New York companies are opening offices where their workers live: in Brooklyn

Before the pandemic, Maz Karimian’s commute to Lower Manhattan was like that of many New Yorkers: a typically grueling 30-minute ride on two subway lines that were often crowded or delayed.

By comparison, when he returned to the office last week, for the first time since the coronavirus began to invade the city, his commute seemed smooth: a roughly 10-minute bike ride from his home in Carroll Gardens to his relocated office. of your company in Dumbo.

“I love the subway and I think it’s a great transportation system, but honestly, if I can breathe fresh air instead of the shared, enclosed air, I’ll choose the first one every time,” said Karimian, director of strategy at ustwo, a digital design.

More than 26 months after the pandemic sparked a mass exodus from New York City’s office buildings, and after many companies announced and shelved plans to return to the office, employees are finally starting to return to their desks. But remote work has fundamentally reshaped the way people work and lessened the dominance of the corporate workplace.

Companies have adapted. Directors have adopted flexible working arrangements, allowing employees to decide when they want to work in person.

And some are taking more drastic steps to make returning to work interesting: relocating their offices closer to where their employees live. In New York City, the measures reflect an effort by organizations to reduce a major barrier to commuting — commuting — once they start calling their employees back.

Before the pandemic, New York workers had the longest commute in the country, averaging nearly 38 minutes, one way (or back).

About two-thirds of ustwo employees live in Brooklyn, so it made sense to move the office to Dumbo, on Brooklyn’s waterfront, after a decade in Manhattan’s financial district, said managing director Gabriel Marquez.

Just 8% of Manhattan office workers were in person five days a week from late April to early May, according to research by the Partnership for New York City, a business group.

The sea change in the use of office buildings has been one of the most challenging situations in decades for New York’s real estate industry, and it has brought down the vast stock of offices in Manhattan, home to the United States’ two largest business districts, the Financial District. and Midtown.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves