How San Francisco Can Solve Its Empty Office Problem

San Francisco is facing its highest office vacancy rates in nearly 30 years. At the same time, the city is facing a housing crisis with the state demanding 82,000 new units of housing to be built by 2031. CNBC sits down with San Francisco Mayor London Breed to discuss how the city could tackle two of its biggest issues head-on. Plus, CNBC visits a building in the Civic Center neighborhood that undertook the biggest office-to-residential conversion in the city to date.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:09 Empty offices
4:25 Office conversions
9:42 Overcoming hurdles

Produced by: Sydney Boyo
Additional Camera: Katie Brigham
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Editorial Support: Lindsey Jacobson
Graphics by: Christina Locopo

About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.

Connect with CNBC News Online

#CNBC

How San Francisco Can Solve Its Empty Office Problem

[MerrimanDevonshire]

As an Ex-Detroiter, I can only laugh a mirthless laugh at what is occurring elsewhere in the country. What happened in 1970s Detroit should have been something for others to take as warning, not steps to emulate.

[rcdriver]

I love working from home. No time wasting commutes. No speed traps, no accidents, no car breakdowns. Just turn all of the office spaces into condos and apartments.

[bbchester]

I love how nobody mentions how much of what Cesspool that place has become. Nobody wants to open a business in a failed community. It’s counterintuitive to think that the same people that got us here are going to deliver us from this tragedy as well.

[stephanied]

Are they going to make sure the new 82k homes are purchased by families and not big corporations that turn them into rental properties?

[nickbryantfyi]

I left sf when the home i wanted was 10k/month and i actually considered it, then i realized that would be insane.

[thornil]

The pandemic has forced employers to admit you don't have to go the office at 9am after spending 1 hour in traffic. Some change can be bad, some is good. The disappearance of office buildings along with shopping malls brings a smile to my face.

[pauldavis]

In my state office building today, there was a total of 7 people on the top 3 floors. This was a lower occupancy rate than most days but demonstrates the need to reevaluate office space need everywhere.

[aaronjoseph]

Solve the housing problem you'll solve the office problem. A short commute to the office is a blessing.

[derekcho]

I was born & raised in SF. Loved it until 2005. It has changed (not for the better). It mirrors Seattle's decline. $ 700 million budget deficit is criminally negligent. The Civic Center area is also. I know of a one recent hire to a very prominent SF Governmental position there (Aug. 2022)... a complete was of money at 180k/year salary.

[signupstuff]

Something's missing from this conversion idea - the biggest reason there was a shortage of housing in SF is because being in or close to the city is where people wanted to be, because that's where the jobs were, because that's where high earners were commuting to. But if high earners are now working remote then the downtown businesses that catered to them are no longer necessary, the jobs dry up, and the need to live in the city is no longer there.

[TheOneAboveAll-]

I live in the Bay area all my life and you couldn't pay me to live in San Francisco and right now as we speak you can't pay me to work in San Francisco the commute is ridiculous I have to pay for parking the gas is high you don't know if your car will be broken into you don't know if you have a car when you get off work.

[fourthgirl]

Pre-pandemic, I live 9 miles from my work place. In order to be on time by 6:30am, I had to leave home (driving) by 5:45am taking the longer 14 miles route because the shorter route was already stop & go. It was worse in the afternoon going home or taking paratransit. Time wasted when technically I worked remote from the campus in our office space. Now entering my third year working from home, I would never consider commuting unless I was 1. working and living in the same city. 2. Access to either a bus line or BART. Changing these vacant office spaces or malls for housing is long overdue.

[brianscroggins]

Most people didn't want to move to SF. They only did so because of work. Now the city needs to find competitive ways to keep more people from leaving.

[mathewmcfool]

I don't miss the pungent odor of men who refuse the courtesy flush after lunch each day. I definitely don't miss the silent keyboards of adjacent eavesdroppers everyday. I also don't miss the morning commute or race for a close parking space everyday. I sure don't miss the overpriced cafeteria food that made me feel financially irresponsible, sleepy and grumpy from 2 to 4 each day. Then there's the commute after work, which almost always incentivized an immediate detour to happy hour EVERYDAY 💸Thank you Jesus for this remote job

[meganrenee]

I’m a recruiter in SF. I’m from California but moved away to Colorado and Texas for many years and now I’m back. (And yes, contrary to popular opinion, many of us come back.) I’ve always loved SF. Vacation in SF as a kid. Met my husband in CO and we vacationed in SF, and even came back an got engaged in SF. SF is a terrifyingly different place now, and even though most of my coworkers used to live in SF, no one will now. It is incredibly dangerous due to the extreme laws of the city that prevent police from doing their job. I’m addition to being incredibly unsafe, you will more than likely get your car windows smashed if you drive, and it is FILTHY!!! Feces everywhere, homeless shooting up drugs on the street, etc. People are moving out of SF in droves. That’s the problem not the housing…

[toshn]

Frisco needs to embrace what it is: an open air homeless shelter. I'm just amazed vacancy isn't higher.

[brucemiddleton]

I didn't see corporations complaint about exorbitant amount of rent they have charged people over all those years. It is not a common person's problem, it is the corporate problem. I'm actually happy that their greed has come to an end.

[sherbournesubwaymess]

Let the homeless set up their tents in those empty offices.

I mean...why not?

[pokegan]

Empty office for some reason more of a priority over crime and homelessness? These people just don’t want to take responsibility for the policies they vote into action. You have empty offices because of the latter issues by the way.

[SiaoFam]

SF was such a beautiful city! But it has gone downhill! So expensive, drug, and homeless is out of control! I live in the east bay and I hate going into city now!