Bisnow's podcast, Make Yourself At Home, hears from members of the commercial real estate industry about how they are managing this new reality and gaining insight into their day-to-day approaches. You can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music.

This summer is looking very different to 2020, as reopening plans take place and coronavirus cases slide. But when it comes to the return to the office, uncertainty still looms across most markets.

In places like New York City, landlords are still reporting occupancy levels in buildings at less than 15%. While numbers do vary across regions, many of the country’s office buildings are far from full. And the question has now become: what will the return to work look like, and how much will it impact companies' real estate needs.

“Right now it’s mostly been carrot, soft glove approaches to get people back … there hasn’t been a slew of ‘you must be back’ — although that is starting,” Bisnow Atlanta reporter Jarred Schenke, who has been reporting this week on various workplaces' approaches to having their workers return, said on this episode of the podcast. 

“Now a lot of people are using the hybrid model as a way to recruit talent … and office landlords are mired in an existential crisis, no one knows how this is going to play out longer-term in office demand and office space usage. We’ll find out what the impacts will be once we have significant rollover.”