"Transforming an office building tucked inside a suburban office park is a completely different equation than converting a building on Walnut Street steps from Rittenhouse Square. Location, context, and building design all matter a lot."
"A lot of townships are fighting residential development because it comes with burdens on the school systems. Office buildings don't do that. Zoning is more liberal in the cities [which is why residential conversion] has not come to the suburbs."
COVID-19 created a surplus of office space and housing shortage, prompting real estate experts to propose converting vacant suburban office buildings into residential units. However, six years later, few suburban conversions have materialized. The primary obstacles include suburban office buildings' poor floor plans for residential use, making demolition more practical than conversion. Additionally, many high-vacancy buildings occupy remote, undesirable locations within office parks. Hyperlocal zoning regulations across municipalities complicate development, and many townships resist residential projects due to school system burdens, preferring office buildings that lack such impacts. Urban conversions succeed more readily due to superior locations and more permissive zoning policies.
#office-to-residential-conversion #suburban-real-estate-development #zoning-regulations #post-covid-commercial-real-estate #housing-shortage
Read at Inquirer.com
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