Why return-to-office mandates fail::The question over whether to allow employees to work from home has been settled. Here’s the new normal.
Why return-to-office mandates fail::The question over whether to allow employees to work from home has been settled. Here’s the new normal.
But if people don’t go back to the office, commercial real estate will crash, they’ll convert it all into affordable housing, and my curb appeal will lose its sweet, sweet premium value.
Let’s not pretend there isn’t a micromanaging control issue involved in this, but the core is all about real estate.
The “they’ll convert it all into affordable housing” part I wouldn’t be so sure about it. 😅 Some might just abandoned it if no body wants it.
Also, I really want malls to be turned into mixed use facilities. Like all the small stores are apartments and the big anchoring spaces on the ends of the mall would be grocery stores and shopping. Imagine you forgot to pick up milk after work so you just walk to the other end of the mall and buy it. I love that idea.
It would be perfect for assisted living facilities or care home situations where accessibility is key
The old folks are already there every morning walking around, just set them up with some recliners by the water fountain and Wii tennis.
And gyms!
This. I work in commercial real estate and it’s kind of hard to turn into house. It’s cheaper for them to just knock it down and start over.
The issue is the electricity and plumbing. In a commercial building these tend to run up and down the middle or just one side of the building. Apartments need to equally have access to utilities so they’d had to do a ton of construction to move plumbing and wiring into the correct places.
They’ve converted a hotel here in Calgary to condos and a work friend owns one.
It’s not classified as affordable housing but the conversion is possible and should be done en masse.
Yeah, just look at how many abandoned buildings there are in most big cities. Seems like everything just expands outwards with new buildings rather than demolishing/converting old ones.
Are you telling me I could afford a Center City apartment if we don’t return to the office? Sign me up
I don’t know if the affordable part will be particularly accurate.
How come no one wants to talk about all the small business closing and people losing their jobs. This is a real tangible impact that shouldn’t be dismissed. I live in a big city and we’re all feeling the impact of people not returning to office work. Lack of revenue (small business, real estate, retail) is going to play a huge role in city budgets in the coming years. I work from home so I understand the appeal. Still, I don’t know how we, the city, come out of this.
America doesn’t have communities. In a normal civilized country there would be grand plazas, city centers, districts to walk/shop/eat/live life.
We have work/home/and maybe a night out sometimes. We shouldn’t be offloading thr responsibilities of city planners and band-aiding small business by forcing companies to hire in office staff.
We need better, more efficient cities in America, it is the reason everything is going to hell here.
Yes. That’s called a city. I don’t know what cities you have in mind but this is how I would describe my city of Philadelphia.
Yeah, and driving to park in a massive parking lot that takes an additional 5 minutes to get inside a store is not a shopping plaze, and no open air malls with no actual communities near them don’t count as a “Third place”