In the summer of 2022, the 1.7 million square-foot office tower at 787 Seventh Avenue was less than 20% occupied by employees of such tenants as BNP Paribas, Sidley Austin and Willkie Farr.
Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, a sister restaurant to three-Michelin-star Le Bernardin, struggled to draw a lunch crowd. But now, 787 Seventh is “mostly full except on Fridays,” according to CBRE power-broker Howard Fiddle, the building’s leasing agent.
“They brought their people back midweek,” Fiddle said. “And Monday is picking up too.”
Le Bernardin chef-owner Eric Ripert, whose restaurant is on the ground floor of 787, confirmed the welcome trend, which he termed “great news” for the wine bar in the building arcade.
The 787 Seventh office influx illustrates broad findings of the Real Estate Board of New York’s new Manhattan Office Building Visitation Report, to be released Monday.
The data present a more optimistic and nuanced picture than what Durst Organization principal David Neil called “certain gloomy headlines” about the slow-but-steady office-return trend as more companies, especially in finance and law, bring their staff in at least three days a week — and others plan to make it four.
The REBNY study corrects the common misconception that current occupancy rates cited in surveys (including REBNY’s own and the oft-cited Kastle Systems Back to Work Barometer) are based on what many people believe were full offices before COVID hit.
However, REBNY points out, “It would be inaccurate to define full recovery of the office market as returning to 100% occupancy” — which it calls “a goal line that never existed.” In fact, pre-pandemic offices were only “occupied by employees at 80% of their total capacity for around four days a week.”
Attendance…