在整个国家，曾经繁华的商业区已经变成了鬼城。疫情表明，许多工作可以远程完成。现在，美国一些大城市正在通过将空置的办公楼改造成住宅，给它们注入新的活力。参与这一趋势的著名城市包括纽约、奥斯汀、克利夫兰、旧金山和波士顿。
根据穆迪的数据，美国的写字楼空置率为20.1%。这是30年来的最高水平，有超过9亿平方英尺的办公空间空置——足以填满纽约市世界贸易中心一期300次。
亚马逊、花旗集团、沃尔玛和UPS都是要求员工在办公室花更多时间的大公司。一些公司正竭尽全力吸引员工回来。便利设施可能包括按摩室、保健服务和现场个人健身房。
然而，大多数专家认为混合和远程工作将会继续存在。塔夫茨大学(Tufts University)国家政策分析中心(Center for State Policy Analysis)执行主任埃文·霍洛维茨(Evan Horowitz)说，“公司不像10年前、20年前、50年前那样需要办公空间了。“远程工作刚刚改变了这种局面。”
包括波士顿、奥斯汀和芝加哥在内的全国主要城市的写字楼空置率都达到或接近历史最高水平。在旧金山，目前超过22%的办公室是空的，比2019年的约9%大幅增加。
一些城市现在正面临陷入所谓“经济死亡循环”的风险。高空置率会导致房产价值暴跌，减少税收。收入的减少影响了对学校、警察和卫生设施等基本服务的资助，最终使这些城市不再是理想的居住地。
霍洛维茨说，由于其独特的税收结构，波士顿比其他主要城市更容易陷入“经济死亡循环”。
“波士顿比其他城市更接近危机模式，因为它非常依赖商业房地产的税收，几乎是全国其他城市的两倍，”Horowitz说。商业租户的流失对该地区的商业产生了连锁反应。
当Dave Savoie在2016年买下他最喜欢的酒吧和烧烤店Silvertone时，他说这就像是梦想成真。
波士顿商业区很受商业人士的欢迎。办公室职员占萨瓦酒店顾客的50%,但新冠肺炎疫情酒店改变了这一切。
“我过去称之为西装，”萨瓦说。“你知道，办公室的人，财务的人。这是他们的地方。[现在]他们在家工作。如果人们现在来到城市，他们一周最多工作三天。”
这对Silvertone来说实在是太难了，在27年后，其中8年由Savoie所有，该酒吧在5月宣布“最后的召唤”。
明年将竞选连任的波士顿市长吴弭正在采取措施解决这一问题。她正在实施税收减免和分区改革，将多余的办公空间改造成急需的住房。
“我们有大约500套住房单元正在准备从以前空置的办公楼中改造出来，”吴告诉ABC新闻。“我们正在利用像图书馆这样需要翻新的城市建筑，并在此基础上增加住房，通过分区和其他城市监管流程，以前所未有的速度建造你的建筑，并在地面上挖铲子。市中心越是一个住宅区，越是一个繁荣、繁忙的社区，就像我们的其他社区一样，每个人受益就越多。”
这个想法是，商业区将被重塑为充满活力的24/7社区，无缝融合工作、生活、餐饮和娱乐。这种全方位的方法旨在创造一个充满活力的社区，日常生活和工作共存，培养一种丰富的，相互联系的生活方式。
霍洛维茨说:“有很多方法可以建设一个充满活力的市中心，而不涉及办公楼的核心作用。”“可能是公寓，也可能是实验室。你可以用土地做很多其他事情，让人们想去市中心享受生活。”
许多城市已经在将办公空间改造成住房，克利夫兰走在了前列——其11%的办公室库存目前正在进行这种改造。类似的项目也在辛辛那提、休斯顿和纽约进行，那里标志性的熨斗大厦将被改造成豪华公寓。“这是一个影响美国每一个城市的挑战，”吴说。“在波士顿，我们展示了这也是一个机会。”
大卫·格雷尼抓住了这个“机会”。当许多房地产投资者寻求出售他们的办公楼时，Greaney和他的公司Synergy正在以很低的折扣购买它们。Synergy目前在大波士顿地区拥有35处房产，其中4处是在过去12个月内购买的。
Greaney表示，就办公室空缺而言，最糟糕的时期已经过去，他对城市的未来持乐观态度。“城市的伟大之处在于城市在进化，我当然认为我们的城市也会进化，”Greaney说。“你可能会看到更多的住宅用途，更多的酒店或机构用途，但我认为，市中心的办公部分将继续是一个非常重要的因素。”
在Greaney最近购买的同一栋建筑中，小企业主Michael rug Geri和Emilio Ruggeri兄弟正在打赌波士顿商业区会卷土重来。
三十年来，他们一直在阿奇纽约熟食店为办公室人群提供早餐和午餐。在疫情之前，办公室工作人员占他们公司的近80%,但这个数字已经下降到50%左右。
Emilio Ruggeri说:“我们的送货量增加了。“建筑工人实际上让我们继续前进。”
他们还减少了员工，精简了菜单，缩短了工作时间，以达到收支平衡，并相信情况会好转。
“我是一个永远的乐观主义者，”迈克尔·鲁格里说。“这些建筑太贵了，不能一直空着。有人将接管这个空间，所以我们满怀希望。”
How US cities are reimagining the future as office vacancy rates soar to 30-year high
Throughout the country, once bustling business districts have turned into ghost towns. The pandemic has shown that many jobs can be done remotely. Now some major U.S. cities are breathing new life into empty office buildings by converting them into housing. Notable cities that are part of this trend include New York, Austin, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Boston.
