With office vacancies climbing and a stubborn supply crunch driving up the cost of housing, some downtowns have emerged at the forefront of a new wave of adaptive reuse.
Writing for CoStar News, Jack Witthaus documents the increasing number of office-to-residential conversions—known in planning parlance as adaptive reuse—underway around the United States.
Office-to-residential conversions are occurring nationally as demand for office space fades. One Wall Street, the former home of Irving Trust bank, recently wrapped its five-year, $1.5 billion transformation into a condo building in lower Manhattan. It is now the biggest office-to-residential conversion in the city’s history. In Salt Lake City, Houston-based developer Hines plans to convert the 217,000-square-foot, 24-story South Temple Tower in downtown Salt Lake City into a 255-unit luxury apartment complex. Projects are also in the works in Dallas and Atlanta and in Tacoma, Washington, among other cities.
Witthaus helpfully notes a few states where legislators have passed laws to assist the trend. In California, for example, where the market demand for adaptive reuse is particularly strong, the state’s latest budget included “calls for spending $400 million as an incentive to developers to convert commercial and office buildings into affordable housing in the budget years 2022-23 and 2023-24.” In New York, “Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law in June to simplify the process to convert some hotels within or near residential zoning districts to operate as permanent residential spaces. These hotel conversions may be eligible for some funding through state grants.”
The article documents many of the challenges facing office-to-residential conversions to help readers make sense of the scale of the potential to address the nation’s housing shortage through adaptive reuse. Challenges include location—office buildings aren’t always located near amenities that would serve residents—and construction issues like making windows operable for residences.
Witthaus also notes that the new office stock in California and the Sun Belt is better suited for adaptive reuse.
The article includes a lot more detail and analysis, including specific numbers on office vacancies in California’s troubled downtown office markets.
FULL STORY: From Los Angeles to New York, Underused Office Buildings Become Apartments Amid Housing Shortage
The Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity to Remake Downtown
Urban cores around the country were transforming into live, work, and play destinations before the pandemic. The pandemic was a setback for this transformation, but it could also be a rare opportunity. It’s up to city leadership to seize it.
Office Conversions Have Increased Every Year This Decade
Since the pandemic, office vacancy rates remain high, leading many cities to adjust zoning codes to accommodate adaptive reuse.
D.C. Could Lead the Downtown Office Conversion Trend
Many urban cores around the country are faced with increasing office vacancies concurrently with a housing affordability crisis caused, at least in part, by a lack of supply. D.C. is particularly primed for a wave of adaptive reuse.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association