[cudgy]

There are many once-in-a-century possibilities like flooding, fires, terrorism, pandemics, structural failures, wars, ecological disasters, eminent domain, etc. Add them all up and you actually have a many-in-a-century event scenario. Companies that are already setup for remote work will be at an advantage, by not having a large percentage of their resources at a single or several large locations, and able to continue operations with little or no disruption.

In short, the remote model is decentralized and therefore more resilient and less risky.

[mulmen]

Sure but what you do about these events is very different. Eminent domain and business districts are almost synonyms and much different than a war or terrorism. How do you price all of this into your real estate buying decisions? I don't dispute the benefits of remote work but can we at least admit that the world changed drastically and unpredictably in the last few years?

[cudgy]

The impact is the same regardless of event. A centralized location being affected by any of these events is going to impact business negatively to a much greater degree than a company whose workers are spread out in different locations.

As for real estate buying decisions, it depends on the industry of course. So, given a standard tech business, you buy what you need for positions that cannot be performed remotely and estimated space for those workers that desire to work at that location hopefully in a location close to where these workers live (which is likely not in a typical downtown city location). Basically, smaller satellite offices near where the people that have to go to a physical location live.

[mulmen]

> The impact is the same regardless of event.

It isn’t though. Eminent domain increases property values. Pandemics and terrorism decrease it.

> So, given a standard tech business, you buy what you need for positions that cannot be performed remotely and estimated space for those workers that desire to work at that location hopefully in a location close to where these workers live (which is likely not in a typical downtown city location).

This is divorced from the reality I live in. My city developed a business district complete with housing and entertainment near downtown. That area is dead now and the city is understandably concerned. It wasn’t a bad idea before but now it hasn’t worked out. But I can’t blame the businesses who invested. They seem to have made all the right decisions. It wasn’t clearly a mistake pre-pandemic. In fact it was all very progressive and forward-looking.