NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Fewer companies are requiring employees to work full-time in the office.
In Nashville, more than a quarter of downtown office workers have still not returned to work after the pandemic. The Nashville Downtown Partnership reports that workforce occupancy is 72.4% of the 2019 figure.
According to experts, some offices will likely never again be fully staffed with in-person workers.
"These are older buildings that don't have the amenities, aren't inspiring, maybe don't really bring the best feeling to your day, and those kinds of places are really going to be under pressure in the upcoming years," said M. Eric Johnson, dean of Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management.
Johnson says a successful workplace is a place people want and need to be.
"It has to be aesthetically inspiring and interesting, but more importantly it has to be active — active in the way that people are really working together and collaborating and enjoying being together. If that's not happening, if they're sitting there in their cubes, offices and zooming elsewhere, it's not going to be a very inspiring workplace," Johnson said.
A map of the commercial real estate available for lease in Nashville shows there are more than three dozen buildings with office space listed.
According to Nashville Downtown Partnership, the 12.6% vacancy rate downtown is lower than most of Nashville's peer cities. In Charlotte the vacancy rate is 16.5%, in Indianapolis it's 19.6% and in Austin it is 21.4%.
While it is harder to calculate the number of ghost buildings — buildings that are leased, but workers are choosing not to return to — Johnson said those exist too.
"There are many many ghost buildings in Nashville and elsewhere where you really go in and there's no one around. When those leases come due, we will see change," he said.
Some cities like Dallas and Houston were overbuilt, according to experts.
