The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership says hybrid and remote working remains one of the largest obstacles to pandemic recovery.
Downtown is hardest hit on Mondays and Fridays, when many people, even hybrid workers, choose to work from home, keeping their dollars away from local businesses.
Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership President and CEO Jeremy Waldrup says Tuesday through Thursday is a different story, "On a Wednesday, we're hitting 80-85% full, which is back to those pre-COVID numbers and that's certainly had an impact on our business community, particularly our resturants."
Still, he says business is down about 30 percent compared to 2019 with as many as 8 out of 10 people still working hybrid or remote as of last June.
They realize that format isn't going away. Now, Waldrup says there's a renewed focus on doubling residency downtown in the next ten years.
"I think that will support restaurants and retailers. It will support many of our beautiful older office buildings, giving kind of a new life to these buildings," Waldrup notes.
There are currently about 7300 people living downtown.
