Turning Offices Into Apartments Is Harder Than You Think
On this episode of Odd Lots, Joey Chilelli of Vanbarton Group describes three big obstacles that must first be overcome.
Odd Lots: What It Really Takes to Convert an Office Building to Apartments
Major US cities like New York have two big real estate problems: Housing is scarce and office buildings, thanks to the post-pandemic, work-from-home landscape, are under-utilized. So there would seem to be an obvious solution to both—turn offices into apartments, right?
Not really. While there’s been a lot of talk lately about “office-to-residential” conversions, given all the empty downtown real estate, it’s not that simple. On this episode of Odd Lots, we speak with Joey Chilelli, a managing director at the Vanbarton Group, who explains that what seems like an easy and intuitive solution is neither.