Real Estate Recycling: Supporting Office-to-Residential Conversions

Following decades of zoning constraints, over-dependence on commercial land uses, and the recent trend toward work-from-home policies, U.S. downtowns are struggling to maintain tax revenues sufficient to keep downtowns vibrant and safe. One potential means of partially addressing these challenges is through greater government support of converting empty office buildings into affordable residential housing. Such office-to-residential conversions can increase affordable housing stock, promote social justice, mitigate climate change, and revitalize city cores. Unfortunately, a variety of structural, legal, and financial constraints presently make these conversion projects unduly difficult and expensive.

This Article first highlights how office-to-residential conversions could help mitigate the affordable housing shortages and soaring office vacancy rates affecting U.S. cities. This Article then analyzes the existing regulatory structures surrounding Office Conversion projects and identifies specific legal and policy strategies capable of promoting them across the United States.