Cost is $100-$500/sq ft. Sometimes the math pencils out better than demoing the building or eating a loss keeping it in service as office, especially if local govs are giving incentives to keep the potential economic benefits in the area. No emotions, build a model, execute on the most favorable scenario. It's just an asset.

EDIT: @bbor Absolutely. I believe the challenge is everyone's incentive is inertia. Cities don't want to lose tax dollars and economic activity, even though they will. Asset owners don't want to take haircuts, even though they will. I'm a strong union supporter so workers have agency over their working arrangements, versus being dragged back to the office because some bro who lucked into leadership says "because I say so." Rarely does anyone include happiness and quality of life in these metrics and models, which is unfortunate. Hope this helps.

Do you think there’s any room here to add a “what would be best for society” metric to this analysis, beyond just “what earns me the most money”? Obviously this realistically doesn’t happen, just curious on your stance, given your matter-of-fact take