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Here's the problem with your scenario -- and I'll use one of the two buildings as an example to illustrate it.

1. The 52-story Gas Company Tower has 1.4 million square feet of floor space.

2. The current outstanding debt on the building is $465 million.

3. Let's suppose you could convert the building from offices to apartments at a rate of 1 apartment for every 1,000 square feet of gross floor area. That will give you 1,400 apartments in this building.

4. Let's also suppose you are paying a simple rate of 6% interest on the loan. That means your annual loan servicing cost is $27.9 million.

5. Divide this loan servicing cost by 12 months and allocate it to the 1,400 apartments, and you'll find that you will have to collect about $1,660/month in rent on each apartment just to cover the loan servicing cost. And you haven't paid a penny in principal down on the loan.

6. And this doesn't even account for the cost of the conversion from office to apartments. That could be an up-front cost of $100 to $300 per square foot ... probably closer to the higher number because the conversion would require a major upgrade in plumbing, electrical, and other building systems. Even if we use the low number of that range, you're looking at an additional cost of $140 million to do the conversion.

7. This doesn't include the property taxes on your apartment building, either.

Convert this building from offices to apartments, and your $2,500 monthly rent is looking like a huge bargain for tenants in that area.