Can any of these be turned into residences? I'm sure there's zoning and similar nonsense, but in the real world there's also problems like having enough water hookups.
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Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
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Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#22Can any of these be turned into residences? I'm sure there's zoning and similar nonsense, but in the real world there's also problems like having enough water hookups.
There have been many articles in the last few months about conversions. The regulations make it extremely expensive to turn in office into a home. There was an article last fall where someone backed out of doing that for a tower in San Francisco because in addition to the standard regulations there was also requirement that some of the units be set aside for low rent and that made the conversion economically unfeasib…
Is San Francisco not a special case though?
Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#23Only speaking from my personal travel experiences, not any hard data, but: I feel like this issue is nearly non-existent in places with mixed use zoning. If the office values go down in a place with equal amounts of housing, they are repurposed as new apartments. The problem is when the office architecture isn’t interchangeable with apartment architecture, which usually happens because certain areas are zoned as offi…
Some local councils around here want to make it a condition of approval that the first floor of mixed-use must remain commercial. Developers want it to be flexible because they can't predict future need. Constraints cost! Euclidean zoning is an unspeakably expensive economic blunder.
Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of commercial property can’t be converted efficiently due to regulatory requirements in how the structures are constructed. It would be better to tear it down in many cases.
Or change the regulations? That seems a lot easier and cheaper?
The problem is that those regulations are written by people who have vested interests in keeping the supply of residential real estate where it is.
Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#25Only speaking from my personal travel experiences, not any hard data, but: I feel like this issue is nearly non-existent in places with mixed use zoning. If the office values go down in a place with equal amounts of housing, they are repurposed as new apartments. The problem is when the office architecture isn’t interchangeable with apartment architecture, which usually happens because certain areas are zoned as offi…
Some local councils around here want to make it a condition of approval that the first floor of mixed-use must remain commercial. Developers want it to be flexible because they can't predict future need. Constraints cost! Euclidean zoning is an unspeakably expensive economic blunder.
Urban Planning has to be one of the worst professions in the existence of humanity. We were all better off without urban planners, and everything they advocate for and enforce makes the world worse.
Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
They can, with enough money. The problem is that these will need to be sold at an even steeper discount so that throwing enough money at the renovation makes sense. That means whoever currently holds the loan will eat a huge loss, whether there is a conversion to residential or not.
What was i told... the market is always a gamble? Or should we once again bail out smart "investors" on the backs of hard workering Americans tax dollars?
Seriously. I’m so sick of people “taking gambles” and getting bailed out because they’re part of the shadow government.
Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#27Only speaking from my personal travel experiences, not any hard data, but: I feel like this issue is nearly non-existent in places with mixed use zoning. If the office values go down in a place with equal amounts of housing, they are repurposed as new apartments. The problem is when the office architecture isn’t interchangeable with apartment architecture, which usually happens because certain areas are zoned as offi…
There might be many issues with the gap in construction standards for offices and housings.
A very dumb one: windows are required for houses, where offices can get away with huge open spaces holding a central hub of indoor areas. It's still possible to convert to houses, but that makes for ridiculously small liveable areas compared to the whole floor surface.
Then plumbing, evacuation paths etc. can all be solved by throwing money at the problem, but that significantly raises the profitability line.
Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#28Only speaking from my personal travel experiences, not any hard data, but: I feel like this issue is nearly non-existent in places with mixed use zoning. If the office values go down in a place with equal amounts of housing, they are repurposed as new apartments. The problem is when the office architecture isn’t interchangeable with apartment architecture, which usually happens because certain areas are zoned as offi…
There might be many issues with the gap in construction standards for offices and housings. A very dumb one: windows are required for houses, where offices can get away with huge open spaces holding a central hub of indoor areas. It's still possible to convert to houses, but that makes for ridiculously small liveable areas compared to the whole floor surface. Then plumbing, evacuation paths etc. can all be solved by…
Or fixing the problem of bad regulation - you can always uplift living standards when money is cheap, right now there's a chance to operate more efficiently, rather than create more debt.
One idea would be to convert spaces to something competing with airbnb, with the added value of being near offices.
Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#29Gonna get worse than once headsets go main stream, cheap and more comfortable
Re: Commercial property deals in the US are starting to pick up at deep discounts
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some local councils around here want to make it a condition of approval that the first floor of mixed-use must remain commercial. Developers want it to be flexible because they can't predict future need. Constraints cost! Euclidean zoning is an unspeakably expensive economic blunder.
Urban Planning has to be one of the worst professions in the existence of humanity. We were all better off without urban planners, and everything they advocate for and enforce makes the world worse.
Modern urban planners oppose most of the dystopian development seen in the US. What you see here is the stakeholders getting what they want. (Which might not be what they need)
Only in this case, the stakeholders are other residents in the neighborhood...not prospective buyers.