Downtowns across the country have , and St. Louis is no exception.
The business core of the region in downtown St. Louis has had a , leaving vacant office buildings or ones that will soon be.
鈥淲hat you鈥檙e seeing today is really a flight to quality,鈥� said CBRE Senior Vice President Rick Messey, whose work focuses on office tenants and landlords in the St. Louis region. 鈥淭enants are looking to upgrade their image, get people to return back to work, and they want fully amenitized space.鈥�
In practice, that has meant , Messey said.
鈥淎 lot of this has to do with bringing the employees back to work,鈥� he said. 鈥淐ompanies want people to return back and start collaborating with their partners Tuesday through Friday.鈥�
CBRE tracks office occupancy and vacancies in markets . Their second quarter figures post a total vacancy rate of about 20% for the nearly 11 million square feet of office space in the region鈥檚 central business district, compared to a 16% vacancy for the nearly 12 million square feet of office space in Creve Coeur and Clayton combined.
Amenities to bring workers back
Companies want buildings that can offer workers a range of additional perks, like gyms, full-service cafeterias or different settings where people can work, Messey said.
There needs to be a reason for employees to return to the office, since the pandemic proved remote work was viable, said Joel Fuoss, an architect and principal at Trivers Associates in St. Louis.
鈥淚t is thinking about the end user of not just housing workers, it鈥檚 not just a place where people come to work and do their thing and leave,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you just want to get your work done, then people are going to opt to do that at home.鈥�
Other local architectural and engineering firms have noticed similar trends with their clients.
鈥淪o much of what we鈥檙e talking about is: What is the company, the business, the clients?鈥� said Margaret McDonald, a senior principal at the global architectural and engineering firm HOK. 鈥淲hat does everyone need from the workplace? What are the things that are going to bring someone into work?鈥�
This shift in perspective is driving design and development choices that promote the benefits from sharing space face-to-face, like collaboration or mentorship, she said.
It鈥檚 also spaces, like larger conference or board rooms, that can be used by multiple tenants, Fuoss said. Trivers makes use of this at their current home of in downtown, which they helped redesign, because the firm had doubled in size in recent years and had outgrown the conference rooms, he added.
鈥淭hat was really beneficial for us to not necessarily expand our personal square foot but be able to use a shared space that we need only maybe once or twice a month as part of the amenities of the building,鈥� Fuoss said.
Moving into a new space can also help a company redefine the image it presents, said Hany Abounader, who owns Third Man Development. His company is developing Brown & Crouppen鈥檚 new headquarters in a former factory in the Hill neighborhood.
The law firm had previously been housed downtown.
鈥淭his gives them an opportunity to modernize their space, to reset the entire firm, their brand and their culture,鈥� Abounader said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not easy to retain or attract employees these days, which is probably the reason some of the law firms have left downtown.鈥�
Challenges and opportunity for downtown
The challenge for downtown comes from the reality that newer, modern office spaces are limited, and it can be expensive to redo current stock, he said.
Downtown St. Louis also suffers from issues of safety and how that affects public perception of the area, Messey said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an issue across the U.S. and most major urban areas and central business districts,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 crime. People are wanting to leave because of the crime that needs to be resolved.鈥�
It鈥檚 something the Downtown St. Louis Community Improvement District is acutely aware of and actively working to address, said Executive Director Kelli McCrary. She added they collaborate with the city鈥檚 police department, which is primarily responsible for enforcement.
鈥淥ur collaborative effort is on supplementing those needs,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e deployed downtown ambassadors, we also have supplemental patrols, marked vehicles that say security or off-duty police.鈥�
McCrary stressed these efforts are especially important when conventions bring in many outsiders, along with softer things like flower baskets and pots that add beauty to the district.
鈥淲hat that means is that someone cares about downtown, right, you're not just coming to an area that is filled with debris, and it just looks barren,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e want our visitors and guests to recognize that we care.鈥�
These efforts can help improve the downtown鈥檚 atmosphere beyond specific building interiors, which are also an important part of the equation, Fuoss said.
鈥淵our office space is one thing, creating the amenities surrounding in your micro market is another story,鈥� he said. 鈥淐reating places where people want to be inside and out is really the challenge of what we have to deal with when we鈥檙e talking about office workers.鈥�
Along with the many challenges that St. Louis鈥� downtown faces with office space comes the opportunity to reposition the assets that are already there, McDonald said.
鈥淭he good thing about what we have downtown is these existing buildings, they鈥檙e really well made,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a good quality to them that do lend to repositioning and to consider should it be an office? Or could the building be split and be office and hotel or office and apartment?鈥�
It鈥檚 an idea shared by developers locally and McDonald explained that some buildings are more apt for retrofits than others, but the overall idea deserves attention and studying.
鈥淎s much as we can do to have people downtown from 9 to 5, but then also from 5 to 9 is the activity level that we need, to support businesses and to create more buzz,鈥� she said.
