It is completely not zombie apocalypse or a silent place, but urban areas are on lockdowns. It has been the loneliest years for commercial hubs to socialize. Business districts such as Manhattan, London, Tokyo’s Marunouchi and La Défense in Paris have faced severe exodus said The Economist.
Loneliness literally is not costly. Unfortunately, it bounced beyond its literal meaning. Before Covid social distancing, those business districts housed 4.2m workers with 500 global fortune companies said Urban Land Institute. Now, most work shifted home base.
Business that cannot go on with home base schemes suffer the most.
Leaving office abandoned and empty have the consequences. Owners continued to pay for rent, this time is worse, no customers are coming. People are massively cooking at home no matter how hard the vendors have promoted hygiene campaign. Moreover, the commercial hubs are central to new talent recruitments. It is a place for unemployed people to seek for jobs. But new talents are not desired as the business districts are cleared.
While for businesses able to shift home base have left the business towers vacant. It has been 12% in total globally. More than one in five offices in San Francisco are empty. Facing this bleak, landlords seek strategy. They are not just lowering rate but also offers prize money for new tenants. They are indeed hoping the districts would be back to normal, but the new case of Covid variants from Delta to Omicron raise unpredictably.
The lonely buildings look tired and empty, that it may need some rejuvenations. Other problems, such as inflation, shortages of labor and materials are suffered mostly by construction industries. Cost raises in everything, no exception for upgrading buildings too.
Lockdowns affect Sydney for instance as much as A$250m in a week for almost 40.000 jobs. Small business such as café and restaurants closed in New York during lockdowns. Empty road and offices also mean big lost for transportation companies. Reduced passengers are estimated to reach £1.5bn in London by 2024 and £1.4bn in New York by 2025.
