Real estate entrepreneur Don Peebles predicted on "Your World" Monday that New York City-based companies are likely to reduce brick-and-mortar office space in favor of remote working, dealing a further blow to a market reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

"Office space consumption was already on the decline," Peebles told host Neil Cavuto.

CORONAVIRUS LEADS TO NYC REAL ESTATE POUNDING

"What happened with COVID-19 is, it accelerated nationally ... because it compelled most Americans, certainly office workers, to work remotely. What business owners, entrepreneurs, and CEOs found out is that it was an effective way to work."

Approximately 300,000 New Yorkers returned to work Monday as the city moved to Phase  2 of its reopening strategy, but Peebles said it would be only a matter of time before employees see a "significant decline" in office space.

"Now people can work from all over the world and they don't have to be in the same geographic location of where their job is located," he explained. "That will open up [a] greater talent pool for businesses to make it more cost-effective.

"I think that there is a difference coming and the CEOs who are questioning that are right on point," he added.

While experts were hopeful that the real estate market would bounce back as the city moved toward a full reopening, Peebles said many are now hesitant to return due to a troubling uptick in violent crime and murder rates in recent weeks.

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"Now with COVID-19 and all of the amenities that New York had ... many of which will never open again, and this escalating violence within neighborhoods, I think people are going to ask themselves, 'is it safe to go back?'" he explained.

"I think we are going to see a lot of people not go back to the city and work remotely. Maybe workers go in once or twice a week, max."