Charlotte has an office vacancy problem. As the COVID-19 pandemic waned, many people did not return to their pre-2020 ways of working. Instead, they continued to work remotely or partially remotely.
As reported by Axios Charlotte, at a presentation earlier this month, the city received some dire news about the state of its office vacancies. Square footage of office space per employee is at a 22-year low. A typical office vacancy rate is around 7% to 10%. Across Charlotte, vacancies range from 16% to 48%.
This problem isn’t unique to Charlotte. According to Moody’s Analytics, the national office vacancy rate is 19.6%, which is a new record.
On the next Charlotte Talks, we discuss this problem in Charlotte, some solutions the city is looking at, and what this means for the makeup of our communities.
GUESTS:
Ashley Fahey, real estate editor at American City Business Journals
Steve Harrison, WFAE political reporter
Alexandria Sands, reporter with Axios Charlotte
