In lower Manhattan there are hundreds of offices that continue to be closed in many buildings since many employees continue to work from home since the pandemic.
The city’s Urban Planning department issued a plan recommendation to the state to expand the city’s low-use building renovation plan that is only allowed in this area to other counties to convert more office buildings into homes for New Yorkers.
“We have a housing crisis and this presents a time to change the rules and offer a new opportunity (to) convert offices to housing,” said Dan Garodnick, director of the Department of Urban Planning, NYC.
Garodnick says that at the initiative of Mayor Eric Adams, along with eleven members of various city agencies, they were in talks for eight months to publish a report with eleven recommendations that would change the rules for renovating low-use buildings in the city.
“Right now, the rules are for Manhattan only,” Garodnick added.
And only for buildings built between 1961 and 1977.
The owner of a building undergoing renovation says that when the contract with the last office ended in October 2021, they began the renovation process to fit 588 apartments.
“This offers flexibility opportunities to modify our investments, since due to COVID we are left with many spaces without being able to rent,” explained Joey Chilelli, owner of the building.
Garodnick.
Among the 11 recommendations to expand the building renovation plan are:
- Extend the date of construction of eligible buildings until 1990.
- Carry out a tax incentive program to support the construction of affordable and mixed-income housing.
- Expand conversion regulations to all high-density office districts, in other city counties.
Reach other districts in Flushing and also in The Bronx. If building renovation rules change, the report indicates that up to 20,000 homes could be built in the next decade, housing approximately 40,000 New Yorkers.
