A Major 800,000 SF Office User Backs Out Of New HQ Just Prior To Completion

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This story encapsulates what is going on these days in the ‘back to the office’ vs hybrid vs remote work discussions on-going in today’s Corporate America.  In Bisnow August 19, 2022, Centene, a large healthcare company in North Carolina, was weeks away from completing it’s 800,000 square foot headquarters facility in Charlotte and stated “Today, almost 90* of our workforce is working fully remote or in hybrid work environment and workspace flexibility is essential to attracting and retaining our top talent.” They may be leaving $31.6 million in grant money and $26 million in County subsidies on the table. This illustrates the difficult decisions going on regarding enticing vs mandating employees back to the workplace or allowing them to continue working remotely in some fashion. In Northern California Google, Apple and others are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into new office campuses. Build it and they will come?  There is no easy answer and only time will tell what worked and what didn’t…