Home is where the work once was.
It has long been on Mayor Eric Adams’ agenda to convert New York’s derelict office buildings into much-needed housing — and Axios reports that 46 buildings are currently enrolled in the city’s Office Conversion Accelerator program, with four already in the process of being transformed into more than 2,100 housing units.
The program, which was unveiled in August, seeks to “expedite” projects that involve transforming workplaces — many of which were bustling before the coronavirus pandemic, but now sit empty amid a global shift towards remote and hybrid work models — into residential, creating new homes and good jobs in Midtown Manhattan, according to a press release.
In addition to helping hasten the conversion project, the Adams administration is also seeking to cut some of the red tape out of commercial buildings’ transition to residential by, among other things, allowing non-residential buildings to become residential borough-wide (and not only in the very specific number of districts it’s explicitly allowed in) and making buildings constructed after 1977 eligible (currently, many newer buildings are ineligible).
The real estate trend will likely significantly shift the fabric of Midtown in years to come. Getty Images
Converting once-commercial buildings is proving challenging for designers. Getty Images
As the number of buildings in the city’s office-to-apartment pipeline has grown, so has the number of once well-known commercial addresses earning their own headlines announcing their journey to becoming housing.
Among the bigger-name former offices going residential is 25 Water St., once the home of publications including the National Enquirer and the Daily News, as well as JPMorgan Chase Bank.
The project is considered to be the largest office-to-residential conversion in the country, The Post previously reported.
While co-ops and condos may be a better use of the space than empty offices, the metamorphosis is proving costly and challenging from a design perspective.
At 160 Water St., architects have found solutions including creating underground recreational spaces, double up floors and redistributing dead space throughout the building instead of in individual apartments, The Post reported in November.
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