Biden Tells Remote Federal Workers To Come Back As Washington D.C. Office Occupancy Rates Plummet

Washington, D.C., is rebounding from the pandemic, with 20.7 million domestic tourists visiting the capital last year, according to recently released tourism numbers. 

Those visitors spent $8.1 billion, representing a 50% jump over 2021, according to Destination DC. Though visitor numbers for the first half of 2023 have yet to be released, the nation's capital has a more significant issue on its hands. Few cities have had as much trouble getting their remote workers back to the office as the District of Columbia and even the president has had enough. 

The office vacancy rate in D.C. now sits at a record high of just under 19%, according to JLL, which adds that 41% of those vacancies are concentrated in 60 buildings. Those built before 2000 account for 75% of the vacancies. 

"The pandemic has created a bifurcation in the office market of haves and have-nots now, so if you're an owner of an older building, you are facing challenges as tenants flock to new or recently renovated space that offers more in the way of amenities and more of a commute-worthy experience for those employees. As a result, owners of older buildings are left with real critical investment decisions today," said Michael Hartnett, Mid-Atlantic Research lead at JLL. 

Those vacancies have also contributed to a loss of revenue in from restaurants in the city.  D.C.'s office community, unlike other cities, has one big landlord that controls much of the downtown office space — the federal government. Much of the office space was built before 2000. All 24 federal agencies have reported that their in-person workforce hasn’t returned to prepandemic levels because of remote work. 

One of the reasons workers are staying home is that the Washington, D.C., area has among the worst commuter traffic in the country. The last Urban Mobility Report from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute found that the average D.C.-area car commuter spends 102 hours per year stuck in traffic — the third-worst in the country.  

Commuter issues or not, the Biden administration has been asking federal workers to return for over a year and has yet to receive results. In March 2022, President Joe Biden, in his State of the Union address, promised that "the vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person." 

The push is apparently on again, with Axios obtaining a memo from the White House directing the Cabinet to "aggressively execute" plans for federal employees to work more in their offices this fall. 

In the memo, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients wrote, "We are returning to in-person work because it is critical to the well-being of our teams and will enable us to deliver better results for the American people."

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