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Sounds like a great economic opportunity for some construction contracting companies to specialize in these offices-to-apartments conversions. It is possible t

by ff317 5y ago

Sounds like a great economic opportunity for some construction contracting companies to specialize in these offices-to-apartments conversions. It is possible to gut a lot of the "soft" walls and infrastructure on each floor, bring in more plumbing, and re-build a new floorplan. I'd wager the companies doing these conversions can make a tidy profit (and create employment opportunities!), and still charge the building owners a reasonable-enough rate that they'd rather go this route than sell a dying office building at a huge loss. You can get a bit creative with this too: e.g. dedicate some floors of the new apartment skyscraper as co-working spaces, and try to plan it so that everyone who rents in the building can use the co-working spaces for "free" as part of their rent and still have some leftover capacity to sell co-working memberships to others nearby as well.

ghaff 5y ago
I question how many people would actually want to live there if the offices are so empty. In principle, there's no reason you couldn't have a city the residents of which mostly commute out to work and/or work from their homes. But historically jobs have been the main magnet that attracts people to actually live in cities. Yes, especially among younger people, cities are also attractive for other reasons but by and large not enough to cause them to live there lacking other drivers.
somerandomqaguy 5y ago
It's not as straight forward as that. One of the major hurdles AFAIK is that many of those office buildings still has asbestos in them in very significant quantities; the buildings were made before the dangers of asbestos were realized. There was some reasons for leaving it in place, and to be fair a major renovation would have to run into these hurdles either way. But it's probably going to be quite a bit more costly then you're imagining.

by ff317 5y ago

ghaff 5y ago

I question how many people would actually want to live there if the offices are so empty. In principle, there's no reason you couldn't have a city the residents of which mostly commute out to work and/or work from their homes. But historically jobs have been the main magnet that attracts people to actually live in cities. Yes, especially among younger people, cities are also attractive for other reasons but by and large not enough to cause them to live there lacking other drivers.

somerandomqaguy 5y ago

It's not as straight forward as that. One of the major hurdles AFAIK is that many of those office buildings still has asbestos in them in very significant quantities; the buildings were made before the dangers of asbestos were realized. There was some reasons for leaving it in place, and to be fair a major renovation would have to run into these hurdles either way. But it's probably going to be quite a bit more costly then you're imagining.