Photo: Valerie Plesch/NPR.
The Washington Monument is seen from the sky lounge of the rooftop penthouse at Accolade, a former office building.
In Boston for a long time, builders of office buildings and politicians thought it was brilliant to build out some undeveloped low land called the Seaport District, or Innovation District. Environmental voices weren’t loud enough to compete with that sort of unity, never mind the tendency of that part of the city to flood. (See the movie Inundation District,)
Then came Covid.
Companies stopped relying on office buildings. Even after the intense days of the pandemic, both workers and their employers saw benefits in allowing employees to work at home.
‘There’s a concept in the industry called ‘extend and pretend.’
The question became, what can we do with those empty buildings?
Eleana Tworek and Jacob Fenston reported recently at National Public Radio about a growing trend to convert the buildings to housing, which unlike office space, is badly needed.
“The room looks like your typical office suite,” they write, “white walls, low ceilings, gray carpet worn thin from years of foot traffic. But for this vacant office outside Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., real estate developers see potential.
“Matt Pestronk is the president of Post Brothers, a development company that bought the entire office building back in 2021, along with a neighboring building. Instead of making updates to attract new business tenants, Post Brothers decided to convert the old offices into more than 500 apartments.
“ ‘This location is a little bit off the beaten track for major office tenants, and it’s an incredible residential neighborhood,’ Pestronk says. …
“Cities across the U.S. are grappling with two parallel problems: too much empty office space and not enough housing. Nationally, office vacancy rates reached roughly 20% in 2024, after years of employees working from home. At the same time, the national housing shortage is in the millions. …
“Post Brothers has completed half a dozen office-to-residential conversions so far. Its project in D.C., which broke ground last month, is the largest such conversion in the city to date.
“Pestronk says the overall structure of the buildings will remain the same, but with some major additions. A lighter-colored limestone-like aggregate facade will replace the gray concrete from the 1960s, and old inefficient windows will be replaced by larger ones that let in more light per unit. …
“ ‘One of the advantages of doing conversions is that we don’t have to dig a hole for a foundation because there’s already one,’ he says.
“Plans for the completed building include luxury amenities such as a pool and a dog park. Projected rent for a one-bedroom apartment is around $4,000 per month, but 60 units will be set aside as affordable housing. …
“Tracy Loh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies adaptive reuse of old buildings, says the scale of the shortage far outpaces what conversions can provide.
” ‘Office-to-residential conversion is not going to solve the housing crisis,’ she says. But she argues that these projects still matter.
” ‘ It does kill two birds with one stone, in terms of providing some housing supply,’ Loh says. And it tends to create housing in central, transit-accessible areas that are in high demand. …
“Loh says this downturn is unlike past office slumps and warns developers against relying on old cyclical patterns to continue.
” ‘There’s a concept in the industry called “extend and pretend,” ‘ she says. ‘In times past when there’s been a glut of supply in office space, it has gradually resolved itself over time with new growth and new demand.’
“This slump in office demand is likely to persist, though. In our digital age, office storage is less essential because files live on our computers. So even when workers are coming into the office, employers need less space per employee.
“D.C. leaders are responding to that shift. Since 2024, the city has completed 11 office conversions, creating nearly 2,000 new apartments. Mayor Muriel Bowser has made adaptive reuse a focus of her administration, offering incentives such as a 20-year property tax abatement to encourage developers to move forward.
“Today, D.C. has the second-largest number of planned office-to-residential conversions in the country, just behind New York City. But it’s a trend that’s gaining popularity more broadly, in cities from Dallas to Manchester, New Hampshire.”
More at NPR, here.
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