Marc Hames’ Post

With the commercial vacancy rate rapidly increasing throughout parts of New York City, landlords are looking to take advantage of NYC's Office Conversion Accelerator Program which will allow them to transform their vacant office space into residential apartments. With the ever-increasing cost of construction and development in New York City, it will be interesting to see how these property owners are able to balance the high cost of modifying office space layouts into useful residential space while also keeping rents/sale prices within market tolerances.

Experts speak about the near-term prospects for converting office buildings into multifamily housing, best practices for evaluating conversion potential, innovative ways the public sector can support these projects, and other related trends.

"While it may sound relatively easy to convert vacant offices into multifamily buildings, it’s much more difficult in practice. To even consider a conversion, one needs to identify the right property in terms of floor plates, location, age, and, of course, price, et cetera. It’s like a complex Rubik’s Cube to determine if it’s structurally feasible to convert a building, and if the costs and fees make financial sense." --Chris Robbins, GREENROCK™. Recently, I interviewed four experts about the realities--and the promise--of converting office buildings for residential use in urban cores. Urban Land Institute Sibley Fleming Brett Widness Mary Ludgin Chris Robbins Karin Liljegren Geeti Silwal #commercialrealestate #adaptivereuse https://lnkd.in/gpcRmadb

Great article focusing on Chicago’s response to the big post-covid issue facing many cities - huge surplus office space, particularly with older buildings leading to a lack of vibrancy in streets and neighbourhoods. Chicago’s answer - private/public partnerships and subsidies for developers to convert old offices to residential & mixed use to meet demand for city living. The subsidies support increased provision of affordable/lower cost homes as they recognise it is in the city’s interest to create vibrant, safe streets with all the amenties there to support and enhance living in the City. We could learn from this in Belfast as well as Dublin. In addition to looking at the larger new-build BTR resi models in Belfast we should also be looking for opportunities to do similar- let’s call it RTR - ‘Repurpose to Rent’ - to help bring life back to some parts of the city centre by looking at how we can adapt and repurpose what we can into homes.

New York City's Bold Plan to Convert Vacant Offices into Homes New York City is taking a bold step to address its housing crisis by converting vacant office spaces into residential units. This is a creative solution that could have a major impact on the city's skyline and economy. Learn more about New York City's plan to convert vacant offices into residential havens at https://lnkd.in/gYaENZQs #NewYorkCity #OfficeConversion #Housing #UrbanRevitalization #RealEstate #AffordableHousing #SustainableDevelopment

ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟 ᴀɴ ᴇxᴀᴍᴘʟᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴅᴏᴜʙʟɪɴ ᴄɪᴛʏ ʟɪᴠɪɴɢ. Chicago Mayor Johnson is proceeding with a revamp of empty downtown buildings estimated at $1 billion, to counter a commercial real estate crisis. LaSalle Street, once known as the Wall Street of Chicago, has been struggling to fill offices after the pandemic, which has hollowed out parts of downtown. Chicago financially supports projects to transition some office buildings into residential to provide affordable housing. It’s in the city’s interest to have downtown as a vibrant place. The LaSalle Street initiative, offers generous subsidies to developers, to revamp outmoded office properties (#strandedassets) with apartments, where min 30% of units are affordable. Public funding through district tax-increment financing offers supports ranging from a quarter to half the budget. Chicago wants to draw people to its theaters, restaurants and amenities, Eighty-five percent of real estate in the area is dedicated to office space, with 5 million square feet vacant. Companies are uping pressure for workers to return to the office. But the city has recognised a revitalised downtown can’t rely on traditional office space alone. It’s needs residential units in the mix. https://lnkd.in/eCUsguAt

Re-purposing under used former office blocks in our city centres as housing is to be applauded. Breeding new much needed life back into our urban centres. There are numerous opportunities that will arise in the coming years as hybrid working becomes rooted in society. Reduced working weeks and a more concentrated and efficient management of workers time rotation programming will result in a potential drop of up to a third in office floor space demand in city centres. So some of the older, out-dated and poorly serviced office buildings are likely to be replaced or re-purposed. Prime city centre opportunities in 1970’s buildings will present themselves in the coming years. This is already happening in many cities in U.K. and with local planning legislation not requiring a change of use application for office to residential, the path is well set. The course of reduced office demand looks certain to continue for the coming 10 years before equilibrium in demand is likely to be reached. In addition, the on-coming emergence of autonomous vehicles and car sharing (robocabs & uber type ownership) will mean the demise of the urban multi-storey car park demand and these valuable city centre sites will become available for development. The changing landscape of our cities is emerging and hopefully one that will include more people and families living in cities

Thanks to Kevin for his perspective. This is an unfortunate truth that has a huge impact on more than just commercial property owners and investors. As a member of a local construction union, we see the actions of Seattle chasing off prospective investors in new construction first hand. Thousands if not tens of thousands of union and non-union families in this area rely on this new construction as their primary source of income. The elected officials making these political decisions are directly affecting our ability to put food on the table. This will also hurt the people that rely on services provided by local and state government, because the loss of these incomes hurts the local economy and eliminates an entire tax base that supports these programs. Once our jobs are gone, where do these bureaucrats and politicians think they will find the money, or is it as simple as raising the taxes on businesses, property owners, sales, and everyone else still working in our area? This just makes the situation worse, and this repetitive cycle is exactly what’s driving away people now. When people leave our area, they take their money with them. I wish the people making these decisions would stop selling this like a “Rich, getting richer” issue and start considering the working class that willingly pay taxes to support our community. It seems like simple math that even a caveman construction worker like myself can manage.

Very interesting 🔥 topic not only in Bellevue/Seattle but across our country with over $200B in Office debt maturing. Office valuations drastically down obviously and banks preparing on how to handle these loans being called due with potential underwater debt positions on sizeable buildings across the country! #bellevuerealestate #commercialloans #covidremoteimpact #officeconversionsahead #affordablehousingopportunity #problemsconvertedtosolutions

KARE 11 takes a look at Sherman Associates' office to housing conversion projects that are underway in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, as cities across the country seek to reimagine their downtowns. Northstar Center and Landmark Towers will deliver just over 400 housing units to the Twin Cities, where there's a growing trend of converting vacant office spaces into residential apartments. With many offices empty post-pandemic, Chris Sherman sees the opportunity to transform these downtowns into central living districts. Despite challenges like high costs and complicated financing structures navigated by Trevor Martinez, these conversions are vital for reviving downtowns, boosting housing markets, and stabilizing local tax bases. Plus, they're more sustainable than new construction projects, supporting local labor and reducing environmental impact. Watch the feature here: https://lnkd.in/guSMEUFw City of Minneapolis City of Saint Paul