Insider Exposes Truth Behind Office-to-Apartment Conversions (Vital Understanding)
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- čas přidán 30. 01. 2024
- Ken McElroy explores the complexities and financial challenges of converting office buildings into residential properties. Delving into practical issues like plumbing, legal zoning, and the high costs of renovation, the video reveals why such conversions are often not feasible.
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I’m currently converting an 11 office building to 12 apartment in the city of San Bernardino . 2 years for city approval , work begins next week , wish me luck 😂 ✌️
With thick pillars and a large foundation, the building is sure to support another 3-5 floors. These floors can be turned into premium apartments or even a small hotel regime.
I have seen in London, England, that conversions of cubic office buildings with central or side stairs into 2 and 3 room apartments are going well. There are office buildings that can be converted into apartments and there are buildings that cannot be converted - or where the costs far exceed the rents in the area.
Will do! You da MAN Ken!
Why wouldn’t you directional drill the plumbing under the building and pop it up for your new plumbing stacks and fur the walls out going up vertically.
Wouldn’t that solve a big solution to the plumbing
Smart cities will encompas pod living.
I figured plumbing would be a giant issue. It just snowballs from there. Glad I saw this.
But it's working out for those that are doing it.
@@z352kdaf8324in some circumstances yes. For most - no.
What about electrical with all the units required to have the panel inside the unit...????
Return of the Single room occupancy (more commonly abbreviated to SRO) is a form of housing that is typically aimed at residents with low or minimal incomes, or single adults who like a minimalist lifestyle, who rent small, furnished single rooms with a bed, chair, and sometimes a small desk.[1] SRO units are rented out as permanent residence and/or primary residence [2] to individuals, within a multi-tenant building where tenants share a kitchen, toilets or bathrooms. SRO units range from 7 to 13 square metres (80 to 140 sq ft).[3][1] In some instances, contemporary units may have a small refrigerator, microwave, or sink.
For business reasons, I have lived in such. If it wasn’t for the lack of cleanliness and respect of others, it would have been fine for a time. But even with cleaners visiting three times a week, it was generally gross because people are filthy, especially if they know someone else is going to clean up after them. And people just cannot be quiet.
The best one I stayed in was in Tokyo. Almost all Japanese business men. It wasn’t great, but it was ok. And still very expensive. But the Tokyo prices for other arrangements was such that it make economic sense.
Very few people eccept the desperate want to live like that
The trend I've seen where I live (Raleigh, NC) is retail on the street, officed space above that, residential on the top floors. That requires different parking, different elevators and other things that try to separate the office workers from the residents.
Building in the center of Des Plaines Illinois was the converted over the course of the last year from 12 commercial units to 30 rentals successfully
Having worked with Ken and Ross on several deals have the utmost respect for his insight. He is correct on the issues however some buildings are more conducive than others for conversions. He is correct that most office buildings do not work, but some do especially when you can pick them up for less than $10 or $15/sf with renovations costing $75/sf with an all in factor of $85 to $90/sf with rental rates in excess of $1.70/sf.
What this former owner says only applies to relatively modern structures.
Older buildings do not get sold at replacement cost, in fact way below in dollars. So acquisition would be a factor of one fifth the cost , even less.
This is a low rise building typically found in office parks. Most conversions take place at mid rises on a much smaller floor plate , no more than 4,000 sf. in denser urban settings.
Some older buildings , very old ones , keep only a couple rest rooms within a floor. The rest of the building stock has one or two restrooms per suite.
Older buildings feature high ceiling clearances , where you can run ducts at the floor’s ceiling line.
What makes or brakes a conversion is the floor plate layout. Core shafted buildings can work only under certain circumstances. A shaft at the back recessed from the plate rectangle is ideal. Meaning outside the rectangle.
Most older buildings have the elevator hoist room atop on the roof. And a few feature basement parking. Parking being at premium. That means your top floor gets sacrificed for a clubhouse , common laundry, and gymnasium. Forget a swimming pool. There won’t be a lot large enough to accommodate one.
It’s happening in so many malls in Cali. Ghost shops and empty stores that I used to love. 😮
Needing to go to an office building to work and a store for shopping is becoming less necessary quickly.
Cities are becoming obsolete.
After the growing pains of the adjustment, I think this will be a positive change. I don't think it's good for people to have to take a trip to see trees that aren't growing out of a sidewalk.
