Facebook’s Remote Future Becomes Muddled

At the beginning of the pandemic, the overall belief for companies was that they could transition to remote working temporarily and return to the office in the matter of months. But as cases continue to rise in various parts of the country, it appears that remote working may become part of our reality for the foreseeable future.

Now, notable technology firms like Slack and Google have announced they are extending their remote working policies until at least the summer of 2021.

“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to take that back,” said Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack. “If we say you can work remotely and you move somewhere with your family to a different state, we can’t call you up and say, ‘Come back to the Bay Area and buy a house.’”

However, despite Facebook being one of the major firms to extend its remote working arrangements, the social media giant recently closed on a 730,000-square-foot office near Penn Station in New York City.

While this has been seen as a win for both Facebook and New York, Peter Riguardi, chairman and president of JLL’s tri-state region, explains that the Farley building is more similar to a California headquarters with large floor plans, which is rare for the city.

Now, the company is in talks to take up more space 770 Broadway, where it already occupies 700,000 square feet.

But CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s proclamation that at least half of the company’s staff would work remotely over the next decade could be a huge upset for the commercial real estate market.