Quote:
Originally Posted by condodweller
downtown highrise dwellers are just taking up what could be perfectly good, productive office space . . . . many major businesses have left town for the more friendly environs of the Peninsula and the East Bay.
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That is happening all over America--even in New York (where they are moving to New Jersey and southern Connecticut). It makes no economic sense to have anybody from a corporate HQ except the executive suite housed in a downtown highrise--and that's true in every city. The per sq. ft cost is just too high. There are just a few kinds of folks that need or want to be downtown: The highly paid and those who provide services to them plus some industries mainly employing the young, single and highly talented (like software and graffic design) In SF, that means mostly the top tier of corporate execs, lawyers and financial firms in the highrises (the others prefer funkier space).
But there is no displacement going on. We don't lack office space because we are putting housing downtown. There's no unmet demand for office space but if there were, there are plenty of opportunities to build more (even within the 900,000 sq ft per year cap--from which housing is exempt).