Office parks, revisited: Will pandemic concerns spur growth of suburban workspaces?

On the surface, the office park seems like an idyllic post-pandemic workplace: buildings with larger layouts, fewer floors and multiple exits, surrounded by green space or open parking lots. In addition, these locations are much more accessible by car, providing employees with a commuting option that usually provides a safe, private space. But for many of today’s younger employees, the commute may be the reason office parks don’t outmuscle their urban high-rise counterparts for clients. “I’ve been taking

the L to work for the past 14 years,” says Brynn Manchester, a Chicago paralegal. “I don’t see my firm moving to an office park but for me, it would be a dealbreaker.”

Jonathan Wasserstrum, CEO and co-founder of SquareFoot, a commercial real estate firm in New York, agrees, suggesting that companies that are looking to hire and maintain a younger workforce will need to remain easily accessible. “If you spent the last number of years optimizing your company for getting the right employees, the right team members, the 25- to 35-year-old employees, the up-and-comers — they don’t live in the suburbs,” he says. “So now you’re asking that group to drive out to their job instead of taking a fiveminute bike ride or a quick subway ride to the office? I don’t see that happening.”

But that perspective may not be shared by those who dislike public transportation — or walking or biking to work — in

the first place. Which brings us to the single-person commute — in a car — to and from work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still maintains it’s the safest way to commute but when factoring in the cost of parking in urban downtowns and the potential increase in traffic, it’s still a highly unattractive option for many.

“I sold my car four years ago and I don’t plan on buying one until I have kids,” says Richard Braun, a mechanical engineer in New York. “I’ll work from home if I don’t want to take the subway but I’m not driving to work. I’ll cab it or Uber it if they reimburse me, but since that’s unlikely, it’s the subway or stay home.”

Chicago’s Cindy Regis has the opposite attitude. “I’m not taking the train or bus for a long time, I can tell you that,” says the 41-year-old mother of two. “My safest bet is driving alone to and from work. I don’t know what happens on the bus or train when I’m not on it. My boys are three and five. I’m not putting them at risk.”

A bus- or train-based commute increases a worker’s risk of catching the virus so in many ways, the workplace may be dictated by the commuting options. “The interior space of an office, whether it’s in the suburbs or the city, is going to be the same,” says Wasserstrum. “It’s the exposure to others that’s different. If you’re driving to work, you’re touching as few things as possible that have been touched by others.”

Still, Wasserstrum says there may be a disconnect between a company’s workers and executives. “You might have some decision-makers who live in the suburbs who recognize the value of getting out of the house to do work. Maybe they’ll rent some kind of side office for now. But again, does that exist in four years? I don’t know. At this point, no one does.”