What Would it Take to Revive San Francisco’s Deserted Downtown?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Office buildings in downtown San Francisco sit empty or nearly empty as thousands of workers continue working from home. Back in 2019, San Francisco had one of the tightest office real estate markets in the country with about 5% vacancy and record-setting rental rates. Now, vacancy has plummeted to 24% and rental rates have fallen by 13% since the end of 2019, according to commercial brokerage firm CBRE. But, it’s not just cubicles that are deserted – so are the sidewalks and many of the cafes, stores and small businesses that catered to the office crowd. The trend is prompting some developers, landlords and policymakers to consider turning some office towers into much needed housing, but similar efforts have proven difficult in the past. We’ll talk about how to reimagine and pump new life into San Francisco’s downtown business districts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for KQED podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport.
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0:58.1	From KQED.
0:59.6	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:14.6	Back in 2019, San Francisco had one of the tightest office real estate markets in the country,
1:20.6	with about 5% vacancy and record-setting rental rates.
1:24.6	Then came the pandemic and the probably permanent shift away from daily
1:28.8	office trips for knowledge workers. Now the vacancy rate has risen to 24%, and that doesn't even
1:34.7	count all the ways that office buildings end up sitting mostly empty. So what to do? San Francisco's
1:40.7	downtown needs some kind of reimagining. We'll dive deep into one idea floating around.
1:45.4	Why not make all those empty office towers into desperately needed housing?
1:49.9	That conversation's coming up next after this news.
2:04.5	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
2:11.7	The numbers on San Francisco's downtown are grim. The vibes are off too. It's not just cubicles that are deserted. So are the sidewalks and many of the cafes, the stores, the small businesses
	...

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