If you’re looking to assess the future of office buildings in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no better place to look than New York City, the nation’s largest office market. The situation is alarming, according to a Jan. 14 report on 60 Minutes, which pointed out that more than 95 million square feet of New York office space is now unoccupied — the equivalent of 30 Empire State buildings. What’s more, interest rates have spiked at a time when $1.5 trillion in commercial real estate loans are due to expire in the next two years.
The problem is well known to those in the business at this point: Remote and hybrid work has lured workers out of office buildings and into their homes, driving office occupancy rates in the Big Apple to all-time lows.
One of the experts featured on the 60 Minutes, the CBS News program, is Scott Rechler, CEO of RXR, a New York City real estate company with more than $20 billion in holdings. Rechler summed up the situatio