What will happen to Seattle’s empty office towers when COVID-19 ends?
September 6, 2020 | Katherine Khashimova Long | The Seattle Times
As many white-collar employers extend into next year the work-from-home policies they instituted in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a vast amount of vertical space in downtown Seattle is leased but empty.
The vacant space amounts to more than 700 football fields, by one estimate — acres of desks, with knickknacks and mementos that few but cleaning staff, maintenance crews and interior landscapers have seen for nigh on six months.
It’s not clear when workers might begin trickling back into that space or what could become of it in the meantime. “If anyone tells you they know what’s going to happen, they’re fibbing,” said Rod Kauffman, president of the local Building Owners and Managers Association.
