Owners Magazine 2021

By The Editors November 15, 2021 10:00 AM

The city’s biggest landlords discuss how the pandemic and the eviction moratorium is affecting their business in this year’s Owner’s Magazine.

Starting about seven months ago, or so, there was a prevalent belief that the worst of the pandemic was behind us.

We had a vaccine. There was a rollout plan. Jabs were going into arms at a pace (at first) that was the envy of the developed world. Companies confidently predicted that we’d get back in our offices by Labor Day, and many were readying themselves for the greatest nationwide blockparty to hit the U.S. since VJ Day.

What the hell happened?

Out of the furthest reaches of the internet crawled paranoia, fear, and such a wild distrust of science and government that a critically large set of Americans decided that they’d rather risk death by COVID-19 than inject an FDA-approved vaccine in their arms. It seemed utterly nuts.

This was the state of mind in September when we first sent out our Owners Magazine survey to the biggest landlords in New York, and nationwide.

Just like the script was flipped very suddenly in late July/early August as delta began ravaging the country, the script has flipped yet again. Vaccination rates have steadily risen as more companies and local governments have issued mandates, slowing down death rates. And, while much of the return-to-office swagger is tempered, it’s looking again like the end is in sight.

What does real estate make of these developments? We asked owners how their businesses have changed, and what they see in the future. Last year things were murky, but the bigger picture has been largely clarified.

This data was supplemented with our own stories, such as Rebecca Baird-Remba’s look at perhaps the most controversial government step taken since the onset of COVID-19: the eviction moratorium.

A safe harbor for real estate throughout the crisis has been multifamily and some of the biggest names in the business have sunk billions in picking up single-family rentals. What does this mean for the smaller operators? Mack Burke has the answer.

And, speaking of assets, what are properties worth these days, given the fallout from COVID? Andrew Coen breaks things down.

We also asked our landlords who they’re supporting for mayor (this is going to the printers shortly before we know the official result) but Eric Adams has the clear backing of this community. As for the real estate legacy of the next mayor’s predecessor, Aaron Short tackled that.

Finally, there was one last disaster to hit this year: Hurricane Ida. It was the deadliest weather event since Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Celia Young looked at what this means for real estate.—Max Gross