How empty buildings can be utilized and monetized, now that we are working remotely
It’s been a little over two years since the pandemic has impacted our daily lives. With employers switching to a hybrid model and others fully adopting remote working, there are still a variety of empty buildings that are being unused in big cities and elsewhere. There is a solution and a potential boom for another industry.
JP Morgan Chase, REI, Amazon, and many others have a lot of empty space they need to fill. Since covid has somewhat settled down, employers are now excepting (Forcing?) employees to return to the office when a good portion of us are working from home on flexible schedules. It’s should have been this way years ago. Going into an office every day is an archaic way of doing business. We should have been fully remote 10 years ago. Since this paradigm culture shift (for the better)– still leaves a lot of buildings empty and employers are forcing employees to go back to the office to justify the need for having an office. Employers should let workers be remote and add a new line of business to utilize their empty spaces–Agriculture.
A lot of our agriculture comes from all over the country and other countries as well. The process is extensive from vendors, pricing, shipping, insurance, etc. What if we can utilize the empty building in a city (ex. New York City), to grow to produce for that city? All the empty buildings and floors can be turned into farms and internal greenhouses growing produce all year round. The produce can then be delivered to local businesses that subscribe or purchase from that building/business. This could open up a bunch of opportunities for companies to either rent out the spaces for those purposes (like WeWork, but for produce) or grow the products themselves. The companies would be able to recoup their losses, make use of the spaces, and help the environment by producing green energy. There can even be potential business models where the company gets a small percentage of whatever is sold per space they rent. So if a building rents 1 floor per start-up and their business model is 2% is revenue of product sales, that’s a lot of monetary value they recoup–including the rent of the space.
These buildings can become mini indoor gardens with lush greenery that can benefit each city. It can double as indoor parks, walking spaces, or even markets for people the purchase the freshly grown produce in the building themselves. The buildings all have windows that capture plenty of light for growth and all building are already ventilated. A building as tall as chase could potentially produce enough fruits and vegetables for the NYC area.
Employees can remain remote, while the empty spaces employers want people back in could be turned into massive greenhouses, parks, and community spaces. We can potentially solve our hunger problem in cities too. This can be the next boom in our economy and culture.
Just food for thought.
