Nonessential offices in Los Angeles County have been closed since last December, and office occupiers are anxiously waiting for what comes next for their industry.
Unfortunately, the office market is looking grim in the near term. According to Newmark’s Q4 report, vacancy reached its highest levels since 2013.
Additionally, office usage is sitting at around 30% in Los Angeles according to data from Kastle Systems.
It is still uncertain when workers can safely return to the workplace, not to mention which measures will need to be taken once they are back.
“People are wondering, ‘How do we have people set up? What is the actual physical work site like? Are people going to be able to be socially distant? How will we use shared facilities such as break rooms, the restrooms? What are going to be our rules around those?’” said Hannah Sweiss, an associate at law firm Fisher Phillips.
While some companies are preparing to bring employees back in by taking up more space and reconfiguring the layout of the office, some are wondering just how much of an investment this will be.
There are still signs of a rebound. Reports from JLL found that leasing in Q4 actually increased by over 10% from the previous quarter and the number of tours grew as well.
According to Ryan Harding, Executive Managing Director at Newmark, some companies he has worked with allowed their leases to lapse late last year in order to search for a new space or negotiate more ideal terms with their current landlord.
