When the pandemic started and office occupancy plummeted, many outside of the commercial real estate industry suggested that office space in major cities could–and would be likely–converted to residential-use space.
When the lockdowns first began in March 2020, that probably seemed like a reasonable prediction. At the time, offices were empty, tenants were defaulting on rents, leasing was at a standstill, employees were comfortably working from home, and no one knew how long it would be until the world was back to normal, or what the future of the workplace would be.
With few really understanding what is needed to convert office space into usable and attractive residential space, it’s no surprise that office conversions seemed like a possible solution and a plausible path forward for commercial real estate.
Office buildings weren’t built to live in
Today, nearly four years on from the start of the pandemic, the idea of residential conversions has yet to materialize due to fundamental issues with this type of conversion that would make it deeply impractical and expensive to implement at scale.
Two of the biggest hurdles are plumbing and HVAC. At most, typical office buildings have only a handful of bathrooms and maybe one kitchen on each floor. However, all residential units need both. This type of redesign and installation would be extremely cumbersome and costly, not to mention many commercial buildings don’t have floor plates that would even allow for this renovation.
Additionally, several areas within office buildings tend to be windowless. Because corporate real estate properties tend to be very wide, often they physically cannot be redesigned to accommodate the windows needed for a residential building. However, most renters and buyers expect windows in their apartment units–and most jurisdictions actually require that all apartments have them. While some properties can be reworked
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