South Florida Leading the Country in Office Revival

After Covid-19 hit the U.S., some wondered if remote work would become the new norm – but office has been showing signs of life. Notably, in South Florida, at least nine in 10 employees are now back in the office versus pre-pandemic levels, according to the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority (FTL DDA), citing data from Placer.ai. That’s the highest level in the country.

When compared to the national average, in-office rates among South Florida workers are 20 points ahead.

However, working full-time in the office may no longer be a thing – even in South Florida. Data from the FTL DDA shows that in-person work lags at least 20 points below pre-pandemic rates on Thursdays and Fridays. But interestingly, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday exceed pre-pandemic levels. That tells you hybrid work might be trending toward the new norm. In fact, in Downtown Fort Lauderdale, up to 15 percent of residents are working from their apartments.

“Largely, these employees are part of the growing base of technology workers living in our region and working for companies based all over the world,” the FTL DDAsaid.

“While remote work is here to stay, Downtown Fort Lauderdale has largely been immune from any negative impacts caused by declining foot traffic of office workers.”

The population in Downtown Fort Lauderdale has seen a 38 percent jump since 2020, with the urban core adding 7,000 jobs over that period, according to the FTL DDA.

Outside of South Florida, New York City is also seeing a revival for in-person work. Now, roughly eight out of 10 employees are back in the office after the rate did not exceed 60 percent for multiple years.

“While it’s clear that remote work is here to stay in some capacity, it’s evident that downtown offices are on their way to returning to their pre-pandemic ways of doing business,” FTL DDA noted.

Also, Miami was recently ranked among the top five cheapest places to rent coworking spaces, according to a recent report from CoworkingCafe. The metro area was found to cost 61 percent less than leasing a traditional office. Some other Florida cities observed by CoworkingCafe provided some major savings too including Coral Gables (47.1 percent), Tampa (45.9 percent), Plantation (43.4 percent), Hollywood (43.1 percent), and Fort Lauderdale (35.9 percent). Those cities all ranked inside the top 50 most favorable places for coworking costs.