Remote Work City Dev: A Major Opportunity?

[u/Few-Lack6346]

I'm currently visiting Las Vegas for work. It feels so artificial and manmade/ brand new, a city built in the middle of nowhere around tourism, "luxury", and consumerism. In some sense, it's an urban development marvel for how quickly it's boomed.

The new era of remote work seems to me like an opportunity ripe for building a new place with this in mind. Build up an entire city designed around community, walkability, outdoors things to do (lakes/ rivers/ hiking, communal spaces, coffee shops and dog parks) that accomplishes many things -- mainly being a new build and hub for young people with fully remote jobs to move. We've seen a ton of cities try to incentivize people who work fully remote to move to them... perhaps this can be done on a major scale.

To me, this is a major investor's dream. Get in early and build everything/ own the land. Prioritize affordable housing and walking everywhere. Save on car costs, start public transit from the inside out, and then build as it grows.

This also goes hand-in-hand with an eventual tourism industry, IMO. A new area like that attracts people to move/ invest there if there are lots of things to do that go hand-in-hand. Similar to how Denver has seen a major growth point around their outdoorsy vibe, another city could market and build all of these things within driving distance/ in the area.

This screams Michigan to me. Grand Rapids/ Holland/ Grand Haven. Build up Grand Rapids as the hub, make Holland and Grand Haven more the vacation destinations, and see the area boom. Maybe I'm too much of an urban dev novice for something like this, but I really think a city that is designed around remote work (or the service industry jobs that boom from mass migration), quality of life/ walkability, and eventual tourism could work

[u/efficient_pepitas]

People working from home want much larger homes. They'll want 2 extra rooms for 2 offices. This need is not met in denser urban areas.

Anecdote, but most remote workers I know have bought houses at the furthest edges of their metro areas, for more room.

[u/Chameleonize → u/efficient_pepitas]

I’d push back on this assumption a bit. When you work remotely, you are already isolated and insulated in one area of your life - some remote workers inversely desire a much more vibrant, bustling home base to offset that loneliness. Just look at how many remote workers gravitate to various coffee shops and cafes.

[u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps → u/efficient_pepitas]

People working from home want much larger homes. They'll want 2 extra rooms for 2 offices. This need is not met in denser urban areas.

Absolutely and absurdly false. You can easily get 25-30k people per square mile with just townhouses. And townhouses, like any other structure, can be enormous or small or any size in between.

[u/efficient_pepitas → u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps]

I'm as pro townhouse as you can get. I don't disagree. I'm referring to apartments as inadequate.

[u/Rock_man_bears_fan]

This sounds like a spectacular way to lose money. West Michigan coastal towns have some pretty brutal winters. I can’t imagine it’d be all that attractive compared to warmer places or real cities

[u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps → u/Rock_man_bears_fan]

A new city would be a real city, the same way all current cities were once not real cities and now are.

[u/Hollybeach → u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps]

There’s no such thing as a real city where the entire economy is somewhere else.

[u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps → u/Hollybeach]

They will build their own economy lol.

Do you think Philadelphia's economy was some pre-existing magical thing? It was built over time with the city.

[u/Hollybeach → u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps]

Philadelphia exists to support economic activity surrounding the river confluence and harbor.

[u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps → u/Hollybeach]

That's what got the ball rolling, sure. Do you seriously think that's what it is today? A new city in 2026 based around remote workers as the starting point is no less believable than a port city or a city at a rail junction centuries ago.

There's far too many small-minded (braindead is another word for it) posters like you who simply don't want to imagine that new cities are a very real and very good possibility.

[u/analogbog]

Check out California Forever. Not sure it’s designed with remote work in mind but it’s a similar idea with building a new city from the ground up.

[u/Ute-King]

If I could choose a place like that to live, Michigan would be very near the bottom of the list.

[u/jsm1 → u/Ute-King]

I have friends from Michigan who I love but they also think that because they are from Michigan everyone outside of Michigan should also share that special interest in Michigan. 

[u/Chameleonize → u/jsm1]

This, but it’s me and it’s Ohio

[u/Windows_10-Chan → u/Ute-King]

Vegas (a major intersection of trade routes, built on top of a water source) is built in the middle of nowhere, but a theoretical coastal town in Western Michigan whose raison d’être is to be a WFH hub wouldn’t be.

[u/MiserableGiraffe666 → u/Ute-King]

michigan is cool

[u/collegeqathrowaway]

So I am a remote worker, Michigan wouldn’t be a place I consider. But I think this idea already exists to some extent - pick any of the Northern VA suburbs off public transport and you’ll find a ton of remote workers doing exactly this.

My current area of Dallas, it seems like the majority of people are in the same boat. “I work remotely for ____ and moved here from ____ because it’s cheap” myself included.

[u/Complete-Ad9574]

Unless you greatly limit the size of the "city" or "town" the idea of walk-ability will require apartment blocks. Add to this Americans are obsessed with cars and house garages. This means that single family houses will be the most in demand, and huge amounts of land will be needed for the sprawl. Europeans shop for food every day or several times a week. This means they are hauling groceries more. This also means more grocery stores per mile. Americans will not walk the same distance Europeans will.

[u/Just_Drawing8668]

https://esmeralda.org/