[eschaton]

Even if we assume the shift away from office space is permanent, there should be a post-pandemic boom in demand for retail and hotels, which will help city cores considerably. So many people will want to get "back to normal," have weeks worth of rolled-over vacation, and considerable savings to burn through. All of this should help city cores tremendously.

I also expect that urban living will recover - though it might go a bit more downmarket. People who only lived in NYC because they had a job there have to some degree left due to online work, moving to the suburbs or out of the metro. But there will always be young people fresh out of college who want to move to NYC not so much for a specific job, but because of all the possibilities the city represents. Arguably the extremely high costs over the last 20 years has pushed a lot of these folks into smaller cities, which means a decline in relative expense could make it a lot more attractive once again.

Overall, I'd expect a shift of some tenants from B/C office space into Class A, and the conversion of class B/C buildings into residential.