- Adaptive reuse projects, such as converting old hotels or vacant offices into apartments, are on the rise.
- According to a report by RentCafe, in 2023 there was a 17.6% increase in apartments renovated from old buildings compared to the previous year.
- Manhattan has the largest concentration of renovated apartment buildings in the country.
The number of vacant commercial buildings being converted into apartments increased by more than 17 percent last year, Rental cafe.
Since 2010, as demand for housing has increased in the United States, an increasing number of old and unused factories, warehouses, hotels, and office buildings have been converted into apartments.
This trend became especially popular in unused office space in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic forced Americans to leave physical offices and remain confined to their homes.
The transition slowed over the next two years, but rebounded last year to near pre-pandemic and early-pandemic levels on the back of rising housing demand and short supply.
According to the report, 12,713 vacant commercial buildings were converted into new apartments last year, an increase of 17.6% from the previous year.
And this trend isn’t going away anytime soon.
According to RentCafe, which analyzed Yardi Matrix data for the report, there are currently approximately 151,000 rental apartments in various stages of conversion, including 58,000 repurposed former office spaces. .
Last year was also the first time in 14 years that vacant hotels outnumbered offices due to the conversion of apartments.
Hotels accounted for 36 percent of buildings being repurposed into new apartments, while vacant office space accounted for 28 percent, according to the report.
Factories and warehouses accounted for 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively, of the buildings converted into apartments last year.
Cities across the country are exploring ways to convert commercial space into housing, but some cities are more aggressively pursuing conversion projects than others.
Manhattan, which RentCafe chose to designate as its own city, had the most renovated apartments in 2023, according to the report.
Last year, New York City saw more than 730 new apartments built in repurposed hotels.
The borough is currently home to 5.8 percent of the country’s renovated apartments, and adaptive reuse created nearly four times as many apartments last year compared to 2022.
Richmond, Virginia, has the second-highest number of converted apartment buildings after the city, with adaptive uses creating 662 new apartment units last year, nearly three times the number of conversions expected in 2022.
The 10 cities with the most homes built with adaptive reuse are:
- Manhattan, New York—733
- Richmond, Virginia — 622
- ALAMEDA, CA—372
- Charlotte, North Carolina – 351
- Cincinnati, Ohio — 342
- Lawrence, Massachusetts—338
- Albuquerque, New Mexico – 300
- Denver, Colorado – 300
- Peachtree Corners, Georgia—295
- Cleveland, Ohio — 282
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