Empty office buildings may meet the same fate as zombie shopping malls

It’s been about four years since the Covid-19 pandemic upended society, also killing the once-ubiquitous reality of working in an office for eight hours, five days a week. Many companies have embraced remote work, which has meant weak demand for office space and declining values for those properties.

It’s been about four years since the Covid-19 pandemic first upended society. Cities and towns have mostly sprung back to life, one aspect of daily life is unmistakable: The once-ubiquitous reality of working in an office for eight hours a day, five days a week is dead. As many companies embrace remote and hybrid work, demand for office space has weakened and property values have fallen. The predicament for office buildings is strikingly similar to that of regional shopping malls around the turn of the century, when Americans first began to gravitate en masse to online shopping, according to an analysis from the Treasury Department’s Office for Financial Research. Many malls have shuttered since as retailers dialed back their brick-and-mortar operations. But some zombie malls have been given new life, repurposed for other uses, in some instances after sitting vacant and abandoned for years. “The redeveloped uses for regional malls include new retail space with a smaller footprint, mixed use, and warehouse/distribution space,” Treasury’s analysis said. “More eclectic options include use as a cricket stadium, a police precinct, and an indoor cannabis farm.”