An office building in my town is being converted to residential. The process has been going on for over 2 years.
Sounds about right
show this to every """EXPERT""" who says offices should be converted to apartmenbts. great vid
I know ! We can put immigrants in them. We have 3 million a year now we need to house, so this would be a good temporary set up until we can get them single family houses in the suburbs somewhere.
Communal style living makes this conversion cheap
@@sillymesilly exactly, it would be perfect for immigrants, cheaper than hotels.
@@latetotheparty184. Agreed but must pay to live there. Not gvt subsidies. People here illegally shouldn’t be here at all. Pools and exercise areas are not needed by anyone.
@@louannhuber2651I agree completely, I was being tongue in cheek. It irritates me completely that we have just thrown open our borders.
Didn’t the federal government just pass a bill to provide money to developers who want to convert these office buildings to residential?
Yep givernment isnt good at budgeting though
Provide loan at a better rate ..
Why should the taxpayers foot the bill? All this mal-investment needs to get foreclosed on and reconfigured, not residential.....
Yes they did. The few will profit greatly.
Yes but as Ken pointed out it’s more equitable to rip it down and start over. The government is providing cheap interest loans but at the end of the day you would need to get the property for zero to make it worth the risk. Office buildings were built to be used as office buildings……. Unfortunately.
The plumbing is a concern.
I don't think most of the rest of it is, though; there is a housing crisis emerging in the US (and most of the West), people can't afford to be picky. Millenials/Gen-Z'ers have all but given up on home ownership, but maybe owning (or at least renting) a cheap, barebones apartment is the best bandage for that wound, for now. The problem is only getting worse. In short, people will take what they can get.
The issue with zoning is somewhat valid, but I'd expect (hope) states (or even the federal government) to create fast lanes for this specific zoning conversion, or maybe workaround. Commercial real estate owners are hurting, and so are less wealthy prospective renters. Two birds with one stone.
Where I live several motels have been purchased by the county and used for sheltering the homeless. A less expensive option I believe. A lot fewer tents and folks begging on the corner.
I worked on medical office upfits. 10x12 exam rooms, each with a sink, labs, surgical suites, multiple waiting rooms, etc... 10 years ago it was $125/ft to unfit... so for the 1,500 sq ft apartment about $200k/. Add on the physical building cost, common areas, elevators, demised plumbing/heating..we are at $600k for the space.
And that's Class B space... low B.
Thanks for sharing this observation and information about this type property. Gives a lot for our society to consider about resolving current housing issues.
I have been saying these things for years that moderno office buildings can't be adaptively reused. Thanks for giving so much great info in one video. This is great!
Your correct on what your saying, less then 25% of all Commercial buildings are capable to be converted. The older building designs work the best with beams or wood floors. SOME AND I MEAN SOME Post tenision decks, some pan on steel member floors. But New construction does not work, the numbers to make it happen. 40 yrs as a carpenter saw, just simple penetrations on Commercial new building became engineering night mares.Then room height became issue for needed slope for drains to work. Kitchens and baths need to many holes through floors. The latest and greatest is the pedestal buildings 3-4 floors, pan deck or post cabled deck. then I think it's 6 floors max of wood framing. There more easy to convert to Res. The above wood framing.
It's a really lovely building for its purpose. Thanks for detailing why a conversion to residential won't work. What about a conversion to retail or a school or some odd purpose? All the old shopping malls are trying to reinvent themselves. In my area someone finally bought the mall and are developing a multipurpose site with city government's approval. The parking lots will become ground up apartments, park areas, etc. while the existing mall downstairs will be retail (Penney's is still hanging on), restaurant, and the upper areas an extension of the local college with classrooms and such.
you could easily convert it into a dorm style rental space. You can't get as much money per unit, but could also renovate the bottom floor to have a restaurant in it and you could sell meal plans to the residents and/or have them get a discount for eating at the restaurant. You can also make it advantages for the people working you restaurant to live there by discounting their rent and other things. This country is in desperate need of cheap housing this could be a massive win, because you could take your estimated 10 units per floor and make it like 40 units per floor.
This is how poor immigrants families and elderly people in San Francisco’s Chinatown live… 40 units in a two floor building… called SRO’s (single resident occupancy). Look it up… super condensed living… they’re renters not owners.
