Office to Residential Conversions - What We've Learned by Assessing More Than 300 Potential Conversion Projects

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The real estate industry has been interested in office to resume conversions for quite some time. They became a greater fixation during the pandemic, but most of the coverage so far has been about why these don't work. The people who were saying it wasn't going to work were right because actually about 70% of the time it won't lay out properly or make sense.

Industry experts agree: Converting unused office towers to residential buildings is great in theory, but a moonshot to pull off. Despite the grab bag of obstacles that make these projects so difficult, the developer and office landlord Hines is getting in on the action. The Real Deal breaks down how Hines' Salt Lake City project pencils out and what it signals about the right building for the job.

Guests: Steven Paynter, studio director at Gensler's Toronto office; Dusty Harris, senior managing director of Hines' Utah and Oregon investment activity.