ORLANDO, Fla. — If you’ve been downtown lately, you’ve probably seen signs advertising available office space.

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It’s all part of a nationwide trend after the pandemic forced people into working remotely.

Research firm Knight Frank surveyed firms with more than 50,000 workers and found that half of them plan to cut down on office space.

The available office space also means less workers in the city during the day, and that’s a problem that has a trickle impact on small businesses who have lots an important part of their customer base, but it’s something the city is working to address.

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The city of Orlando said the Downtown Development Board is working toward long-term solutions.

The Downtown 2.0 Action Plan is a work in progress that reimagines downtown to attract new kinds of businesses and visitors.

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Office space developer Mike Fess said landlords are also thinking creatively about how to utilize their space. For some, it means trying to shift away from traditional offices used for lawyers and accountants. His business model, instead, focuses on high tech work environments.

“We’ve been very fortunate because of the specialized nature of the products that we develop,” Fess said. “Orange County, Osceola County, Seminole, Lake County, those guys are being a lot more open to allowing office building owners to rezoning to medical office, because they see the pain that the owners of those properties are having.”

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