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2021 : An Office Space Odyssey
SHUTTERSTOCK ILLUSTRATION
How the pandemic will shape the future of the office market
by Ken Smith
Early last year , Amy DeAngelis was negotiating office lease deals at a regular clip in a market that was humming along . Then COVID-19 hit . “ The office market sort of fell off a cliff in March of last year ,” says DeAngelis , an executive vice president at CBRE who works exclusively with tenants . “ Every single transaction I personally was working on came to a screeching halt and was either paused indefinitely or killed altogether .”
Landlords and tenants alike were thrust into uncertainty as workers were sent home to set up their laptops on the dining room table . Suddenly , millions of square feet of cubicles , workstations and private offices sat unused as lockdowns took hold .
With new deals evaporating , DeAngelis and others in the industry turned their attention to helping clients in other ways such as reducing expenses , developing strategies and helping them terminate agreements . She says she has completed 18 lease terminations since the pandemic hit — more in a single year than she has over her entire 22 years in the leasing business .
Despite the precipitous drop in new leases , local brokers and developers say they are still bullish on the market . They also say that despite perceptions that the region is awash with leasable space , it ’ s not a buyer ’ s market . Although space is going unused , vacancy rates are largely unchanged from before the pandemic and are even slightly below average . Spaces
April 2021 | comstocksmag . com 73