Attacking the decline of office vacancies needs to be done sooner rather than later to prevent a substantial negative impact on office towers and the communities they serve known as the Doom Loop.
Impact of Doom Loop. The negative impact on Downtown office tower or suburban office park vacancy rates, commercial property values, sales/hospitality taxes, transit fares, local and state tax revenue, and city services needs to be measured.
Office Market Analysis. The office real estate market analysis needs to be completed by comparing this market to like competitors through reviewing regional macroeconomic, demographic, and office industry cluster capabilities of the region that impact potential office growth.
Target Building and Public Space Analysis. The specific buildings in question need to be analyzed for key real estate, construction, parking, and historic features to determine which are best suited for specific uses, and the quality of public spaces and plans for improved parking all connected to these office properties which impacts its reuse.
Targeted Building Reuse Marketing Analysis. These markets and targeted buildings will be analyzed to determine what industries are likely to grow in the region and would be attracted to the office tower in question through industry-based analysis tied to potential office reuse scenarios.
Targeted Building Vision. Listening sessions need to be conducted with office tower owners and managers, benchmark cities, community, and business leaders from real estate development, commercial brokerage, engineering, architects, financial services, corporate headquarters companies, and public officials to learn about the status of a region’s office market as well as provide input on how these challenges can be turned into opportunities.
Targeted Building Action Plan. Finally, a clear and decisive action plan to solve this challenge includes potential new building uses for specific office buildings, how to finance that reuse, and how that reuse would impact the surrounding office market.
The Doom Loop is a challenge that can be tackled but the sooner the process begins the better.