In this series, Make Yourself At Home, we are hearing 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 and Spotify.

In this episode, we hear from Kathryn Wylde, the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit that pushes for pro-business policies and represents business leaders including some of the biggest names in real estate.

This month, the group released a report looking at the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. It painted a sobering picture for the city’s office market. Roughly one in four office employers surveyed are planning to shrink their office space by a minimum of 20%, and about 16% plan to move jobs out of the city.

Wylde spoke about the city’s ability to bounce back, how landlords are reacting and what she’s learned over her career that she is applying to today.

“The landlords have to be optimistic, they are going to be pushing and working hard to make things come back — but they are in a very difficult situation, and if you talk to them privately, as opposed to publicly, they understand they are in deep trouble," she said.

“We have recovered from other disasters. We will come together and recover from this one, but it’s going to be slow. We’re going to have new protocols, new requirements, and we’re all going to have to work very hard to make sure that we get this right." 

Contact Miriam Hall at miriam.hall@bisnow.com.