Lasting Effects from COVID-19 may be making room for more residents in Manhattan

COVID-19 brought many highs and lows to the business world, especially in major cities such as New York City. While it was a win for the environment, say goodbye to many in-person 9 to 5 jobs. Navigating this hybrid/remote work world has opened many new opportunities for a more flexible job. While the benefits of this new world range from extended time with family, gaining a few hours of sleep by saving yourself the morning rush hour commute, or clocking in from a different country, the pandemic left many buildings unoccupied. With the pandemic turning most office spaces into empty rooms, many commercial real estate is not turning back and has become useless. This may be an opportunity for these spaces to turn into

residential properties. This could make housing in the city affordable by lowering rent ceilings as the city will expand their housing market. The more units available, the more property managers will have to fill. Competitors will no longer be influenced to match each other’s outrageous prices which will give more leeway with rent floors and ceilings allowing for a more reasonable cost of living.

These spaces may have lost their purpose to hold business meetings in a place that was once filled with high work-life traffic which is detrimental to small business, but filling these vacancies with residents may restore the consumer activity that these local shops need. Residential areas are the one space in particular that is highly sought after. Now that office spaces are a rarity to have in demand for this location, the most profitable option is to flip it into housing. This isn’t out of the ordinary either. Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and many other densely populated cities have also followed a pattern of remodeling buildings into residential properties before they become deserted. This may have a stimulating effect on the economy, hopefully an example other cities will follow in lowering extreme rent prices. This will satisfy Manhattan’s needs to get foot-traffic back on their streets and engaged with surrounding small businesses again. Affordable housing is one of the most desired spaces that Manhattan doesn’t have already built.

Specialized city planners have been considering the trade-offs for some time now. Some of the logistics seem to be unfeasible regarding the process of making the transformation from office spaces into individual apartments. Due to the design of larger meeting rooms in these office spaces to accommodate a larger work team means the larger the floor plates are below. In order to make the switch from an office into individual apartment units, they will need to separate the floor plates into multiple sections. Changing these spaces would require installing additional plumbing and electricity to run through each apartment when it was originally wired to power a bigger space. The pressure for reasonably priced housing in New York is at an all time high, but the conversion could be a challenge depending on the layout of the floor plates. The layouts would need to pass specific housing code requirements that pertain to the districts of Manhattan.

Cover Photo: Cities with empty offices see new room to expand housing