With a huge space like that, you don’t make them into apartments. You make them into dormitories, that is people are renting rooms with public areas for cooking, dinning, washing and recreation. It is not ideal to make them into apartments as the layout was made with the intention of shared space.
To make that into apartments, you would need to redo or demolition and restart, which is very costly for the owner and the renter in the end.
12-15 unit per floor, take highest unit, 15
1500-2k sqft, take highest sqft, 2k
15x2000=30k sqft, average person is more than comfortable in a 130-150sqft. If 150sqft room over 30k sqft, that is 200 rooms.
If you charge $1k a month to rent a room, that is $200k a month. Compare that to the $6k apartment for 15 units, $90k a month.
You’ll have more people who can pay $1k a month and still have money to save and spend vs $6k a month and having anxiety about expenses.
1 bdrm apartment units is hard to rent because a single person doesn’t need all that space. They just need a room to sleep, a place to store their belongings and a space to zone out. A single room is adequate for that.
I've done two office to residential condo conversions, one in Baltimore and another in Crimeadelphia. They can be done but it helps if the building is pre-war (that would be WWII or WW11 if you are a teacher in the Memphis school system) and you can purchase for < $50-60 a foot. There have been some recent trades in DC where office values are down by 60-70%. While you are right Ken that plumbing costs a lot, fire safety is there and there is more than enough electricity at office buildings.
I have been in a Motel in HK that was a converted factory it was about 6 story high that was well done. I have trade background myself. Good to comments from people who have actually done the conversion’s. Australia is near impossible to get timely approvals from any level of government in Australia nowadays. If building companies build only 10 designs of homes for a subdivision. Ie say 1000 homes. Each and every plan is accessed as a complete new build ie they need full approval on the same design built 100 or 1000 times and take months to do it. Lucky if we can build 75000 homes/apartments/units per year. Immigration is 750000 the government just can not follow the dots and Wonder why rents and home prices sky rocketed.
Those old buildings were really over engineered ie pre war WW11 thank god. Worked in them as well doing retro fit ie bringing up to code. I was actually stopped drilling a hole in the floor in a new shopping centre in the late 1970s by a engineer, his reason was that it would weaken the floor I’m talking half inch hole. Never forgot that same mob forget to have false ceiling tiles clipped in gust of wind complete ceiling fell in.
Pre-war office buildings can support more weight per floor than apartment buildings built in the same era. This introduces some flexibility in converting the space to new configurations.
This is an excellent summation of the situation. People think you just snap your fingers and "AFFORDABLE HOUSING". Nope.
Great video! Validates why I prefer to just renovate existing apartment complexes. I renovated my 26 unit and 20 unit apartment complexes and they now cash flow 10k+/month net. Why simpler to renovate an existing apartment vs convert an office to apartment. If able to do the conversion, I'd hope it would make lots of equity.
Thanks for this very simple explanations. I was always one who thought it would be easy and affordable to do. Kudos!
@@waynv1835The energy cost per unit would be insane.
The idea behind the conversion is that the economic downturn over the next few years will be so bad that commercial properties will be bought for Pennie’s on the dollar.This along with very low interest rates and huge tax rebates and other state and federal incentives makes this possible.
Excellent video and information! I think some office buildings did convert from office space to apartments in Dallas. You have excellent points in this video. I do agree with you.
You are 100% correct Ken! The numbers to do an office to apartment conversion simply do not work unless this process is subsidized by others. Yet, the National Institute of Building Sciences has indicated previously that this process is one of the best solutions to solve the housing crisis. Go figure.
Thank you. Good points.
I learned more in this field video than a the normal monologue. Thank you so much, Ken!
I love your vidoe. Full of knowledge and wisdom and experience.
Great video. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
One of the best aspects of multifamily is it is hard to build. You can't just throw it up like a lot of other buildings. Difficulty of build protects owners from a oversupply of units in growth areas.
Retro-fit - yes. But not hard to build from the ground up. Your plumbing stacks go up from the first to the top floor, everybody's kitchen and bath are in the same location from floor to floor.. Central elevators. Ken is right, knock this thing down and start from the ground up - but not at this price point.
"Protect from oversupply" ...one of the flaws in our current society.
@avernvrey7422 and the solution that you propose to have an endless supply of material and labor? I'll wait.
How about people get off their ass and do their own work? