N.Y.C. Companies Are Opening Offices Where Their Workers Live: Brooklyn

The commute to Lower Manhattan used to be miserable, with two subway lines that were usually crammed or delayed.

When he returned to the office last week for the first time since the coronaviruses began sweeping through the city, his commute felt peaceful, as he took a leisurely bicycle ride from his home to his company's relocated office about 10 minutes away.

I love the subway and think it's a great transit system, but if I can be in fresh air, I'll choose that over shared, enclosed air.

After a mass exodus from New York City office buildings due to the Pandemic, employees are finally starting to trickle back to their desks. The way people work has changed because of remote work.

Companies have adapted. The conference rooms have been redecorated. The desks were open to anyone on a first come, first serve basis. Flexible work arrangements allow employees to decide when they want to work.

Picking up their offices and moving them closer to where their employees live is one way some companies are trying to make the return to work appealing. In New York City, the moves reflect an effort by organizations to reduce a major barrier to getting to work.

Workers in New York City had the longest one-way commute in the country before the Pandemic.

The office was moved to the Brooklyn waterfront after a decade in the Financial District in Manhattan because most of the employees live in Brooklyn.

The new space is about 11,500 square feet, slightly smaller than its previous office, and was less expensive to lease than most offices in Manhattan. He said that it is better suited for when employees come into the office with an open-air rooftop for meetings.

Employees are required to be there twice a week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

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Despite concerns about crime on the subways and a rise in coronaviruses, there are signs that the city is recovering from the economic downturn. Tourists are visiting New York at a greater rate than last year, hotelOccupancy has increased and the daily subway passenger count set a record.

Office buildings are a vital piece of the city's economy.

Coffee shops, retailers and restaurants were a part of the office towers before the Pandemic. Thousands of businesses have closed because of the same rush of people.

Despite pleas for companies to require people to return to the office, so far, many have complied with demands by their employees to maintain their job flexibility.

According to a survey by the Partnership for New York City, only 8 percent of Manhattan office workers were in-person five days a week.

The number of employers that have adopted hybrid remote and in-person arrangements has increased. The group said that most workers will come into the office a few days a week.

New York real estate, a bedrock industry for the city and home to the two largest business districts in the country, the Financial District and Midtown, has been challenged by the shift in office building usage.

The equivalent of 30 Empire State Buildings are vacant in Manhattan. Newmark, a real estate firm, says that the rate is up from 12 percent before the Pandemic. The office buildings in Brooklyn have not changed much since the beginning of the Pandemic.

The office market in Manhattan would get worse in the coming years as companies adjusted their work arrangements and as the leases that were signed years ago started to expire, according to the lead office analyst at Green Street. He said that companies that have kept offices have downsized because they don't need as much space, while others have relocated to newer or renovated buildings with better amenities in transit-rich areas.

It was not uncommon for companies to open separate locations outside of Manhattan and for offices to be moved throughout the city. The city offers a tax incentive for businesses that relocate to an outer boroughs, with up to $3,000 in annual business-income tax credits per employee.

According to the city's Department of Finance, nearly 200 companies received it last year for a total of $27 million in tax credits. Some office developers are betting on neighborhoods outside of Manhattan becoming attractive in their own right, so they can lure companies that want to avoid the hustle-and-bustle of Midtown.

There are more than 1.5 million square feet of office space under construction in Brooklyn.

The former Domino Sugar Refinery is being turned into an office building by Two Trees Management. The chief executive said he had so much confidence in the project that it was being renovated on speculation, without office tenants lined up.

The talent base that has shifted to Brooklyn and Queens can't be ignored.

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The unpredictable nature of the pandemic could change the course of the office trend in the future.

The co-chief executive of GFP Real Estate, Brian R. Steinwurtzel, said that certain niches of companies could be found in Queens and Brooklyn.

Mr. Steinwurtzel gave a curt assessment of the markets.

Being able to have panoramic views of Manhattan is enough for some companies.

The epicenter of the marketing world made famous decades ago by advertising giants on Madison Avenue is where the European advertising firm Social Chain settled after opening an office in the United States.

The firm decided to revisit its location after the Pandemic struck and the prestige of being in Manhattan was not the same.

None of the office locations she toured felt right. She traveled across the East River to find 10 Grand Street, a Two Trees property. It checked all the boxes, including a flexible floor plan, unobstructed views of Manhattan, and a shorter commute for a large number of Social Chain's 42 employees.

Ms. Stamatiou now walks to work from her home in Greenpoint.

There are actual outside activities and restaurants down below, just like in Manhattan, but there is a sense of space.