DC continues to be among the nation’s leaders in office-to-housing conversion
If you are looking for a new apartment in D.C., it may be in the same spot where you used to sit in a cubicle.
The D.C. metro area continues to be one of the top spots in the country for office-to-apartment conversions.
According to RentCafe, the D.C. metro area has around 6,500 apartment units in the pipeline that were formerly office spaces or hotels. That’s a 12% jump compared to last year.
“You have the largest pipeline and planned office-to-apartment conversions in the country,” said Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence with real estate research company Yardi Matrix. “And when we say pipeline, that means planned perspective or under construction.”
Ressler told WTOP that D.C. has been a national leader when it comes to collaboration between businesses and the government, offering tax abatements and property tax freezes from converting obsolete office space into anything from residential buildings to hotels and retail space.
Ressler also said that the D.C. government has improved the speed it takes for permitting these conversion jobs, which adds a cost benefit to developers.
“Time equals money,” Ressler said. “And you had a very promising Governance Committee in the District of Columbia that really helped energize that whole process.”
One project underway would turn offices on Connecticut Avenue Northwest into 525 new apartments called “The Geneva.”
Ressler said incentives “made it very lucrative or promising to be able to do the conversion.”
RentCafe estimated that 14% of D.C.’s existing office space, which is around 60 million square feet, would be apt for conversion.
Ressler said despite recent headlines about returning in person to work, the data that they examine doesn’t quite play out that more office space will be needed.
“We do not see an overwhelming reoccupation,” Ressler said. “We see about a 63% occupancy.”