Mayor Eric Adams on Monday unveiled plans to convert vacant office space in New York City into new apartments to help relieve the city’s affordable housing crisis.
While property owners will ultimately decide whether or not to convert their buildings’ use, the laxing of regulations could potentially create as many as 20,000 homes for 40,000 New Yorkers over the next decade.
“The need for housing is desperate, and the opportunity offered by underused office space is clear—we know what we need to do. These concrete reforms would clear red tape and create the incentives to create the housing we need for New Yorkers at all income levels.”
“Our ability to remain a global leader in a rapidly evolving and changing economy will depend on our ability to adapt,” Garodnick said. “Working closely with the City Council and our colleagues in Albany, we will build clear rules and set this city up for success.”
Adams’ office conversion proposal would target Midtown Manhattan, as well as other commercial districts, like Downtown Flushing and Bronx Hub.
“Enabling more offices to convert to housing will help us bring back our commercial districts while also addressing our housing supply crisis,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer.
“The recommendations in this report will set us on the path to achieving these critical goals, and I look forward to partnering with our colleagues in Albany and the City Council to ‘Get Stuff Built.’”
There have been similar efforts to convert office spaces into housing units in the past, but they have met with limited success due to the lack of incentives for landlords to convert their office spaces into housing units.
The plan that Adams proposed aims to change this by offering tax breaks and other incentives for landlords who are willing to convert their properties into housing units.
