Designing for the Unknown Tenant: Future‑Proofing Shared Infrastructure in Spec and Flexible Spaces

Spec buildings and flexible workspaces force owners and operators to make foundational infrastructure choices before tenants reveal their needs. In this episode Alex Morgan interviews Michael Harrington about practical ways to future‑proof power, riser capacity, shared services, cabling, metering, and access frameworks so spaces can adapt without costly retrofits. We examine tradeoffs between generous overprovisioning and lean, rentable‑first design; policies that limit technical debt; and operational workflows for fast, safe tenant onboarding. Michael shares real examples where modest planning prevented multi‑week outages and where assumptions about tenant systems triggered expensive rework. Listeners will leave with a decision framework for capacity margins, labeling and documentation standards, stakeholder roles during design and turnover, and test plans to validate flexibility before lease signing. For property owners, GCs, IT and facilities leaders, this episode offers vendor‑neutral steps to reduce risk and keep options open as tenant needs evolve.