I have lived in several beautiful lofts and even prefer it.
Office buildings often made great candidates for conversion into condos.
I do think there is a lot of potential there.
People have pointed out to me that the economics doesn’t work — but this seems like an area where federal subsidies might actually make sense.
People have also pointed out to me that while real estate designed for residential use usually maximizes window space, existing corporate real estate often has a lot of “interior” space with no access to natural light at all.
But, for me, the bottomline is that we need cheap housing solutions. And that corporate real estate is just sitting there.
Conversion of commercial real estate to condos/apartments ranges from very difficult and very expensive to totally impossible.
Usually the finances require taxpayer grants and/or loans.
These days most of them will require “mixed income” which translates into “ghetto” ten years later.....
Worse yet—most of these commercial buildings are in high crime areas—folks who move in to the condos may get lured in by fancy marketing—but after the first mugging or burglary or car break-in they are gone.
It is much cheaper and efficient to build on raw land with totally private funds.