What is going on with downtown office space in global cities? Well, for one thing, in the aftermath of Covid-19 lockdowns and the subsequent reopening, the way people work has dramatically changed. Until now, the transformation of global downtowns was just my gut feel from visiting a few large city centres. Now, however, there is data and more concrete evidence about the changes in business districts from New York to San Francisco where hybrid work models are now well-established, to London to Frankfurt where work-from-home models are less popular.
On a recent trip to New York, I wandered around Midtown and Lower Manhattan office districts. The first thing that struck me was just how few people were on the street and in the subways. In mid-February, I walked around the City of London, the commercial real estate capital of Europe where I had just the opposite feeling. The city’s underground trains seemed fairly crowded.
This week, I am in Frankfurt where office tower occupancies are more like London and less like Midtown Manhattan.
