The Slow Fade of the Downtown Office Tower As yet another half-empty office tower goes up for sale downtown this month, we find ourselves on the cusp of a workplace revolution. Over the past year, more than 3,200 companies across the country have given up or shrunk their office leases, and analysts expect that figure to climb past 8,600 before the year is out. To put this in perspective, 2009, the worst year on record for office vacancies, saw a total of 6,163 leases surrendered.

Adding salt to the wounds of struggling landlords are the recent remarks of veteran property investor Gordon Vance. Vance predicts a complete overhaul of the commercial-property market within a decade: "The way we work keeps changing, and today's head office lives on a laptop." Vance is putting his money where his mouth is by selling off his office holdings. "Commercial real estate has always been an unforgiving business, and reading where workers want to be can trip up even the sharpest of developers," he admits.