San Francisco office traffic continues to lag the rest of the country, but downtown traffic is slowly recovering, According to data from Placer.ai.
The city’s average office visits were 58.4% below pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of this year, the worst recovery in the country. Office visits fell 49.5 percent in Chicago, which had the second-lowest returns, while Miami and Washington, D.C., the most recovering markets, fell by about a third.
The report, which tracks office footfall in 800 buildings across 11 urban markets using cell phone data, also noted that office attendance in San Francisco has been slowly rising since the pandemic brought it down to an all-time low of about 90%. Figures at the end of 2019. Each quarter since then has improved, according to the report.
“Despite lackluster traffic growth in San Francisco,” it wrote, “Golden Gate’s visitation gap continued to narrow over the past year. ”
Prices rose and fell more sharply in other cities, the report found, with many seeing big gains but not being able to sustain them. The highs for many markets were Q3 2021 and Q2 2022, but neither of those office returns ultimately lasted.
JLL research director Alexander Quinn said it remains to be seen whether inner cities have reached the new normal, but he doesn’t think so.A “typical disruptive event” like a pandemic typically changes behavior by 10% to 20%, not 50%, he said in an email, adding that if Recent tech layoffs continue It could finally give employers the upper hand in the ongoing return-to-office debate.
“While I don’t believe we’ll get back to 100%, I do believe many positions will require more hours as leadership digs deeper into their IP creation and workforce development and cohesion,” he said. “While outsourcing will continue, and certain industries are better suited to remote work, there will still be a need for incidental creation that happens in the workplace, especially in IP-heavy industries.”
After a long and rainy winter, the storm was so severe that Knock loose the windows of downtown buildingsAccording to Colliers research director Derek Daniels (Derek Daniels), the recent warm spring weather may also lead to a further increase in attendance. He joked that he sees “blue skies and sunshine” in downtown’s future.
“Really, good weather will facilitate a return to the office,” he said by email. “RTO trends in San Francisco have improved steadily but slowly over the past year and are on track to surpass 50% sometime in the third quarter, but heavy rain in the first quarter appears to have slowed the recovery.”
