If you had walked past Hagerty’s headquarters last week and looked in through its long glass windows, you would have seen classic cars displayed in the lobby and rows of desks and computers.
What you wouldn’t have seen was people. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Traverse City’s largest private employer has allowed many of its employees to work remotely.
Now, the Hagerty building is busy again.
The company, best known for insuring classic cars and boats, this week brought back over 200 employees to their downtown offices.
Leadership staff already returned in late February. Together, that makes almost 400 workers now onsite.
Hagerty employees will work on a hybrid work model: Tuesday-through-Thursday in the Traverse City office, and Monday and Friday from home.
For nearby restaurants and bars, the change could bring a long-awaited economic boost.
At Rare Bird Brewpub, bartender Maclayne Knowles remembers how different things felt before remote work.
“The first year I worked here, I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re so busy during the weekdays.’ Five o’clock came in no time,” Knowles said. “Since they’ve been gone, it’s just quieter. It’s boring.”
Hagerty employees used to be regular customers, she said — something that dropped off sharply once the company moved its employees to remote work beginning in 2020.
At Archie’s Social House, owner Jonathan Petrie had been anticipating this moment.
“I definitely made it a point to mark it in my calendar,” Petrie said. “That was a big deal.”
Petrie said his restaurant, which opened two years ago, has been doing well overall — but weekday lunch traffic, especially in the winter, still has room to expand.
“In the off-season, we definitely have some room for growth in our lunch services during the week,” he said. “And I think that’s one of our hopes out of this happening.”
Hagerty’s importance to the local economy is well established.
A 2022 report prepared for the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) found that downtown already had a below-average number of workers and relied heavily on Hagerty’s presence.
Harry Burkholder, executive director of the DDA, said the return of workers could have a broad impact.
“People who work downtown, they eat at restaurants for lunch,” Burkholder said. “And it’s not just within a block radius.”
He noted that Traverse City’s compact layout means the benefits could spread widely.
“A great thing about downtown Traverse City — it’s within a 10-minute walk to just about everywhere,” he said. “So I expect that impact to be felt throughout the entire downtown.”
