“If work-from-home is here to stay, we need to bring those homes into downtown and fill those buildings with residents,” said Alena Green, director of economic development for downtown civic organization Central Atlanta Progress (CAP).
CAP commissioned a study of downtown office buildings to determine which might be good candidates for conversion. Consultant HR&A Advisors and architecture firm Lord Aeck Sargent also analyzed downtown’s infrastructure and regulatory environment to find barriers that could stall adaptive reuse.
First obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the study found that only a few of the surveyed buildings make financial sense to turn into housing. But that list — and the potential impact of conversions — could grow significantly if Atlanta is willing to pony up additional incentives to spur more office-to-residential conversions, the study found.
“Converting office to residential, even if you get the asset for a very low cost, is just not viable these days,” Mack Reese, managing partner at Atlanta-based developer The Atlantic Companies, said March 20 during a CAP panel discussing the study’s findings. “… You’ve got to somehow bring in the various incentives as a difference-maker, because without those, frankly it’s just not financially viable.”
Empty buildings are worth less than fuller ones, affecting the tax base. Though offering public dollars to retrofit buildings will likely prove controversial, it could be a viable path to reduce obsolete office stock while addressing the region’s housing shortage.
“Conversion is not the silver bullet, but opportunities exist,” reads the study’s top takeaway.
While home to more than 20 million square feet of offices, downtown only has a few thousand apartments and condominiums. Mayor Andre Dickens and several downtown developers say increased housing is the key to a vibrant city center.
“Downtown Atlanta has struggled for years because it has never been a…
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