If Boston builds it, will they come?

The city is banking on yes, as Mayor Michelle Wu announced a year-long extension of a program to convert vacant office buildings into housing projects.

“As Boston continues to take action to drive down housing costs, the office to residential conversion program is critical to building a more affordable Boston for all residents,” Wu said in a statement. “By expanding the program and building a pipeline of over 1,500 new units of housing, we are building the foundation for a stronger and more vibrant downtown and neighborhoods.”

By extending the program, Chief of Planning Kairos Shen said the city aims “to attract another thousand units to the program in the next year, and continue to catalyze a more vibrant, residential community in our downtown with thousands of new residents in the heart of our city.”

It would be great to have a vibrant, residential community in Boston’s downtown. It would also be great to have businesses flock to the city, for a robust post-COVID comeback.

That part is trickier.

The pandemic ushered in remote work as a step to halt the spread of COVID. Years after the pandemic was declared over, however, workers have not only gotten used to working from home, many prefer it.

According to the Federal Reserve, 38% of full-time American workers remained partially or fully remote in August.

“I think that the level of remote work is still far, far higher than the levels we saw in 2019, leading into the pandemic, which exploded remote work opportunities,” said FlexJobs’ career expert manager Toni Frana.

Many companies are instructing workers to return to the office, even partially, yet so many downtown commercial buildings remain vacant. And businesses in the city and state have their own affordability issues. Our corporate tax rate of 8% is among the highest in the country. Companies are voting with their feet.

Massachusetts has recently lost some high-profile businesses to New Hampshire, including electronics manufacturer SynQor and healthcare and security technology company Analogic Corp.

“These businesses moving to New Hampshire are no accident. When we see headlines like Analogic and SynQor moving their operations to the state of New Hampshire it’s not luck, it’s not coincidence. It’s the result of over the last decade New Hampshire Republicans have done everything that we can to lower our business taxes, lower our taxes in the state, say ‘no’ to the new taxes that Democrats have proposed in New Hampshire, like an income tax,” said New Hampshire Deputy House Majority Leader and state Rep. Joseph Sweeney (R-Salem).

Our loss is their gain, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Wu is taking steps to boost affordable housing in the city. Now we need that same kind of initiative to keep businesses in Boston and across Mass. and attract more.

Remember when Gov. Maura Healey sent members of her administration to the southern border in a bid to deter migrants from coming to shelter-strained Massachusetts?

We need a new twist on this, a concerted effort to woo back companies who’ve moved north, or south, with reasons the Bay State is where they want to be.

The first on the list: cutting taxes.

Editorial cartoon by Chip Bok (Creators Syndicate)