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Sigh. Office workers filling up Midtown may soon be (if not already) a relic of the past. This depresses me. It's going to change the economic landscape. What's going to happen to all the businesses that rely heavily on office workers for sales. But...! They're predicting they'll be back in full force come September. I hope so!
The sounds of spring are back in Bryant Park, with lawnmowers cutting the grass and even office workers gabbing over lunch in the sun.
However, the largest green space in Midtown, Manhattan, normally fills with office workers this time of year.
“Right now, it’s empty," said Phil Perry, who has worked in the area for decades. Perry who works in banking explained that in "years past, on a nice sunny day like this, you wouldn’t see a square inch of open lawn. It’d be blanket to blanket with people playing Hacky Sack, frisbee, the whole nine yards. Right now, I’d say you’re at 20% of what’s the norm.”
Kastle Systems: the week of April 15, 2020, NYC metro area hit an office occupancy low of 4.3% of pre-pandemic levels
As of Wednesday, Kastle Systems put NYC metro area office occupancy back up to 17% of pre-pandemic levels.
New York and San Fransisco are the two major cities in the country with the lowest occupancy rates. Nationwide, the average office occupancy is 27% of pre-pandemic levels.
Sigh. Office workers filling up Midtown may soon be (if not already) a relic of the past. This depresses me. It's going to change the economic landscape. What's going to happen to all the businesses that rely heavily on office workers for sales. But...! They're predicting they'll be back in full force come September. I hope so!
The sounds of spring are back in Bryant Park, with lawnmowers cutting the grass and even office workers gabbing over lunch in the sun.
However, the largest green space in Midtown, Manhattan, normally fills with office workers this time of year.
“Right now, it’s empty," said Phil Perry, who has worked in the area for decades. Perry who works in banking explained that in "years past, on a nice sunny day like this, you wouldn’t see a square inch of open lawn. It’d be blanket to blanket with people playing Hacky Sack, frisbee, the whole nine yards. Right now, I’d say you’re at 20% of what’s the norm.”
Kastle Systems: the week of April 15, 2020, NYC metro area hit an office occupancy low of 4.3% of pre-pandemic levels
As of Wednesday, Kastle Systems put NYC metro area office occupancy back up to 17% of pre-pandemic levels.
New York and San Fransisco are the two major cities in the country with the lowest occupancy rates. Nationwide, the average office occupancy is 27% of pre-pandemic levels.
Someone in my family is an engineer working for an international company, and he has been working partly from home (not in NYC or in the Northeast) for many years, but he also does normally travel all the time for various projects, and some of them in recent years have been in NYC area. Right now, his very large international company has everyone working from home (and teleconferencing) 100% of time until the end of this year. In Jan 2022, they will reassess, but very possibly leave it largely as it is. I think WFH is here to stay in all lines of work where WFH is possible. What that means for NYC is that it will HAVE to focus on quality of life (to retain and attract people who will live there because it feels good to live there), and on hospitality industry.
My wife's company has been adamant this whole time that everyone would return to the office eventually, until this week. Monday one of the other sections received word that they would be work from home from now on, and my wife's section expects to hear the same soon.
There is zero chance offices are back to full force by September
They won't be back to full force ever
Things changes, technology often being the cause.
Covid sped it up but so many jobs can be done from home
and people overall have been more productive from home
If covid cases go to zero tomorrow that doesn't magically make everything change back to how it was in 2019.
Our office building just sent around a note that we're still expected to wear masks in the common areas in the building and companies still need to adhere to the 6 feet social distancing so I don't foresee many companies changing as long as buildings require this.
Some people like the office and I get it and I think there should be an option for them to work in person but this year has proven that most of these jobs can be done remotely and do not require 100% in office attendance.
I think a hybrid model will probably be one most companies adapt but I cannot see a hardline everyone must be in office 100% of the time being the norm from here on out.
A good portion of jobs don't need 100% in office attendance. A hybrid work schedule will work and provide the employee a better work to life balance. This scenario might affect the older workers that are used to the old way of working.
The younger Genx, Millennials, etc will adapt easily to the new change in the way of working.
Work from home has proved that there is ZERO need to have everyone in the office 5 days a week.
Zero need to waste money on Manhattan work space.
Changes that took place due to lock downs will be life changing as years go by for a lot of people and companies.
Old timers miss being together in the office, but guess what, the younger work force is not like that.
A lot of the empty buildings will become residential I think.
I don't think we'll get to "full force" in regards to percentages of people WFH versus commuting to NYC offices full-time, but I reckon in absolute numbers we'll hit previous highs within a year or two (barring some additional, new disaster) as well as level of office occupancy as office prices were sky high and can be adjusted downwards for quite a while before filling up and meanwhile there's been even more class A office space opened up over the course of the year so even as square footage per worker increases, the numerator for total amount of office space is slated to keep increasing for a while as more projects u/c finish.
Work from home has proved that there is ZERO need to have everyone in the office 5 days a week.
Zero need to waste money on Manhattan work space.
Changes that took place due to lock downs will be life changing as years go by for a lot of people and companies.
Old timers miss being together in the office, but guess what, the younger work force is not like that.
A lot of the empty buildings will become residential I think.
I can also see the empty buildings turning into a mix residential and commercial office space.
I can also see the empty buildings turning into a mix residential and commercial office space.
What's the median price per square foot for Class A office space in Manhattan versus market rate residential price per square foot in the same neighborhood in Manhattan? I'm under the impression that office space prices have a pretty long way they can go down, and I've seen a few glorified crawlspaces being used as offices pre-pandemic so I think there are possibly some offices that wouldn't mind several more square feet per employee.
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But...! They're predicting they'll be back in full force come September. I hope so!
