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Data shows over the last two years alone, the central business
district has lost 2.3 million square feet of office tenants, or
almost twice the amount of space companies vacated over a
two-year period beginning in 2009 during the worst of the Great
Recession.
“With the new administration in Washington, there's been so much
uncertainty created that it's really put a damper on the
activity that we did have early in the first quarter of this
year,” Edwards told The Center Square. “There's a lot of
uncertainty out there, which I think is really driving investors
to not pull the trigger on projects, owners not listing their
buildings and I think that that has slowed things down.”
Through it all, Edwards is keeping his eyes on the prize.
“It's revitalizing in a slightly different way,” he said.
“People are here in the evenings and on the weekends more than
they were before the pandemic. Our numbers are still very good
office wise Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They're not bad on
Monday, and Friday is not a day where people come to the office
certainly as much as they used to, although there's still people
downtown.”
Edwards is adamant that despite the challenges, the overall Loop
revitalization project is in full swing. He also points to what
he views as other promising signs like a new Mexican restaurant
recently opening in the area, along with a Panera Bread and a
Gap factory store, both now under construction.
Edwards added the Loop Alliance is now also in talks with the
city about the creation of a vacant storefront partnership that
could mean more businesses up and down the State Street area.
“We’ve had conversations with the city, and they've encouraged
us to submit applications,” he said. “The amount of money and
how we can use the money is still to be determined, but we're
hopeful that the city can see how important State Street is to
the success of The Loop and the central area of the city.”
With more companies also upgrading to newer and more updated
buildings as a way of motivating more employees back to their
Loop offices, data also shows the average vacancy rates at
top-tier, or so-called Class A properties, are more than 10%
lower than Class B vacancies.
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