Downtown San Francisco’s office buildings have been quieted by some of the highest vacancy rates and slowest return-to-office trends in the country. Around nearly every corner, they’re seeking someone to lease 822 square feet of former coffee shop, or 5,446 square feet of empty bakery, or 12,632 square feet of what was once a Walgreens. Like much of the office space above it, the ground floor will probably have to be reimagined in San Francisco’s business district and other downtowns that have long taken for granted a captive audience of commuting consumers. Because who wants to return downtown when its most visible spaces have been darkened, boarded up and papered over? “And only one step above that are these sad stickers with happy smiling people on them.”

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Persons: ”, Conrad Kickert Organizations: Downtown, Verizon, Walgreens, University, Buffalo Locations: Francisco’s