The office vacancy rate is 20.1% in the U.S., according to Moody's. That's a 30-year high, with more than 900 million square feet of office space empty — enough to fill New York City's One World Trade Center 300 times.
Amazon, Citigroup, Walmart, and UPS are among the major companies now requiring employees to spend more time in the office. Some companies are pulling out all the stops to entice workers back. Amenities may include massage rooms, health care services, and on-site personal gyms.
However, most experts agree that hybrid and remote work is here to stay. "Companies don't need office space in the way that they needed office space 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago," Evan Horowitz, executive director of The Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said. "Remote work has just transformed that landscape."
Major cities across the country, including Boston, Austin, and Chicago, are seeing office vacancies at or near record highs. In San Francisco, more than 22% of offices are currently empty, a significant increase from about 9% in 2019.
Some cities are now at risk of falling into what is known as the "economic doom loop." High vacancy rates can cause property values to plummet, decreasing tax revenue. This decrease in revenue affects funding for essential services such as schools, police and sanitation, ultimately making these cities less desirable places to live.
Horowitz says Boston is more vulnerable to falling into an "economic doom loop" than other major cities because of its unique tax structure.
"Boston is closer to crisis mode than other cities because it is so dependent on taxes from commercial real estate, twice as dependent as virtually any other city in the country," Horowitz said. The loss of commercial tenants is having a ripple effect on area businesses.
When Dave Savoie bought his favorite bar and grill, Silvertone, in 2016 he said it was like a dream come true.
The downtown Boston establishment was popular with the business crowd. Office workers made up 50% of Savoie's customers, but all that changed with the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I used to call them suits," Savoie said. "You know, the office guys, the finance guys. And this was their place. [Now] they work from home. If people come to the city now, they work a maximum three days a week."
It proved too much for Silvertone and, after 27 years, eight of them under Savoie's ownership, the bar announced "last call" in May.
Boston's Mayor Michelle Wu, who is up for reelection next year, is taking steps to address the situation. She is implementing tax breaks and zoning changes to transform unwanted office space into much-needed housing.
"We have about 500 housing units that are now in the pipeline to be converted out of formerly vacant office buildings," Wu told ABC News. "We're taking city buildings like libraries that need renovations and adding housing on top of that and making it faster than ever before through zoning and other city regulatory processes to get your building built and to get those shovels in the ground. The more that downtown is a residential, thriving, busy neighborhood, just like every other one of our neighborhoods, the more everyone benefits."
The idea is that business districts will be reimagined as vibrant 24/7 neighborhoods that seamlessly blend work, living, dining and entertainment. This holistic approach aims to create a dynamic community where daily life and work coexist, fostering a rich, interconnected lifestyle.
"There are lots of ways to build a vibrant downtown that doesn't involve the central role of office buildings," Horowitz said. "It could be apartments, it could be lab space. There are lots of other things you can do with land that makes people want to go downtown and enjoy themselves."
Many cities are already converting office space into housing, with Cleveland leading the way — 11% of its office inventory is currently undergoing this transformation. Similar projects are also taking place in Cincinnati, Houston, and New York, where the iconic Flatiron office building is set to be transformed into luxury condominiums. "This is a challenge that's affecting every city in America," Wu said. "And in Boston, we're showing that it's also an opportunity."
That "opportunity" is something David Greaney is seizing on. At a time when many real estate investors are looking to sell their office buildings, Greaney and his firm Synergy are buying them up, at a deep discount. Synergy currently owns 35 properties in the Greater Boston area - four of them were bought in just the past 12 months.
Greaney says the worst is over in terms of office vacancies, and he is positive about the future of cities. "The great thing about cities is that cities evolve, and I certainly think that our cities will evolve," Greaney said. "You may see more residential uses, more hospitality or institutional uses, but the office component of downtowns, I believe, will continue to be a very big factor."
Working out of one of the same buildings Greaney recently bought, small business owners and brothers Michael and Emilio Ruggeri are betting on a comeback for Boston's downtown.
For three decades they have been serving breakfast and lunch to the office crowd at their Archie's NY Deli. Office workers accounted for nearly 80% of their business pre-pandemic, but that number has since dwindled to about 50%.
"We've been doing more deliveries," said Emilio Ruggeri. "The construction guys have actually kept us going."
They've also reduced their staff, trimmed their menu and shortened their hours to make ends meet, confident that things will turn around.
"I'm an eternal optimist," said Michael Ruggeri. "The buildings are way too expensive to just stay empty. Someone's going to take over the space, so we're hopeful."
