New York City seeks to remove offices in favor of more housing – NBC New York (47)

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams has released recommendations from a task force aiming to turn underutilized office space into new homes in the city, a path officials hope will help address the housing crisis in the city. Big Apple.

In total, the Adaptive Office Reuse Task Force, led by New York City Department of Urban Planning (DCP) director Dan Garodnick, offered 11 recommendations in its New York City Office Adaptive Reuse Study to change state laws and councils on zoning to allow for more flexibility in converting office space into living areas. Overall, the effort, according to the city, is to facilitate the potential conversion of an additional 136 million square feet of office space into residences.

Officials note that while landlords will ultimately determine whether to convert use of their buildings, the recommendations could potentially create as many as 20,000 homes over the next 10 years, which translates into enough space to house up to 40,000 New Yorkers. .

The task force’s recommendations include:

• Allow more flexible rules for residential conversion of office buildings built up to 1961 to those built up to 1990;
• Expand flexible conversion regulations to all office-intensive districts, including downtown Flushing and the Bronx Hub;
• Finding opportunities to allow housing, through conversions or new construction, in a high-density central part of Midtown that currently prohibits residential development;
• Enable the conversion of office buildings into various types of housing, including support housing;
• Provide flexibility for offices to convert all existing space into accommodation;
• Explore and pursue a tax incentive program to support the creation of affordable and mixed-income housing through office conversion, adding affordable housing to the City without eliminating other private investment in housing conversion and creation; Y
• Create a property tax abatement program to incentivize office space upgrades for children’s centers.

These recommended reforms would be implemented through state laws and regulatory changes.

“With this study, we have a roadmap to fulfilling the vision of a more vibrant, resilient, prosperous and affordable city,” Adams said in a statement. “The need for housing is desperate and the opportunity presented by underutilized office space is clear – we know what we have to do. These concrete reforms would eliminate red tape and create the incentives to create the homes we need for New Yorkers at all income levels.”

Meanwhile, New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer said the measure would essentially help the city address the housing crisis.

“Enabling the conversion of more offices into housing will help us recover our business districts while also addressing our housing supply crisis,” Torres-Springer said. “The recommendations in this report will enable us to achieve these key goals.”

Housing director Jessica Katz shared similar sentiments, saying in a statement, “To solve our housing shortage, we need every tool we can get. Our administration’s housing plan, Housing Our Neighbors, calls for leveraging zoning to promote more affordable and supportive housing across the city, helping families access new neighborhoods with nearby services, jobs and schools that every New Yorker deserves.”

(Disclosure: Gary Rodney, Head of Affordable Housing at Tishman Speyer, is a member of the New York City Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force. Tishman owns NBC offices in the city.)