The coronavirus pandemic could turn into a much-needed shot in the arm for Brooklyn’s sluggish office market.
While the borough has been staring down the barrel of millions of square feet of new office space coming online, it has failed to attract many trophy tenants relocating from Manhattan.
However, experts say that the health crisis has caused some firms to look to Brooklyn instead of Manhattan to bring their offices closer to their workforce and save money during a recession.
“We’ve been starting to see, for now anecdotal, examples of companies that otherwise have an office or would have an office in Midtown South or Manhattan looking for either a satellite location or to replace their Manhattan office in Brooklyn,” said Ofer Cohen, the founder and president of Brooklyn-based brokerage TerraCRG. “The [heads of these companies] typically live in Brooklyn and when COVID hit they were trying to figure out what the future holds for them. Suddenly, having the office in Brooklyn made a lot more sense.”
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