“I tend to see senior leaders preferring more in-office time for a host of reasons, particularly as it relates to the community of the downtown,” said B Kyle, president and CEO of the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce. “Your overall feeling of a city is impacted by how people show up and when they show up.”
Boosters from both Twin Cities’ downtowns said they continue to see a slow-but-steady increase in the number of people working in offices.
“I don’t see any sign of there being a dramatic corner turning in a positive way, but I also haven’t seen any signs of tapering,” said Joe Spencer, president of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance. “The world keeps taking steps back to the office. But it’s not like things are going to go back to the way they were.”
U.S. workers reported working about a quarter of their full-pay days from home in February, compared to more than 60% in May 2020, according to data from the WFH Research monthly Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes. Of those whose jobs allowed for remote work — as in, not those that require a shared physical location, such as health care or construction — more than a third are fully onsite, while about 20% are fully remote. The greatest share — nearly 45% — reported working a hybrid schedule.
A handful of the downtowns' largest employers, including Target and the state government, remain largely remote, leaving empty offices that cast uncertainty on the future of some areas. But an increasing number of companies rolling out more definitive policies for office work has bolstered confidence in the commercial real estate market.
Eddie Rymer, a senior vice president for JLL, said the firm’s local and national brokers have come to the consensus the office market bottomed out in 2024 in terms of leasing deals and rates.