Hybrid here to stay? Center City office spaces see less than half of workers return in-person
"Employers are hesitant to insist that employees return even three days a week at the expense of losing them," says Todd Monahan.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It seems for at least some office workers hybrid is here to stay. It's led to a reimagining of both office spaces and commutes in Philadelphia.
It's easy to see the post-pandemic rebound in Center City, but not everyone has returned.
"Employers are hesitant to insist that employees return even three days a week at the expense of losing them," says Todd Monahan, the executive vice president of Wolf Commercial Real Estate.
He says there is about 20% vacancy in area office buildings.
His agency measures activity in buildings with key fob and employee badge swipes.
"Maybe we're at 45-50%, that's Tuesday Wednesday Thursday. That's physical bodies coming into the office buildings," says Monahan.
Center City District's on-street pedestrian sensors, along the West Market Street-JFK Boulevard office district, showed counts at 48% of pre-pandemic levels in February.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays registered the most foot traffic.
Public transit sees the same, busy mid-week commutes.
"We're seeing them generally travel more in the Tuesday through Thursday range," says SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch.
There are 600,000 SEPTA passenger trips each day, down from 1 million before COVID-19.
"We're at about 60% of where we were pre-pandemic," says Busch.
Now the agency is studying and preparing to adjust schedules accordingly.
"We're trying to see what we can do to better accommodate that, possibly have more service for those days when we're seeing ridership a little heavier," says Busch.
Large corporations are also reimagining, how their office works; opting for less private workspace and opting for smaller footprint, more collaborative spaces in the city.
