From Department Store to Apartments

In an example of productive adaptive reuse, a former Sears store in Rochester, New York is now a 73-unit affordable housing project for seniors. Adele Peters describes the project in Fast Company, adding that underused malls present a convenient opportunity to build more housing.

According to Peters, “A new report from the nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners estimates that nationwide, repurposing 10% of strip mall space could create more than 700,000 new apartments”—a small but not insignificant contribution to the estimated 3.8 million housing units needed.

As Peters explains, strip malls are easier to convert to housing than office buildings. “At the former Sears store outside of Rochester, developers were able to repurpose the building by adding windows to the facade, as well as three interior courtyards so that there’s natural light in each apartment. Adding another apartment building in the parking lot meant that the project had enough units to make sense economically.”

In California, where several similar projects are underway, recent changes to state law made it easier to acquire permits for commercial-to-housing conversion projects. One estimate calculated the potential for as many as 1.37 million homes in the Bay Area alone.