Tech
What To Do With All The Empty Offices In U.S. Cities | CNBC Marathon
Now that the remote and hybrid work revolution has begun, many cities are filled with empty or half empty offices, creating very quiet downtowns. At the same time, the U.S. is experiencing a housing crisis. CNBC Marathon explores if U.S. cities will convert offices into apartments.
Some U.S. mayors are loosening up rules that determine how developers convert office buildings into apartment complexes. The conversion trend sped up in the 2020s, as the pandemic remote work boom reshaped cities. Declines in office activity are straining tax revenues for city services like education and transit, leading some local leaders to prioritize increased conversion of dated buildings. These rule changes may create some additional housing supply in regions like the U.S. east coast.
Meanwhile, San Francisco is facing its highest office vacancy rates in nearly 30 years. At the same time, the city is facing a housing crisis with the state demanding 82,000 new units of housing to be built by 2031. CNBC sits down with San Francisco Mayor London Breed to discuss how the city could tackle two of its biggest issues head-on. Plus, CNBC visits a building in the Civic Center neighborhood that undertook the biggest office-to-residential conversion in the city to date.
Major American cities such as New York and San Francisco face serious problems — mass migration, empty offices and declining tax revenues. These trends have had a direct impact on cities, which rely on tax revenues for funding, a significant portion from commercial real estate. Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh has defined this cycle of spillover effects as the ‘urban doom loop.’
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:51 How Empty Offices Become Apartments In The U.S.
12:28 How San Francisco Can Solve Its Empty Office Problem
26:35 How Empty Offices Are Ruining American Cities
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What To Do With All The Empty Offices In U.S. Cities | CNBC Marathon
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:14 Strategic investments
03:32 Cowboy socialism
06:34 Politics
Reporter: Garrett Downs
Produced and Shot by: Carlos Waters
Edited by: Andrea Miller
Additional Camera by: David Soltis
Animation: Jason Reginato, Emily Park
Senior Managing Producer: Shawn Baldwin
Additional Footage: Getty Images
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@xevious2501
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Thank God for the Pandemic. Now don't get me wrong, it was horrible that so many lives were lost. But in hindsight, it was an event that cracked the world into pieces, a world that needed to be reshaped, outside of another world war, would've never taken place. An event that stopped commerce globally and forced people the time they needed to truly reassess their lives. The pandemic put the brake on the daily weekly monthly yearly rat race that the worlds financial system kept people in like slaves. At first people so brainwashed into the daily routine actually fought against the idea of being home. And it took some time for them to realize they were getting what they've long been dreaming for. A break from the madness. Then people slowly realized what they've been missing in their lives. Quality time for themselves and their families. Time that the job ruthlessly had stolen from them. The workplace demanding your life for the sake of making other people rich and happy at your expense. All while giving you less and less to the point of some jobs demanding your work for free!! Just so you can keep your job!!!!! And in all this the job giving less demanding more and plotting to replace you with cheaper foreign labor and or technological solutions. A.i. automation. So people did the right thing. Break the established quo. In most cases, who needs the job when all your doing at the job is working online. Even from the jobs perspective why pay all this money for an office location when 99% of your workers can do the same from home. For both parties remote working has great financial gains. Are you living for yourselves or have you given your life to your job , it's clients and shareholders, watching them get rich from your labor as they give you less and less in return…. Yeah… The Pandemic has changed the world, it's opened many eyes to the reality of their existence. No more brainwashing.
@ClarkKent-mh5wu
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Too much crime duhh
@kazithecanecorso2724
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Covid was made up and released on purpose
@user-cw6gn9dh3f
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
All I am hearing is the profit motive is far more important than helping people with the basic necessity of shelter.
@FilipCordas
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
We see people suffering in New York, so let's create more 10000$/mouth rentals in Manhattan, makes sense.
@therocket280z7
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
They used work at home statistics from 2021, lol. Uh, is this just laziness or spin?
Work from home in 2021 was a big number everywhere, not just San Francisco… 🙄
I'm going to call the majority of this piece spin yo convert office space yo homes. The statistics that matter in this video are that office space vacancy has been much worse in the past.
@1thetvzone
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
It would be nice if some of these developers could be innovative with these buildings. You can have offices on a few floors and apartment lofts on the other floors. At one time there was a Best Buy store in the John Hancock Building in downtown Chicago. Why not mix it up? Have some restaurants, businesses, apartments/studios/lofts/penthouse…. you have to be innovative and bring a drawl for the ppl. However post covid there a change in people attitudes and what they used to do pre covid now post covid ppl feel some kind of way, but there are those that still want to live life.
there has to be some kind of big idea to get these building back into play. I say yes housing, but I think there are those who are reluctant to invest in it, but it can be done.
@jasonchan475
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
London breed is a joke. Tackle homelessness, tackle crime and you will get a functioning city
@samuel.andermatt
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
If the differential of price between housing and office space is not big enough, just let the office prices crash further.
