. Investors are drawn to the area because of competition for a limited supply of quality properties on the coasts, our panelists said. They are finding stable investments with good returns in the metro.

Another trend occurring right under our noses is what Wright called a “stretching” of the local market, with industrial buildings — the darling of the investment community, per our panel — going up in a range of areas across the metro. Offices are cropping up in Ankeny’s Prairie Trail, an area developed more along the model of retail following rooftops.

That’s all the good news. There is a lump of coal that is said to be affecting development deals, scuttling some and delaying others, and that is the rising cost of construction materials combined with the lack of workers on construction sites.