Commercial office space would not be an investment I’d be looking at right now. If COVID has taught us anything, working from home is very doable.
A fiend of mine works in commercial real estate investment. It’s being turned on its ear in ways many people don’t even grasp. Building ANYTHING in an urban area right now is ridiculously risky.
Well, except maybe a fire extinguisher store.
In NYC it’s worse than that. An office building can be converted to a luxury residential property, but New York (City and State) is so dysfunctional and mismanaged that NYC developers are bailing on those projects, too.
My son-in-law owns his own company and employs just under 40 developers (programmers). It’s in Seattle. He’s made two changes with WFH:
1. He let his building lease expire at the end of last year
2. He’s hired his last Seattle employee. They are overpriced and location no longer matters. He’ll be hiring from tier 2 and 3 markets from now on.
I’m sure he’s not alone.