Everyone is talking about converting our central business districts into more housing, or if not just housing then lodging, and (honestly) even retail. Governor Hochul recently announced The New York Housing Compact, which to be fair could do a lot more than spur office conversions. Still, re-zonings and tax abatements to support office conversions are a key part. Here is a summary of the highlights of the Compact. 

The New York City Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force also just published their recommendations linked here. It includes zoning information, architectural findings, and financial trends, informed in part by prior conversions. Which reminds me, we have been doing office to resi, or ambulatory care, or hospitality conversions all along - it's nothing new - and we can learn from these examples to create more opportunities for adaptive reuse.  

Do you think about how much needs to happen to be able to call, say, the Chrysler Building home? Does zoning permit the use? Can the neighborhood support the density - meaning is there room in the subway stations, in the schools, in the sewage pipes? If not, who pays for the upgrades? Does the building architecture allow for homes - not just the windows and size of the building core, but the electric loads, and other utility infrastructure? Will a commercial condominium regime facilitate the financing of components of the building, and if so what are appropriate protections for the varying uses in the building? Can the cost be supported by market rate rents? These are some of the topics examined by the New York City Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force.

And then the questions I always ask, can the cost be supported by restricted rental rates? How much? How much subsidy is needed? Will on site - or at least within the neighborhood - affordable housing be part of the program?

Last winter I presented at an Urban Land Institute Women's Leadership Initiative event on adaptive reuse. We talked about how the central business districts of our gateway cities were unhealthy before the pandemic. From the Times: 

"The modern downtown business districts of many large American cities were created through subtraction: First residents left the center city, then the craftsmen and wholesalers, then the museums, theaters and smaller retailers, and — the final blow — the department stores. What remained at the heart of many cities in the 20th century were blocks and blocks of office buildings filled perhaps 10 hours a day, five days a week — a precarious urban monoculture."

Now our downtowns are in crisis. And we are facing a housing crisis, and an affordable housing crisis. Will we be able to address all three crises at once?  

I’d love to hear what you are seeing, and what you think will work.