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Office Conversion Accelerator

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    Published in January of 2023, the Department of City Planning's Office Adaptive Reuse Study will contribute to residential conversions. 

Office Conversion Accelerator Team Will Help Expedite Conversions of Office Buildings to Provide New Homes 

The Office Conversion Accelerator program provides building owners with a single point of contact within city government to help ensure office conversion projects can be completed in a Code-compliant and timely manner. If you are a building owner considering an office-to-residential conversion project that might provide 50 or more housing units, please reach out and contact the Office Conversion Accelerator.

To advance office to residential conversions, which will help address ongoing office vacancies and create thousands of much-needed new homes for New Yorkers, Mayor Adams has established the Accelerator team to work with office building owners to advance opportunities for conversions. The Office Conversion Accelerator includes representatives from City Hall, the Department of City Planning, the Department of Buildings, the Department of Housing Preservation & Development, the Board of Standards and Appeals, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and others.

The program will assist owners with conversions, from analyzing the zoning feasibility of individual conversion projects, to helping conversion projects secure necessary permits. Property owners of existing office buildings can seek the interagency team’s help to identify barriers to conversion and expedite pathways to overcome those barriers. 

Get in contact

If you own an office building that could produce 50 units of housing or more if converted, please contact the Office Conversion Accelerator.

On-going reforms to conversion regulations 

Following the recommendations made by the “New” New York Panel and the Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force, the Department of City Planning is preparing a set of reforms to remove zoning barriers to building conversion.  These reforms are part of a wider package of planned changes to expand and diversify our housing supply. Read more about those changes here at City of Yes Housing Opportunity.