The two biggest hurdles in doing office-to-residential conversions are: 1. The lease span (i.e., the distance from the core of the building to the windows) is

The two biggest hurdles in doing office-to-residential conversions are: 1. The lease span (i.e., the distance from the core of the building to the windows) is typically much larger in an office building vs. a residential building (40ft vs 30ft). 2. The plumbing/mechanical services need to be increased/modified for a residential building. Enforcing the first would essentially mean asking the developer to design a different building. It's possible that you could make an office building work without following conventional office layouts and leasing patterns (who knows, maybe there's more of an appetite for something different post-COVID), but it would involve a significant re-thinking on the part of the developer about how they will make money from a project. The HVAC/plumbing issue could probably be something you could ask the builder to make accommodations for without needing to totally re-conceptualize the project.