NYC office buildings brimming with workers at nearly pre-pandemic levels
The work-from-home phenomenon that spread like wildfire because of the pandemic appears to be flaming out in New York — and is on the retreat in many other metropolises around the country, according to the latest office building data.
Office visitations in the Big Apple in October were at 86.2% compared to 2019 levels — tops in the nation — with much smaller Miami second at 82.6%, according to market monitor Placer.ai, the most reliable measure of office attendance.
Placer.ai uses cell phone data to track visitations at office buildings around the US.
Struggling San Francisco finished dead last with 51.7%, the data showed
Bryant Park Corporation co-founder Daniel Biederman, who spends a lot of time at the Manhattan park, said, “Midtown is very close to 2019 in attendance. We have some tourists but most people lunching in the park are office workers.”
He added emphatically, “Work from home is dying against all predictions.”
It isn’t only a craving for comradery, but employer muscle that’s driven many back.
The Placer.ai report noted that Amazon, Dell, Goldman Sachs, Walmart and UPS were “just a few of the major employers that have been cracking down on remote work in recent months, some requiring their teams to be on-site full time.”
The rising office attendance drew cheers, but little surprise, from several other real estate industry leaders.
CBRE tristate CEO Mary Ann Tighe said facetiously, “What a shocker! People who live in New York want to go to the office and interact with colleagues. I am stunned.”
She said of earlier pessimistic forecasts, “Everyone bet against human nature as momentum gathered about everyone staying home.”
Some older and obsolescent buildings remain troubled, but prime towers on Sixth and Park avenues, at Hudson Yards and the World Trade Center are all but full, as anyone who works, lives or shops nearby can attest.
JLL vice-chairman Joseph Messina said the trend of employers “continuing to push for employees to work in the office four or five days a week coincides with an uptick in Class-A leasing. While initially seen primarily in the financial services sector, recent announcements from major tech firms are now influencing the same trend.”
In recent weeks, The Post has reported on a large expansion and lease renewals by Bloomberg LP at two Lexington Avenue towers and a likely 300,000-plus square-feet expansion by Amazon into 452 Fifth Ave.
“The only question seems to be whether they’ll lease it or buy it,” an insider said.
SL Green leasing director Steven Durels said on a recent investors’ call, “Clearly, a return-to-office mentality is bringing a lot more people back and forcing some of these existing tenants to come back into the market where they had laid off space because they thought they were going to have a more robust hybrid work environment. And now they’re bringing the bodies back, it’s forcing them to take more space.”