NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — With hybrid and remote work models, some companies are taking steps to figure out what types of offices will be sustainable.
Hybrid, remote, and in-person scheduling is a hot topic at work. Flexibility has been important due to the pandemic.
"I already work from home, so I’m happy," Lance Kilde said.
But others, like Bridget Ells and Jessica Tolle, like being in the office.
"I do have friends who say they would prefer working from home fully,” Ells said. “It’s a personal preference. For me, I like to be in the office because I like to interact with my coworkers; I feel like I get to know them on a closer basis, so I prefer the hybrid schedule."
According to Nashville Downtown Partnership's Tamara Dickson, downtown's office vacancy rate is 12%.
"We track physical occupancy looking at parking garage usage. So, pre-COVID we had approximately 83% usage on workdays; now we are at 77% of that," Dickson said.
She said other cities like Austin have more office vacancies compared to Nashville.
Asurion in the Gulch changed employee seating. Now, they have 3 unused floors that they might lease out. They issued the following statement:
“We are shuffling our Gulch office space a bit in response to our employees' desire for continued work-from-home flexibility, which has reduced our average daily occupancy. When we first shared our plans to consolidate multiple Nashville offices into a single building, our goal was to encourage collaboration. The same is true now. We're revising our seating plans to bring people closer together and right-size our current space needs. The exercise will result in unused space (approximately 3 floors in one tower). While a decision on subleasing has not been finalized, we might consider this option if the right opportunity arises.”
Meanwhile, companies like Amazon are putting some construction projects on hold. At Amazon’s tower two at the Nashville Yard, they plan to redesign office spaces to better fit current needs. John Schoettler, the Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities at Amazon issued a statement:
“The pandemic has significantly changed the way people work. For our corporate and tech roles, we’ve adopted a hybrid model that offers employees increased flexibility – each team decides the balance between in-office and remote work that makes sense for them. It’s early days and like many companies, we’re still learning how these new habits may impact our office footprint. Our offices are long-term investments and we want to make sure that we design them in a way that meets our employees’ needs in the future. As we continue to learn, we’re pausing construction to reevaluate the design of our second tower in Nashville. This doesn’t affect our plans to bring more than 5,000 jobs to the city, or our commitment to continuing to invest in and engage with the community—including providing affordable housing and supporting local nonprofits.”
"It’s really a national trend — businesses are stepping up, they’re reevaluating how many days their employees are going to come into the office," Dickson said.
However, according to a recent study, by 2029 downtown will likely need more office space due to job growth.
