Who thinks this wasn’t predictable?
Oh. SO predictable . . . and, somewhat gratifying to those of us in rural “fly-over country.” We are the ones who generally bear the brunt of lib policies.
My heart bleeds for the commercial landlords.
My heart bleeds for Manhattan.
Okay then, back to remote work.
Wonder how this is affecting tax revenue in NYC, and when city ‘leaders’ will respond by raising and/or creating new taxes?
The property tax is New York City’s largest source of revenue. It is projected to generate $24 billion in fiscal year 2017, or 44 percent of all City tax revenues and about twice as much as the second largest source, the local personal income tax.
Empty offices and apartments is not a good sign NYC......
When Snake Plissken gets there things will straighten out.
Here in Los Angeles, all the high rises are pretty empty, working 50/50 between home and office is now the norm. 2 Big Buildings went into default yesterday
I don't see this operating model lasting for long. The natural progression is likely to be toward either end of the spectrum: fully remote work or fully on-site work.
Leasing, building out, and equipping an office that is only used for 2-4 days out of a seven-day week makes absolutely no sense.
And home sales fell for the 12th straight month. January sales fell 36.9% from a year earlier.
Isn’t the Biden economy the greatest ever?!
A few thoughts:
AlGore should never have invented the internet.
As the massive cities run by democRATS become more and more unlivable, empty buildings could be boarded up and abandoned. The bums will squat in some of them. Science fiction will again become science fact. Once an area is abandoned, nature will begin to take over. Will Smiths will roam the streets, as modern hunter-gatherers.
Also, FTA: “”while transferring a $308 million loan on its office building to a special servicer.
...”” ‘Special Servicer?? Why does the name Guido come to mind?
Also FTA: “”remote work was expected to cost Manhattan $12.4 billion per year in lost revenue from worker spending.””
The phrase ‘cost Manhattan’ reminds me of the liberal mindset, that all money is theirs; by virtue of their existence, and their good intentions, all money should be owned and controlled by them.
They’ll be just fine. 5 million illegals a year (likely double that) need a place to live, for free.
Its only going to get worse. Already companies are having a very tough time forcing workers with any leverage back to the office. As these leases gradually expire, you’ve got to think the push to get everybody back to the office will die down. Companies simply won’t renew the leases and will pocket the cost savings.
I think commercial real estate is going to be in the hurt locker for some time to come. They’re gonna need to convert a lot of those buildings to residential use.
Called this back in 2020, when it became clear the 2 weeks to bend the curve was utter BS.
One of my friends works as sysop working remotely. They were bought by another company and were told “When buyer sends people down, you have to come into work” to give the appearance that they were 100% in-house. Apparently, being in-house was like a jewel in the crown.
I have a friend who has always worked remotely but she can only work at home due to a VPN. No coffee shops, etc. But I noticed they waved that when she was on vacation and they needed her. That told me quite a bit about WFH.
I will never forget Friday, March 13, 2020. That was the last day my workplace was anything like normal. That was the day that the state of New York almost gleefully announced that they were joining the lockdown.
You know, the 10 days to "stop the spread nonsense", or whatever that was.
I still remember telling employees to take their laptops home that day and any other things they needed to work at home. By 4PM, the office took on the atmosphere of an elementary school turning the kids loose for summer vacation. Nearly three years later, some of those employees still haven't been back but they do allegedly work here. I see them on ZOOM calls every now and then.
The COVID shutdown was brought about by the politicians and they were all giddy about discovering just how much power they could obtain over us by creating an atmosphere of fear.
Anyone here heard about the Qualified Opportunity Zones?
It was something Congress passed that allowed deferral of income tax on long-term capital gains IF the money was reinvested in commercial real estate (and left in that investment for a certain amount of time). One of the requirements was that the real estate had to be in certain “economically disadvantaged” areas.
Now, one might think, “Those fat-cats that went for that deal are going to be really sorry about how badly that turned out for them.”
My speculation is that Congress will be motivated (by lobbyists and contributions, etc.) to update the QOZ requirements to (essentially) bail out many of the QOZ investors.
After all, some animals are more equal than others.
A daisy chain effect:
Lower utility costs-—empty buildings
Less security
No payroll taxes to cities that charge such based on WHERE you work
No lunches/dinners/ coffees bought in surrounding areas—loss to business owners
It is said that a person with a paycheck spends 70% of that paycheck within 7 miles of where they work-—THAT is also re-arranged.
I hope Black Rock loses a lot of money.
The company 2 story office building I last worked at is mostly empty that once had 300 people there.