☆ Local adaptive reuse expert: When office-to-residential conversions aren't possible—how SJ/SF can reactivate decaying downtowns
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In an exclusive Opp Now interview, Adam Mayer—a Bay Area architect/designer specializing in adaptive reuse—explains why converting offices to apartments proves an elusive endeavor that isn't usually profitable for developers. Mayer suggests that local gov'ts focus less on cutting red tape for conversion projects, and work more to revitalize their downtowns by encouraging commercial activity.
Opportunity Now: Some folks are wondering: should cities like San Jose be rethinking what kind of conversion projects to promote and make accessible (e.g., offices to data centers instead of apartment buildings)?
Adam Mayer: I'm not philosophically against, for instance, a property owner wanting to reposition an underutilized old office building by converting it to a data center. However, I don't think data centers necessarily attract people to come downtown (if that is the goal).
ON: Then, let's focus on the question of office-to-residential conversions. They're praised left and right by the public and private sector, so where are all the adaptive reuse projects? Are we missing something?
AM: There's no universal answer to that question. Local governments like San Francisco's are excited to talk about making office-to-residential conversions more feasible via cutting red tape. But that's not ultimately the issue here.
The feasibility of an office-to-residential conversion depends on the building itself (how it's laid out, its floor plate size, HVAC system, etc.) and its location. Honestly, most office buildings don't make great candidates to be converted to residential. The idea sounds nice; it's just not practical or economically possible in many cases. We have to consider the economics: the amount of work, time, and money that must go into a conversion.
For instance: just north of the San Jose airport, there are several high square-foot tilt-up office buildings originally built for hardware-focused tech firms. These buildings would be ill-suited for conversion because of their big floor plates, HVAC systems (which are different than what residential buildings use), and issues regarding natural light (i.e., you don't get great natural light deep within a floor plate, unless you blow a hole in the center and put a courtyard there). So in this case, you'd be trying to put a square peg into a round hole.
ON: It sounds like most empty offices aren't worth it to adapt for residential use. What about the buildings that are good candidates for conversion?
AM: There are certainly some buildings that can be converted, but they tend to be older (think: built pre-World War II) because they tend to have smaller floor plates. That comprises only a small portion of available office spaces.
Let's take downtown SF. It's unlikely that people will want to come back to the office five days a week, so they're shifting gears. For the buildings that are economically feasible to be converted to residential, it's good for the government to encourage that and cut red tape. However, for newer office buildings—like the Salesforce tower, a relatively recently built high-rise—I'm not sure what can be done. And in some cases (e.g., say there's a 1970s-built office building off the expressway in SJ that nobody's using), it's probably most economically feasible to demolish and build something new.
ON: So for jurisdictions like SJ and SF that are concerned about their post-Covid dying downtowns, you're saying that repurposing the unused offices into apartments wouldn't be a silver bullet for their cities.
AM: Local governments need to be finding other ways to bring people back to their downtowns. This includes encouraging people to live there (not only in office-to-residential conversions but also in new residential construction). This also means reducing red tape and cultivating active ground-level commercial spaces in these buildings—whether they're residential, office, or mixed-use—and allowing small businesses, pop-ups, and artists to easily take over these spaces. These activation strategies are what I'd recommend. They could make the streets vibrant again and bring people who may not want to work in a downtown office.
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