MILWAUKEE — Since the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become an option for many people throughout the state.
However, more employees are asking their staff to come back to the office with more regularity in 2024.
William Bonifas is a Wisconsin commercial real estate broker who’s brokered state, national and international deals for more than four decades.
The executive vice president at CBRE said the days of exclusively working from home seem to be coming to an end.
“I know from our own clients, a number of them are literally ordering their people back, for 'x' days a week, which didn’t exist even a few weeks ago,” said Bonifas.
He said big commercial deals are in the works that should drive thousands of people to downtown Milwaukee.
“Fiserv is bringing their headquarters downtown from the suburbs and there are two others that we can’t announce, at least not yet, that will be joining them downtown as well. These will be nice for the city and bring a lot more people to use all the coffee shops and restaurants and everything else that we support people with during the daytime,” said Bonifas.
Coco Perkins is a manager at Mo’s Irish Pub in downtown Milwaukee. She said Thursday, Feb. 1 will be the first time the pub will start serving lunch since March 2020.
“Not only is it great for business but it’s so good for this community; it’s so good for the environment to feel that energy, to feel people coming back, to feel alive again down here,” said Perkins.
Bonifas said he believes this trend will continue to bring people back to the office in major metropolitan areas, which will be good for real estate, restaurant and retail markets.
“Most people are not saying everybody has to come back every day. What most of them are saying is you have to come back at least three days a week and that is, of course, driving occupancy levels up,” said Bonifas.
He said, at the same time it will drive up the bottom line of area businesses in cities across the entire Badger State and the nation.