How Feasible Are Office-to-Residential Conversions?

Multifamily construction has reached a 50-year high, but according to Dwell, the majority of newly constructed units remain unaffordable. One potential solution is adaptive reuse housing development in the form of office conversions. The rise of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic left an elevated share of commercial office spaces empty, and as work-from-home becomes a more permanent alternative for many Americans, those spaces currently serve little purpose. Turning them into affordable housing not only gives new life to otherwise abandoned buildings, but it also creates a much-needed solution to a worsening housing crisis.

But just how feasible are office-to-residential conversions?

Sheryl Schulze, a principal at architecture and planning firm Gensler, has been studying such office-to-residential conversions in cities like Calgary, where in 2020, the firm led a conversion feasibility study of downtown class B and C office properties. They developed an algorithm that quickly evaluates and ‘scores’ building qualities and metrics that present challenges to conversions—large floor plate sizes that make it difficult to divide into apartments with adequate light; facade challenges due to inoperable windows; inadequate parking, if it is required, and more.

Transforming these buildings into affordable housing will be costly with required subsidies to keep those apartments affordable, and expensive retrofitting only adds to that cost. Schulze believes that private-public partnerships can ease the burden.

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