Atlanta may be a booming business metropolis, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by the amount vacant office spaces around the city.
According to data released by real estate firm CBRE, the city boasts over a third of empty office spaces that could possibly bode badly on its local economy.
Unsurprisingly, this issue is most noticeable and pervasive in its downtown area where a number of the city’s skyscrapers and taller buildings are located. The sector accounted for 54.7% of office vacancies. According to Black Enterprise, the area is undergoing a revitalization project, deemed the “Master Plan,” after years of stagnation for both residential and business development.
“Overall, the stubbornly high availability rate in Atlanta continues to be the result of corporate tenants with substantial footprints offloading unneeded space amidst economic distress,” the firm remarked in its report.
This issue could be connected to the ongoing battle employers’ have been facing for the last few years to push remote employees back to the office following the pandemic.
As ESSENCE previously pointed out, a large number of workers don’t see the point in traveling to the office and they’re making their feelings known as suggested by a 2023 report Executive Network via a global survey of 1,300 people where only only 28% of knowledge workers said their company is making it worthwhile to commute. And nearly half of them also said company isn’t making the trek any more attractive.
“Companies are offering more perks and increasing compensation to entice workers back to the office. But they need to make coming to the office more purposeful and ‘commute worthy,’” Jeanne Meister, an executive vice president at Executive Networks, said in a statement as reported by HRDive. “This will require employers to be clear on why and how working in the office can optimize collaboration and innovation,” she said according to the outlet. “Employers also need to provide equal opportunity for advancement and development, no matter where the work gets done.”