With the high rate of office vacancies in cities across the country, elected officials and economic developers have been trying to encourage converting these spaces into much-needed housing, writes Ashley Fahey for The Business Journals.
Federal incentives are available through programs from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the General Services Administration.
Even with incentives offered though, these conversion projects aren’t easy to make happen, developers say.
Keystone Development and Investment in West Conshohocken has been investing in office-to-residential conversion projects since the pandemic.
The developer recently converted the historic Curtis building in Center City into life sciences space and is considering several other projects including converting several floors of The Washington also in Philadelphia and turning an office building on the Plymouth Meeting Mall property into housing.
Michael Brookshier, vice president of development at Keystone said that besides leveraging state historic tax credits, the company is also considering federal incentives from two Department of Transportation programs that incentivize the building of new housing near transportation.
The challenge with these programs though, he said is that everyone is still trying to figure out how these programs work and if there is a change in administration in November they may be cut.
Read more about how Keystone Development Investment is handling office conversions in The Business Journals.
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