As COVID-19 numbers wanes NYC begins work to bring back its rosy economy

As the COVID-19 numbers in New York City continue to dwindle, most works from employees of the Big Apple are returning back to their offices.

With COVID slowing down already, come companies are also starting to get back in their business.

One company that is starting to get back on its feet is the landlord RXR’s 22-building portfolio.

Sources said the company’s occupancy rate was 80% prepandemic and plummeted to 4% in the early days of the crisis.

Rates rose to mid-20% in fall 2021 and ticked up to more than 30% the last week of February.

“As we speak to the companies in our buildings, they’re all planning on coming back in some form between now and 60 and 90 days,” RXR CEO Scott Rechler said.

“So I would expect that we’ll see big [increases in the occupancy rate] each week,” Rechler added.

Meanwhile, City Comptroller Brad Lander said last week that in February “restaurant reservations, Broadway attendance and transit ridership all bounced back” and “unemployment insurance claims fell.”

Restaurant broker James Famularo of Meridian Capital Group added that he is seeing a lot of pent-up demand from restaurateurs, with the number of deals and the price per square foot exceeding prepandemic figures.

“I think there’s a ton of capital out in the market,” Famularo said.

Chris Heywood, a spokesman for NYC & Company said the tourism sector is also starting to bounce back.

Heywood said at the end of last month, hotel occupancy was up almost 20 percentage points from the end of January.

Heywood added that total visitor volume is expected to reach 56.5 million people this year and 65 million people in 2023, up from 32.9 million visitors last year. The all-time record was 66.6 million tourists in 2019.