Office Conversions at Record High

The office-to-residential conversion boom shows no signs of slowing, with a record number of conversion projects in the works for 2024, according to an article by Quinn Purcell in Building Design & Construction.

“The latest RentCafe annual Adaptive Reuse report shows that there are 55,300 units in the pipeline as of 2024—four times as much compared to 2021,” Purcell adds. This amounts to 38 percent of residential adaptive reuse projects around the country. Hotel-to-residential conversions make up 24 percent of projects, with factories and other types of buildings filling out the rest.

Washington, D.C. leads the nation with 5,820 units slated for conversion in 2024, followed by New York City with 5,215 and Dallas with 3,163. The average age of buildings selected for conversion is 72 years old, signaling a demand for newer buildings that take less capital to modernize. 

In the wake of pandemic-induced migration away from physical offices, office-to-residential conversion has become an opportunity to create more housing and revitalize neighborhoods by bringing in different uses. Cities, states, and the federal government are now establishing programs to support adaptive reuse and remove barriers to conversion, which include regulatory hurdles and cost.