Building owners have little to no power to compel tenants — many of which continue to pay their rent — to return more quickly than planned, and incentives don’t seem to be an effective option either.
Get Instant Access to This Article
Subscribe to Hartford Business Journal and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
- Critical Hartford and Connecticut business news updated daily.
- Immediate access to all subscriber-only content on our website.
- Bi-weekly print or digital editions of our award-winning publication.
- Special bonus issues like the Hartford Book of Lists.
- Exclusive ticket prize draws for our in-person events.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
Downtown Hartford’s major office buildings remain relatively deserted compared to pre-pandemic times, which creates potential problems for building owners.
“It makes it harder to lease additional space because it looks like a ghost town,” said Gary B. O’Connor, a commercial real estate attorney at Pullman & Comley. “[Owners] want the tenants to come back.”
Hartford’s largest office landlord, Shelbourne Global Solutions, certainly wants its tenants to start beckoning workers back to the workplace as soon as possible, said Benjamin Schlossberg, managing member of the New York-based realty company.
“We need to keep our buildings full, occupied and vibrant and it’s hard to do if people aren’t at work,” Schlossberg said. “For us it’s a real urgency.”
However, building owners have little to no power to compel tenants — many of which continue to pay their rent — to return more quickly than planned, and incentives don’t seem to be an effective option either.
”Unfortunately, there’s almost nothing we can do,” Schlossberg said. “Just to go to a total extreme, if we told tenants ‘free rent for three months if you occupy fully,’ they’re not coming back [any faster].”
Indeed, a few months worth of rent isn’t a key factor driving most larger employers’ thinking on the return-to-office topic, O’Connor said.
“For these employers, it’s not a question of whether they can afford their spaces, it’s really more a question of when the employers are going to feel comfortable bringing back their employees,” he said.
As they await tenant decisions they can’t control, office owners are instead focusing on what they can: Keeping their buildings maintained, adopting more rigorous cleaning schedules and investing in safety features and overall upgrades, from better HVAC systems and elevators to touchless appliances.
“One of the very few silver linings of the pandemic is that it was a great time for building owners to do these projects,” said Jonathan Putnam, executive director of brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Joel Grieco, also a Cushman & Wakefield executive director, said while landlords haven’t landed on any effective ways to spur or draw their current tenants back to the office, they have been willing to sweeten the pot when necessary in negotiations with new and renewing tenants. For example, some office properties are agreeing to shorter leases with more flexible terms, discounted rent, free signage, and providing physical features like outdoor patios or other places designed for employees to socialize or simply take a more enjoyable break.
“Landlords recognize that as companies bring employees back to work, they are dealing with employees that have had a lot of flexibility and luxuries while working from home,” Grieco said.
