I was talking to a friend last week and one of the topic that came up was empty offices. You know the massive skyscrapers that were built to anticipate the growth of corporate workers.
But with the lingering effect of the pandemic, these beautiful massive buildings we all call “downtown” are going to be largely abandoned. I think the story will end just like how manufacturing companies disappeared in the early 80s and 90s creating largely abandoned factories and towns.
Currently, few buildings in Boston are 100% occupied. In fact, the average vacancy rate around Boston towns is around 25%. I think this trend will continue as we see more and more layoffs.
In the last 20 years, every company has had to become a tech company except of course certain industries like healthcare, education, and government. With more advances in generative AI and machine learning, we are seeing a rapid decline in creative work like digital marketing, advertising, and of course newspapers. Even fields we thought would not be impacted are currently impacted like software engineering.