Swaths of the downtown core once known for being bustling on any given weekday have beeneerily quietsince 2020, when the work-from-home model became the norm and many workers adapted to performing their roles completely remotely asoffice space vacancies skyrocketed.

尽管这座城市made a pushfor workers to return tothe office, the Omicron variantput these plans on hold for many despite the fact that companieswere already making plansfor getting their staff back into the workplace.

As of late 2021,nearly 80 per centof those in desk jobs in Toronto were still working fully from home — as the provinceadvised they should be doing— and there were worries that the city's financial district in particularwould never recover.

The majority of downtown Toronto workers are ready to go back to the officehttps://t.co/99MnVR79gg#Toronto#Office

— blogTO (@blogTO)March 2, 2021

But, more and more office spacehas gradually been leased out, and the glut of space available for sublet on the market has been decreasing, with many businesses opting for some type of hybrid situation that permits a mix of both office and remote work as people are eager to get out of the house day-to-day again.

Things are indeedbeginning to look more normalin these areas as pandemic restrictions provincewide are loosened, with activity up and millions of square feet of office space back in use by big players like Scotiabank, RBC, Apple, BMO and Sun Life.

City of Toronto workers to start heading back to the office next week. Officials said that workers will begin returning to offices on Tuesday under a “hybrid model.”pic.twitter.com/k6UxuXrNIR

— The Reporting Beetle (@ReportingBeetle)February 17, 2022

And,more brands are slatedto head back to the core this month —with today markingthe end of vaccine passports and all indoor capacity limits in Ontario — from ad agencies to tech companies to banks to the City of Toronto, the latter of which has asked workers to be fully back in-office on or before March 21.

This is extremely welcome news for the companies leasing out this sort of space, as well as for employees who have found working from home depressing and employers who have found it harmful to productivity, communication and collaboration.

But whilemany are looking forward to a hybrid modelthat still includes some remote time, others remain wary.

moved into a much more spacious workstation with a view today and have temporarily become one of those freaks who can’t wait to go back to the office full-time

— emma (@emmaschuetz)February 23, 2022

Though the PATH, whose businesses were amongthe hardest-hit by the pandemic, is finally alsolooking alive again, the hybrid work trend means thatthings may never be quite like the before times, or at least not for a while.

长期ning PATH storefronts who rely almost solely on foot traffic havecontinued to see tragically lower sales than pre-COVID, even with a portion of workers returning.