What's Going to Happen to Education, Real Estate, and Retail?

As Louisiana and parts of the rest of the country begin to
re-open, there's a question about the economy that everyone is
asking: What's going to happen to education, real estate, and
retail? On this edition of Out to Lunch Louisiana we're asking
local experts in each of these areas to tell us.


Retail


With apologies for the medical metaphor, retail was already on
life support before Covid-19 shut down practically every store in
the country. If you weren’t an online shopper before all of this,
you probably are now. So, now that we’ve all discovered how
easy it is to order online and have everything show up at our
door two days later, what happens to our mom and pop stores, our
art galleries, and everything else that has typically relied on
foot traffic?


In Lafayette, we’re in the process of finding out the answer to
this question, as stores are beginning to re-open.


Anita Begnaud is CEO of the Lafayette Downtown Development
Authority. Anita, with Lafayette being one of the earliest parts
of the state and the country to open back up, you’re a witness to
history. What are you seeing in Downtown Lafayette?


Real Estate


One of the changes that has come with this health crisis, is the
discovery many of us have made about working from home. At
first it was something of a novelty. It felt like a long weekend.
But now that we’ve mastered video meetings and found strategies
for balancing work and family, we’ve discovered that not
commuting has distinct advantages.


As businesses open up, many people who have unshackled themselves
from the office are looking to continue the work-from-home
habit. And from the employer side, if productivity stays the
same and you don’t need office space, well, that’s a significant
saving.


This might all sound great, but if even just 20% of us stayed
home, and office space and everything that goes with it shrinks
by 20% – like attendance at the food court and the nearby gym –
what does that knock-on effect do to the economy? Let’s
start with what it might do to the commercial real estate
market...


Matthew Laborde, commercial real estate broker at Elifin Realty
in Baton Rouge, looks into the future of working from home and
has some insightful, evidence-based predictions.


Education


If you’re in college or you have kids in school, over the past
couple of months you’ve learned a new word. And a new skill. The
word is, “Zoom.” And the skill is, “Distance Learning.”


Up until sometime in March 2020, if you wanted to get an
education you had to get out of your house and go to a
classroom. Now you just have to go to your computer - or
even your phone – and click on “Join Zoom Meeting.” And
there you are, with the same teacher, the same lesson, even the
same kids in your class. And it’s all going on in the comfort of
your own home. Why would you ever go back to a classroom again?


Peter Ricchiuti puts this question to Tania Tetlow,
President of Loyola University in New Orleans. Is the Zoom
classroom revolution going to have a permanent effect on
education? Or is it just a Covid convenience?


Find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at our website.


More analysis of the future of the Louisiana economy is here.


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