@jeffbryan3224
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
They could have moto-cross races in those empty buildings. They couldn't do it before. There was just too many tenants.
@panathaninf
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
We, this generation of tech workers, are NEVER going back to office. We have enough money and we have tasted freedom for us and our families not having to put up with insane rents, extremely wasteful commuting times and crowded centers so that some rich people get even richer
@RobertoGimenez
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
More expensive than remodeling: Having them empty.
@glintrhmj
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Exactly start using that money for better pay and turn them into affordable houses but I mean oh well we will be forced back to work and will have to comply
@AwokenEntertainment
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
sad that so much politics get in between easy solutions..
@omarmaldonado9994
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
They don’t want to do that because they want to keep rent prices artificially inflated
@asabovesobelow5683
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
We should use the space to grow fruits and vegetables make some of the building apartments and they that live there work in the garden area. We are going to come to a point where food is going to be limited. We should increase our output.
@thisisyourtransmission
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
These cities that convert office buildings into residential buildings are going to convert their cities into city ghettos.
@vivalaleta
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Yes!!!
@paulorr9262
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Government fees and regulation. There you go.
@kodyadams5561
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
ITS EASIER TO MAKE EXCUSES WHY NOT TO DO SOMETHING THAN TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING. THE MAIN REASON IS ‘’MONEY’’ INVESTORS CAN’T MAKE MONEY TURNING OFFICES IN TO ECONOMIC HOUSING WHICH IS SO DESPERATELY NEEDED. BANKS ONLY ARE INTERESTED IN PROFIT COULD CARE LESS ABOUT HOMELESS IF THEY DIE ON THE STREET.
CAN YOU GUESS WHO CONTROL THE BIG 8 BANKS IN AMERICA ? THEY CERTAINLY ARN’T THE HOMELESS . THEY ARE ALL BILLIONAIRES AND FAMILY BILLIONAIRES. SAME LIKE AMERICAN HOSPITALS IF YOU HAVE NO INSURANCE OR MONEY YOU DIE ON THE STREET. IF YOU ARE HOMELESS AND A DURG ADDICT YOU WILL ENDUP IN A BODY BAG ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME .
IF YOU THINK THINGS ARD BAD NOW IT WILL GET TEN TIMES WORSE IN THE NEXT 6-10 YEARS. RIGHT NOW THERE ARE 2.23 MILLION HOMELESS IN AMERICA . IN NEXT 8-10YEARS THAT NUMBER THAT NUMBER WILL TRIPLE TO 6.5 MILLION.
@paulorr9262
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
"Sounds silly?" Nope, that was my first thought, how are you going to add a bunch of bathrooms????
@SebTorMk
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Why can’t we just all have a place to live?
@TSquared2001
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
But would they be affordable is the question
@Arisekiwi
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Vertical farming 💁🏻♂️
@Swanidhi
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
So many apartments with no windows in that case
@geraldos9094
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Those building aren’t equipped with the utilities to be apartments.
@user-lj2fs1rm6e
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
They are not converting offices to homes. Their real agenda is to trick people back to the workplace 🙂
@virginiamoss7045
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
The major difference between office space and residential space is the need for humans to sleep. The safety provisions for sleeping people inside buildings or any structure are vastly different than for fully awake people. All sleeping rooms must have immediate access to the outside, generally through a window if not a door so bedrooms must be located on the exterior walls of the structure. Office space can be just the opposite and often is, so the core building is designed differently, running power, plumbing, etc. up through the interior of the building with little access out from there to the rest of each floor. Residential space needs plumbing throughout and fire codes to accommodate stoves and ovens.
@lt4374
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Bay Area does not have a housing shortage. They have a high rent problem.
@majawei6127
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Houses for homeless
@fifibrownn9291
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Here in 🇬🇧 we are being forced to come back to work in the office.
@marcamorello2803
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Coming now
@Krobra91
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
A good away would be have the government help fund maybe 70% of the conversions, with the understanding that 40% be for low income housing. That would probably make it still profitable for developers with rents yet require the low income housing. I would actually make that 40% low income housing permanent. Currently, Many expire after a few years.
@Felevr
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
going to office is scam while we all know u can do ur work from computer online… unless u are field worker its a different story
@music34241
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Perfect place to have technology in secret.
@markp4967
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Fill them with migrants, eh? Yeah, no…
@chrisgooglemaps2108
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
The government should incentivize companies that have office workers to allow their employees to work from home. It would help minimize wear and tear on roads, allow for better flow of traffic for freight and emergency vehicles, and free up space for housing. It will take time and money to transition offices to homes, but it’s worth it.
@ScaleScarborough-jq8zx
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
High-earner prisons?
@richb2229
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
This would be a great way to house all of the unemployed illegals flooding the cities!
@GardenerEarthGuy
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Why not make the people live where they work? That way they can work more for less.
@DM-ys8ll
January 28, 2024 at 1:07 pm
15 minutes cities and universal income on its way. It will be the AI revolution next phase