BOSTON–CommercialCafe released a study looking at how much urban core office space is a quality or top-tier candidate for adapting to multifamily property use, and compiled a list of the top 30 U.S. cities for office conversion.
Boston ranked 8th among the best cities for Tier I office space conversions, with 4.6 million square feet of office space ideal for multifamily use.
An additional 17.2 million square feet of office space fall into Tier II, making nearly 26% of Boston’s total rentable office space suitable for adaptive-reuse redevelopment, the report said.
“The vast majority of conversion opportunity in Boston is concentrated in the city’s urban areas: 88% of Tier I and 78% of Tier II spaces,” according to the report
Nationally, New York City has by far the most office conversion opportunity, with more than 83.5 million square feet of Tier I and 192 million square feet of Tier II.
“Among the aspects currently weighed toward the final score, I’d say that the year built, the building dimensions and the shape of the floor plate are probably the most important characteristics. The more functionally obsolete an office property becomes, it should be looked at as a conversion opportunity worth exploring,” said Peter Kolaczynski, director at CommercialEdge, on weighing characteristics suitable for a conversion to residential use.
To read the full report, click here.
