- As reopening the workplace draws nearer, major landlords are split on what type of screening protocols they will use to help prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus.
- Popularized in Asia, temperature-taking has become a common screening method that some landlords say they will impose on workers and visitors as they enter office buildings.
- But checking for fever brings up privacy, logistical, and liability issues that have made some major owners wary.
- Landlords say that a lack of protocols from government has created confusion around the issue.
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With an end to the coronavirus lockdown in sight, major commercial landlords remain split on the kind of screening they should employ to make sure tenants and visitors don’t carry Covid-19 into the workplace and reignite the pandemic that’s caused over 60,000 deaths in the United States.
In China, which beat back the virus in recent months with aggressive measures to shelter and contain its civilians, health officials and government workers popularized the widespread practice of taking temperatures to check for fever — a potential sign of infection.
As business leaders and officials have looked to Asia for protocols that are effective in managing infection rates while restarting commerce, some New York City landlords have touted the same idea of temperature-taking as a prudent step.
The technology exists to efficiently scan workers and guests using heat-sensitive cameras as they pass through a building’s lobby, without them even knowing their temperatures are being read. The screening method, however, invites logistical, privacy, and liability issues that have contributed to reluctance among some large office owners.
“If you’re refusing someone entry to a building because they have a temperature, you could be violating HIPAA,” said John Santora, the president of Cushman & Wakefield tri-state operations, referring to federal laws that dictate the privacy rules for medical information. “We just had a roundtable with 20 different landlords and there’s a big disparity there. The larger landlords want it, but others are opposed.”
Taking on the role of medical gatekeeper also has landlords worried that they’ll be accused of negligence if they fail to catch an infected person entering the workplace.
“I was talking to one office building owner who literally wants visitors and occupants to sign a waiver not to hold him liable if they were to catch covid while in the building,” said Craig Deitelzweig, the president and CEO of Marx Realty, an office owner in the city.
Deitelzweig said Marx Realty plans to install temperature readers in the lobbies of its office portfolio, including 10 Grand Central and 430 Park Avenue. The cameras can detect whether a person is warmer than normal. Deitelzweig said that a lobby attendant will approach any person flagged by the cameras and ask them to take a more accurate reading using a no-touch thermometer. The protocol will be loosely enforced, he said.
“We’re going to take temperatures because we would rather be on the side of doing the extra thing,” Deitelzweig said. “But if someone said ‘I’m not allowing you to take my temperature,’ we’re not going to force it.”
Senior executives at Silverstein Properties, a major Manhattan landlord that owns a multi-million-square-foot portfolio of commercial space, including three office towers at the World Trade Center, said it would likely pass on temperature-taking altogether within its portfolio.
“We have decided we’re not going to temperature test,” said Marty Burger, Silverstein Properties’ CEO. “It opens us to more liability and raises more questions than anything else. What happens if someone has a temperature? Do you have your building people deal with it? Is it up to the tenant? Maybe they have a disability and that’s why they’re warm and maybe they do have a fever but took an Advil and they brought it down and aren’t flagged. We’re just not confident we could get it right.”
Several owners see the need for a roadmap handed down by state and city governments to navigate the health concerns and screening measures in a post-Covid world.
“We’re setting up a whole new round of policies and procedures that all of our tenants have to comply with,” said Scott Rechler, chairman and CEO of the large commercial landlord RXR Realty, which said it will screen temperatures. “But what do you do if someone has a temperature? This is where having government guidance would be helpful.”
So far, neither Governor Andrew Cuomo’s nor Mayor Bill de Blasio’s offices have released specific guidelines on workplace safety measures to protect against the pathogen. On Tuesday, Cuomo announced the creation of an advisory board that includes members from the real-estate industry that will weigh in on questions of protocol that should be adopted as the economy is reopened in the coming weeks.
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