By Janet Perez | YourValley
The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the American workforce as employees suddenly found themselves working from home and liking it.
While experts argue over the pros and cons of remote work for employees and businesses, one thing has become certain — vacancies in office buildings are rising in the Phoenix area and around the country due to more people working from home.
“Before COVID, I believe the record high for sublease space on the (national) market was 140 million square feet in 2009,” said Brian Uretzky, a partner at Keyser, a Scottsdale-based commercial real estate agency. “The amount of sublease space on the market on a national level is currently above 200 million square feet and it’s been steadily above 200 million square feet since early to mid-2021.”
According to Uretzky, the Valley’s inventory of existing office space is at roughly 194 million square feet among 9,000 buildings. About 30.6 million square feet of that are vacant, according to CoStar, an international commercial real estate information firm.
