San Francisco is struggling to recover from the pandemic, especially downtown offices.
Only about 42 percent of workers are back in their offices in San Francisco compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to the security firm Tracking by Kastle.
For the third quarter, the amount of office space available for lease or sublease reached 25 percent. That’s a record, according to CBRE, the real estate brokerage firm.
Mayor London Breed said she is determined to change that. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Breed said she sees an opportunity for San Francisco to “reinvent, recreate and reinvest” in other types of office tenants.
To aid San Francisco’s economic recovery and fill office space, the Mayor is looking beyond the tech industry, towards biotechnology and green-tech industries.
Currently, the Bay Area ranks as the second largest market for life-sciences tenants, according to the brokerage firm Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated.While the pandemic transformed the tech sector into a remote-heavy industry, the biotech sector relies on in-person lab work.