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Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

bostonplans.org

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Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#61

Post by jxramos »

mlyle wrote: post #14
steveBK123 wrote: post #7

There was a cool OddLots episode recently where they talked to a guy who does Office to Residential work and some of the complexity. One thing he talked about, which I didn't know anyone did, was to actually cut through the ceiling/floorplate of buildings to basically "donut" them. This is necessary because many office floorplans are huge with modern HVAC and when converted into residential you end up with either und…

> This is necessary because many office floorplans are huge with modern HVAC and when converted into residential you end up with either undesirable or illegal apartments due to lack of windows/egress/etc. Couldn't you just wall off the middle? I mean, you do get another set of windows on the inner courtyard, but it seems expensive to perform such major surgery on a building.

turn it into storage space I'd say

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#63

Post by bmitc »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #57
bmitc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never seen more supply of apartments make existing rents go down. I had a friend's rent go up 25% in one year in an area that has seen a huge amount of apartment buildings go up. That's not rational. The companies that own these apartment buildings care about nothing more than more money and know that they'll be able to find someone to pay the exhorbant prices.

because supply has almost never outpaced demand in these cities

Under what conditions or reality will supply ever outpace demand in big cities like Boston or New York? I don't think it's physically, realistically, or pragmatically possible.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#64

Post by bmitc »

beastman82 wrote: post #31
bmitc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never seen more supply of apartments make existing rents go down. I had a friend's rent go up 25% in one year in an area that has seen a huge amount of apartment buildings go up. That's not rational. The companies that own these apartment buildings care about nothing more than more money and know that they'll be able to find someone to pay the exhorbant prices.

Supply and demand is the oldest, most obvious economic relationship in existence.

And yet it doesn't correctly model the situation. This isn't rabbits and foxes.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#66

Post by glowingly »

kibwen wrote: post #16
ramesh31 wrote: post #11

This could actually work in a city like Boston (almost uniquely in the US). Most of those low/midrise older buildings downtown were likely residential to begin with.

> almost uniquely in the US Any east coast city should have an easier time of it, because the main determining factor for retrofitting office buildings into residential is the distance between the center of the building and the exterior, in order to make sure there's enough windows in each unit. Any office building built before the advent of the electric light should be just fine, so there's plenty of opportunity in…

I do not know if Boston is unique in this regard, but there was a lot of company housing in the region.

Where I worked in Longwood (Boston), the offices surrounding me were massive, historic buildings with plaques commemorating their origin. They were originally built for housing nurses and doctors who worked in the area's hospitals (there is a concentration of hospitals in Longwood).

So in this case, these were built and used as housing before a later conversion to office space.

These are currently utilized hospital buildings. IMO, they are unlikely to be converted back to residential at this time.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#67

Post by WJW »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #52
steveBK123 wrote: post #7

There was a cool OddLots episode recently where they talked to a guy who does Office to Residential work and some of the complexity. One thing he talked about, which I didn't know anyone did, was to actually cut through the ceiling/floorplate of buildings to basically "donut" them. This is necessary because many office floorplans are huge with modern HVAC and when converted into residential you end up with either und…

I wonder if some interior spaces could be preserved for commercial, some reallocated for retail, some set aside for tenant mixed use areas. I don't get why one area can only ever be for one kind of use.

If you really want to know, I can't recommend the book "Seeing like a state" enough.

TL;DR: For government officials who are charged with supervising regulations over tens of thousands of areas, it's already more than complicated enough if each of those areas has a single use designation. If you allow all of those to have multiple designations, it becomes too complex for humans to administer and so they don't allow multiple designations.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#68

Post by gbear605 »

crmd wrote: post #24
MildRant wrote: post #5

I think this is fantastic. Boston desperately needs more housing. Let's get some increased funding for the T as well while we are at it.

Property tax represents 72% of Boston's municipal revenue[0], and this initiative provides a property tax reduction of up to 75% for up to 29 years, so unfortunately this initiative will not help with T funding. [0] https://data.boston.gov/dataset/revenue-budget

If it allows more people to move into the city and start working, that’s more income taxes that can go towards funding the T. Much of the T’s is at the state level anyway.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#69

Post by Arrath »

alfalfasprout wrote: post #62
TimTheTinker wrote: post #49

IMO, they should consider banning cars in downtown areas (and adding large parking garages just outside them) while they're at it.

[flagged]

Nothing says that banning general commuter cars also means banning handicapable public transit, cabs, or specialty medical transport though.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#70

Post by dghughes »

lusus_naturae wrote: post #6
steveBK123 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

more supply = more competition, no?

It depends. If everything is owned by the same management or equity firm, then no.

A REIT is the worst. One in my town is demanding a 20% rent increase. And also asking for tax breaks. Half the tenants will have to move and their tax money is going to the company forcing them out. The people in the building are in well paying jobs like IT professions not low income or elderly (but they are also facing the same thing).
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