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PODCAST: Kastle Systems CEO Haniel Lynn On Why There Hasn't Been A Surge In Returns To The Office Just Yet

Bisnow's audio series, Bisnow Reports, examines every facet of the international commercial real estate industry — from the murky future of retail and office to real estate’s reckoning with diversity to the effects of climate change on the built world, and so much more. You can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music, or scroll down to listen in your browser.

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Kastle Systems CEO Haniel Lynn and his mother, Hannah

For most of the past two years, a large part of the American workforce has been in a state of flux about the return to the office.

Through it all, Kastle Systems, which records the swipes of building access cards, has become the main supplier of data on the rate of workplace return across the country. Every week, it puts out its Back to Work Barometer, which measures keycard entries into offices in 10 of the largest cities in the U.S. Its most recent data shows a weekly average occupancy of 39.5% — down slightly from the previous week — with some big differences between cities. Austin is at over 50%, while San Francisco is at roughly 30%.

On this episode, we’re speaking with Kastle Systems CEO Haniel Lynn about his thoughts on the return to the office and his predictions about what is coming next.

“It’s probably going to be a little bit steeper from what we have seen before,” he said. “Now people are sitting, hopefully, the other side of omicron, people I think would start to accelerate their back-to-work plans. My guess is it would be steeper, but it still won’t erupt from 40% to 80% inside of a month.”