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.
Yep. There will be significant conversion costs no doubt. They’ll have to gut those buildings, completely re-do the plumbing etc. Apartments/Condos will need to be long and narrow to maximize space with limited access to windows.
That said conversion will still be much cheaper than building entire buildings from scratch and what else are they gonna use that space for? They’re never going to get workers to show up at the office at anything like the rates they used to pre 2020.
Thanks Leftie control freaks! You did one good thing. You showed everyone it was perfectly possible to run lots of corporations with nearly everyone working remotely - and thus out from under your control.
People who point that out obviously don't have experience in this kind of conversion.
Sometimes the economics work great. It depends on the structure, its location, the interest rate environment, the developer, and the RE market.
NYC is full of various kinds of buildings that have been converted into apartments. This kind of conversion has been around forever and works beautifully when conditions are right.
As an aside, I recently saw a grain silo that had been converted into a MIL apartment. It was beautifully done and the MIL was ecstatic with the results (and when your MIL is happy, you're happy;-)). .