New York City's mayor just conceded defeat to remote work--and declared war on the housing crisis. He

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Source: Fortune

New York City’s mayor just conceded defeat to remote work—and declared war on the housing crisis. Here’s how it went down

Alena Botros
Thu, August 17, 2023 at 5:18 PM EDT·4 min read

New York City officials, led by Mayor Eric Adams, announced a plan to convert empty office buildings across the heart of its central business district into housing at a news conference on Thursday. Although parts of this plan were announced previously, and it must clear several hurdles en route to implementation, it represents the nearest thing to an admission that the scourge of remote work has spread too far to turn back now.

He admitted as much. “COVID taught us something, if we want to acknowledge it or not, we are in a different norm,” Adams said. “Everything has changed, and we have to be willing to change with it.”

Earlier in the press conference, Adams kicked off with, "we know New Yorkers are struggling, you hear it all the time, every elected [official] in this city, the number one thing they hear is housing, housing, housing. And [there’s] just not enough of it, that’s the reality of it, the demand is not meeting the need.”

Before fully diving into aspects of the plan, Adams said the city has the potential to remove barriers to create more housing, “with a proposal to rewrite zoning regulations so unused office space can become homes for New Yorkers.” He added that it was unbelievable how much empty office space is “sitting idly by,” when it can be developed into housing to address the city’s housing crisis, while also “revitalizing” business districts, given that remote work is costing Manhattan more than $12 billion a year.

With this plan, an additional 136 million square feet of office space will be eligible for residential conversions, ...

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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/york-city-mayor-just-conceded-211821509.html