As artificial intelligence keeps reshaping the workforce, more people are starting to wonder what will happen to all the towering office buildings in downtown areas. With companies pushing for efficiency and reducing headcounts, large office spaces are already sitting half-empty.
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Boston Could Be A Warning Sign
According to the latest Moody’s Analytics report, the average vacancy rate for office property in the U.S. is 20.4%, which is the highest vacancy rate on record.
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A new report from the Boston Policy Institute estimates that the city of Boston could lose $1.7 billion in tax revenue over the next five years because of empty offices and falling property values. “Things are not getting better,” Evan Horowitz, executive director of Tufts University’s Center for State Policy Analysis, which co-published the report, told WBUR-FM recently. “Offices remain empty. Their valuations continue to fall. We think they’ll fall further than we thought.”
The report projects a growing budget shortfall in Boston, from $135 million this year to more than $550 million by 2029. The assessed value for office buildings has already dropped 9% this fiscal year, a dip similar to what was seen during the 2008 financial crisis. Some buildings have reportedly sold at discounts as steep as 70%.
According to the report, Boston is especially vulnerable because more than a third of its budget comes from commercial property taxes. By comparison, other U.S. cities rely on that type of revenue for just 11% of their budgets. To make matters worse, Massachusetts law limits Boston’s ability to raise money through other taxes.
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What Reddit Users Are Saying
While policymakers debate revenue forecasts, many people online are raising a more basic question: “What happens to skyscraper offices in the city center when people are replaced by AI?”
This exact question was posed on a recent Reddit thread in r/Layoffs, and users floated a range of possibilities. Some were skeptical about AI entirely replacing workers, calling it more of a smokescreen. “AI is just a buzzword. Most of these jobs are being replaced by Indian and Philippines workers who work entirely remotely,” one person wrote.
Others focused on real estate: “Convert them to luxury apartments.” Another user pushed back, noting how expensive that process can be: “This is always way more expensive than people think because the offices were not set up with electrical/plumbing/heat that is suitable for apartments.”
Some suggested turning empty towers into data centers, housing, or even hotels. “Hotel Torre Catalunya used to be an office building and they transformed it into a hotel here in Barcelona,” one Redditor said. But others were more cynical, claiming cities would “rather demolish these office towers than convert them to affordable housing.”
One comment captured the growing sense of frustration: “We are quickly moving into cyberpunk/corporate fiefdoms territory.”
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The Bigger Picture
The larger concern is that cities like Boston built their budgets around the assumption that office life was permanent. Now, with hybrid work becoming the norm and companies leaning on automation, that model is looking shaky.
“We can’t rely on big office towers that attract commuting workers,” Horowitz told WBUR. “It doesn’t mean the city can’t be vibrant. The city has lots of other amenities that people enjoy. It just has to find a new way to secure its future strength.”
For now, city leaders, business owners and regular workers are all stuck asking the same question: What do we do with all this space?
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