Offices Remain Vacant as Tompkins County Economy Recovers from COVID

ITHACA, NY -- The Tompkins County Legislature heard a presentation on the county’s economic recovery from COVID at their July 6th meeting.

It came from Heather McDaniels, president of Ithaca Area Economic Development. 

McDaniels identified several areas that would require additional support to recover from the effects of the coronavirus. One was the office market, which has seen higher than normal vacancies across the county. According to McDaniels, getting the office market back to normal may require some creative solutions.

“We’re focusing some actions with some partners on recruiting new office tenets, but also working with existing landlords to repurpose their spaces for other uses,” said McDaniels, “Small scale manufacturing or residential; the sky is really the limit as we start to think about how we might re-envision some of those office spaces.”

McDaniels mentioned that the office market nation-wide might take until 2025 to recover to pre-pandemic levels. 

Other areas that need attention in the county are manufacturing, transportation, as well as redevelopment sites such as the Chain Factory on the South Hill and the West End of Ithaca.