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Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

sfchronicle.com

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Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#11

Post by CydeWeys »

gerad wrote: post #6
zbrozek wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably a statement about SF zoning too much commercial rather than allowing property owners to figure out how to use buildings. Or maybe it's a statement about how our building codes make it very difficult to repurpose buildings. Not entirely sure, but those are my best guesses.

Maybe it’s about rent control and low income housing requirements around building?

If only there were some way for the original person to have written a coherent comment so we wouldn't have to play guessing games?

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#12

Post by wootland »

> “I strongly believe the office experience should be at the same level as luxury residential and hospitality,” Shvo previously told The Chronicle. “In the last two years, we’ve made our homes into our offices, now it’s time to make our offices feel like our homes.”

Private bathrooms for every employee? No commute? The office can never "feel like my home", my home doesn't have my co-workers in it. It's an environment 100% of my design.

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#13

Post by imbnwa »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #8

I live in SF and spend a fair amount of time thinking about its poor 5-year economic outlook. It's not great, but I am curious how it compares to other metros? If I were to move from SF, wanted to live in a metro area, and was uncomfortable living in a very red state - where should I consider? Where is thriving? I have a good amount of friends in Portland, but Portland is adjacent SF in terms of poor economic recover…

Chicago?

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#14

Post by yieldcrv »

sashank_1509 wrote: post #9

How is this possible lol? Do offices not want to locate in SF. I for one make the 1 hour commute daily from SF to my office in the Bay, I honestly think a large number of employees would prefer offices in SF

they dont want to be in the bay either, the vacancies are because they go to other actually happening cities

not “happening compared to the rest of the bay”, the bar is really that low and the market is saying what bay area permabulls cant perceive

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#16

Post by jjoonathan »

eppp wrote: post #3
computerphage wrote: post #2

[flagged]

What on earth are you talking about?

Well, if you assume California is socialist it all makes sense. There's just one tiny little problem: it isn't, and not only is this office space privately owned but the problems causing these vacancies are probably principal agent problems directly attributable to the structure of the free market controlling them (landlords either want to bet on a recovery or agreed to credit terms that would cascade a single write-down).

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#18

Post by SeanAnderson »

CydeWeys wrote: post #10
SeanAnderson wrote: post #8

I live in SF and spend a fair amount of time thinking about its poor 5-year economic outlook. It's not great, but I am curious how it compares to other metros? If I were to move from SF, wanted to live in a metro area, and was uncomfortable living in a very red state - where should I consider? Where is thriving? I have a good amount of friends in Portland, but Portland is adjacent SF in terms of poor economic recover…

Most cities don't seem to be having the same problem (it's almost uniquely SF that has this problem). NYC for example is booming.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2022/06/16/which-m...

I haven't scrutinized this heavily, but, at a glance, it appears that the best recovery for "Work Trips" is still down 13.2%, New York is down 26%, and the worst, SF, is down 32.7%. In no way do I see these numbers as booming - they all make me question how the cities are going to balance their books as commercial real estate gets devalued and undermines taxation.

Is that the wrong way to be looking at things?

(EDIT: these numbers are old, my bad!)

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#20

Post by cameldrv »

wootland wrote: post #12

> “I strongly believe the office experience should be at the same level as luxury residential and hospitality,” Shvo previously told The Chronicle. “In the last two years, we’ve made our homes into our offices, now it’s time to make our offices feel like our homes.” Private bathrooms for every employee? No commute? The office can never "feel like my home", my home doesn't have my co-workers in it. It's an environment…

Maybe not, but if office rents are really going to be way down, it's possible to give developers private offices again.
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