Senior Spotlight: Good-bye Empty Offices, Hello Senior Housing
As post-pandemic office vacancies rise, so do developer conversions to residences!
The Bobbi Decker team has seen a trend in the news as of late that we wanted to share with our readers – that’s you! Several news articles this week have covered the increase in empty office buildings to housing units – including for seniors.
Just two days ago, Realtor.com® published an article titled ‘Could Empty Downtown Office Buildings Really Help Solve America’s Housing Crisis?’. The read cited that according to RentCafe, 8,000 apartment units were created out of former office buildings. Most of the projects were in Philadelphia and Washington, DC last year with Los Angeles and Cleveland planning to do the same this year.
Just last month, TheRealDeal publication revealed that a 35-acre property in Yorktown, New York has been slated for development into luxury senior housing. The conversion would ideally result in 200 apartments and 50 townhomes as well as 15 acres of open space.
Given that Pew Research estimates it will take at least 10 years for the nation’s housing shortage to decline, and that the Seniors BlueBook has documented an acute and critical senior housing supply, the trend of office conversions into senior properties on both an affordable and luxury level will be something to track.
While turning empty space into usable living sounds ‘easy’, not every building is suitable for a conversion. Realtor.com® reports that only about 30% of older buildings are candidates for office to apartment conversions. Other challenges include the number of current office tenants and leases lengths, as well as the lengthy and arduous process of zoning changes and project approvals.
While not the driving solution being the housing shortage, office conversions could be one piece of the ever-changing puzzle. We will definitely be watching to see if any of these projects emerge in Silicon Valley!
Bobbi
Bobbi Decker
DRE#00607999
Broker Associate
650.346.5352 cell
650.577.3127 efax
www.bobbidecker.com
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Bobbi Decker & Associates fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. For more information, please visit: http://portal.hud.gov/
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