INDIANAPOLIS — It has been four years since COVID-19 brought the world to an absolute standstill.
While there has been so much recovery since the onset of the pandemic, some challenges still remain. That includes keeping certain businesses open amid declining numbers of downtown workers.
“It’s clear that downtown has made real strides in terms of post-pandemic recovery,” said Taylor Schaffer, the president and CEO of Downtown Indy Inc.
Those strides are visible on a daily basis as you watch foot traffic in downtown Indianapolis. However, Schaffer also said some of those patterns have shifted since 2020.
“User behavior has changed,” she said. “We see fewer people in the office five days a week.”
Large office spaces like Salesforce Tower are not quite as full as they used to be and that is partially connected to the pandemic.
“How people go to work, where they work from and so forth has changed,” said Patrick Tamm, the president and CEO of the Indiana Restaurant and Lodging Association. “Whether they go into the office three days a week, not at all, a hybrid effect “A” day, “B” day, everyone’s doing something a little different.”
Tamm said this has altered the landscape of downtown.
“How and where they’re getting their dry cleaning, how and where they’re getting lunch, how and where they’re getting breakfast, their cocktails, their drinks with colleagues has changed,” he described.
Some businesses changed how they operated. Others closed their doors altogether, like the Yolk in Salesforce Tower, which shut down at the end of May.
“We have less restaurants in the central business district, yet we see more new restaurants on the outskirts of downtown,” Tamm said. “If you take a look at the greater number of new restaurants, you’ll see them in neighborhoods very adjacent to the central business district.”
While the number of people working in downtown Indianapolis has gone down since the pandemic, Downtown Indy said the number of people living there has actually gone up.
“The residential makeup downtown looks vastly different than it did 15 years ago,” Schaffer said. “Since 2010, we’ve seen a 50% increase in the number of residents downtown. That undeniably has an impact as well when you consider that some of those individuals are dealing with similar changes in both their living patterns but also their working patterns.”
Back in February, FOX59/CBS4 covered the foreclosure complaint filed against the owners of one of the city’s largest office buildings, Regions Tower. At that time, experts reported overall downtown vacancy sat around 22%, which was up from a bit more than 14% in 2019 prior to the pandemic.
