Now some employers are considering downsizing their office space or giving workers more flexibility to work off-site permanently. That would change the real estate landscape of Detroit, could erode the city's tax base and put somestores that rely onfoot trafficout of business.
But GM leaders are discussing how the automaker canoffer workersmore flexibility inhow they work in the post-pandemic world.
There willlikelybepressure from city officialson many downtown office tenants to bring their workforce back because these workers pay a Detroit income tax which somedont have to pay ifhey work from a home in the suburbs.
Frank Monaghan, a commercial real estate broker whose company, Monaghan & Company, specializes in commercial real estate, said employers are looking at downsizing their office space as the pandemic stretches on in Michigan and their employees continue to work remotely.
He predicted the office floor plate will also shrink, with workers eventually coming into their offices a couple of days a week and trading off use of a cubicle with other employees.
Well see more consolidation into these work environments, Monaghan said, adding that the days of heading into the office five days a week will be consigned tothe past.
But given the ongoing pandemic, it is still too soon to have any data thatmeasures the permanent impact on office space going forward.
Theemployees who have hadto live near their offices in, say, Silicon Valley where the cost of living is astronomical,can now relocateto a more affordablearea and still keep their jobs.
Original article