The structure of an office building is unsuitable for conversion to apartments. There is not enough water or sewer facilities, and the ventilation systems are all wrong for subdividing into smaller cells controlled by more thermostats.
In most circumstances, it would be cheaper to tear down the office building and build a new apartment building.
Plent of graft in such projects for local politicians and developers to want to do that. But there really is not enough funding to even get the demolition started. The cities are bleeding out from loss of tax revenue and only federal grant money will be enough to start one of these projects. One is probably all there will ever be. Even the Feds are running short.
My bet is that the buildings stay vacant until one burns down in a massive fire set by squatters. There will then be some limited federal money for demolishing other vacant buildings.
“The structure of an office building is unsuitable for conversion to apartments. There is not enough water or sewer facilities, and the ventilation systems are all wrong for subdividing into smaller cells controlled by more thermostats.”
That’s total bullshit. Tell that to the people who worked there and spent up to 60 hours a week in those buildings. If workers can be there that many hours a week, then so can the so called “homeless” or “illegals”.
Unsuitable for conversion to apartments Americans want to live in, true.
Conversion to taxpayer-funded dormitories for illegals, complete with communal bathrooms and no need to cook government-provided food? All of those class B office buildings will work just fine - and government subsidies will keep the CRE market afloat until they can figure out some new scam to trick investors.