XPost: mn.politics, alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics, soc.culture.african.american   
   From: remailer@domain.invalid   
      
   Back in November, Jonathan Weinhagen, president and CEO of the   
   Minneapolis Regional Chamber, wrote an op-ed for the Star Tribune   
   titled “Business has nothing to fear from DFL dominance.” His   
   members clearly didn’t get the memo.   
      
   Two weeks ago, Axios reported:   
      
   CBRE, one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the   
   country, is closing its downtown Minneapolis office.   
      
      
   Downtown employees are moving to the Bloomington and North Loop   
   offices.   
      
      
   While the city hasn’t seen a mass exodus of companies that some   
   predicted during the pandemic, the move isn’t a good sign.   
      
   CBRE said in a statement the departure from LaSalle Plaza is a   
   temporary consolidation while it evaluates its long-term space   
   needs.   
      
   A couple of days later, Axios reported:   
      
   Portico Benefit Services is leaving downtown Minneapolis and   
   relocating to Edina.   
      
   …   
      
      
   Portico is leasing 25,000 square feet in the 7700 France building,   
   which recently underwent a major renovation. The size difference in   
   the two leases is further proof that companies need less space in a   
   post-pandemic world.   
      
   “We found an alternative location that will allow for additional   
   flexibility as we move to a more agile, hybrid work environment for   
   the future,” Portico CFO/COO Stacy Kruse said in an emailed   
   statement.   
      
      
   It’s not clear exactly how many employees Portico has downtown, but   
   the number is likely in the hundreds based on the space.   
      
      
   One week ago, Axios reported:   
      
   AT&T is closing its longtime downtown Minneapolis office and moving   
   hundreds of employees to its Bloomington facility.   
      
      
      
      
   If you thought these were mere anecdotes, last week Twin Cities   
   Business reported:   
      
   With over 21.2 million square feet of vacant office space in the   
   Twin Cities metro, office vacancy rates in the area are up 12.2%   
   year over year, according to a recent report by Toronto-based   
   Colliers International.   
      
   …   
      
   The Minneapolis and St. Paul office market has continued to show a   
   “negative absorption” rate in the first quarter of this year. This   
   simply means the demand for office space is lower than the supply   
   available. The report points to properties like Voya, Calabrio, and   
   WeWork, which have all vacated or downsized leased spaces, leaving   
   around 100,000 square feet each in their buildings. The Twin Cities   
   is one of only three major markets that continue to post negative   
   absorption rates every quarter since the pandemic started, the other   
   two being Baltimore and Chicago.   
      
   The Minneapolis central business district (CBD) alone saw a negative   
   absorption of 300,000 square feet, the largest negative absorption   
   in the region. In total, the Twin Cities metro reported more than   
   500,000 square feet of negative absorption in the first quarter.   
   However, the I-494 Corridor and outlying submarkets both saw overall   
   positive absorption, with tenants filling Class A space in the I-494   
   and I-394 Corridors faster than any other submarket, according to   
   the report.   
      
   In short, businesses are fleeing downtown for the suburbs. With all   
   due respect, Baltimore and Chicago is not company you want to be in.   
      
   Intriguingly, the Colliers report looks into the “adaptive reuse of   
   office buildings into industrial and multi-family buildings,” but   
   notes that:   
      
   …without government incentives, the major determining factors for   
   such conversions are the amount of leasable square footage on an   
   individual floor of a building, as well as location and price…   
      
   “Government incentives can themselves become strong components to   
   kick-start adaptive reuse and make possible otherwise impossible   
   conversions,” the report states. “As more obsolete office buildings   
   are considered for adaptive reuse, potential long-term ramifications   
   will emerge as to how housing will reshape the neighborhood and   
   shift the city’s property tax basis.”   
      
   Minneapolis can, then, replace these lost business tenants with   
   subsidized renters and have them make up for the resulting tax loss.   
   Minneapolis has had DFL mayors ever since Charlie Stenvig back in   
   1979.   
      
   https://www.americanexperiment.org/new-data-show-that-businesses-   
   are-fleeing-downtown-minneapolis/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)