During the workweek starting Sept. 19, foot traffic around offices in Boston was down 45.2% from the same week in 2019, according to Placer.ai data. While this is still much lower than it was pre-pandemic, Boston is doing slightly better than other big cities; San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, D.C. and Houston were all more than 50% below 2019 levels.
Marty Long, director of real estate strategy and operations at Industrious, said, “There are certain downtowns in America that are quite dead, that are much slower to come back. Luckily, Boston is so much better off than so many American cities.”
Industrious has six Boston-area locations, and they’ve recorded higher occupancy last month than they did before the pandemic.
Anita Lauricella, co-interim executive director at the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, said foot traffic in the downtown area is up 30% to 35% compared to last year.
Bringing workers back into the office has also helped bring business to local restaurants and shops in the city, according to Bisnow.
