Are building conversions to residential units worth it?

Offices to Homes

As the pandemic saw a drop in the need for office space and a rise in need for housing, there has been booming interest in converting office space into residential space. Although there was a decline in projects between 2020 and 2022, there has been a surge in project proposals and the number of conversions is expected to increase over the next few years as the projects currently being proposed break ground.

Buildings that were built in the late ‘60s to mid ‘70s are currently the most common being converted. A major reason for this is that many components within buildings of that age are coming up to the end of their useful life; mechanical systems or the facade might need replacement. Additionally, commercial tenants’ preferences are shifting away from layouts and office types that were popular in that era, reducing the demand for those buildings as commercial spaces. These shifts have meant that some owners face a choice: they can either demolish and rebuild the building, conduct major renovations to keep up with modern office needs, or convert the building to residential space. Sometimes, the benefits, drawbacks, and financial implications of that choice are not clear and the initial decision reveals itself to have unforeseen drawbacks, but the costs of reiterating on the initial design are too large and the developer is faced with a suboptimal end-product and money lost. When you add GHG emissions reporting into the mix, which many developers are beginning to do, it is also difficult to understand the environmental implications of each choice before they occur – especially without clear metrics indicating those differences. A developer may choose one option and down the road find out that the GHG impacts of that choice are far greater than initially anticipated and that mistake is reflected in their ESG report and their balance sheets.

Adaptis’ decision-support platform allows you to look at the current state of your building assets and look at hundreds of different feasible designs that prioritize different factors, whether they be GHG emissions, waste reduction, cost, circularity, or time.

With a large number of design options available and the ability to quickly iterate on each one, Adaptis can demonstrate with real-world data what options meet a building’s redesign goals best. This means that a building owner considering whether to convert to residential units or to update a building to a more modern commercial building will know exactly what the best option is. 

One of Adaptis’ previous projects helped a building owner determine how much of an original 1920s building to keep, what building systems to replace, and what additions to the structure best met their needs. When the project was complete, the client saved 1620t of waste (32% waste diversion), avoided 150t of CO2e emissions, and reduced the building’s operational carbon footprint by 51%.

Interested in learning more? Let’s talk!

#Circularity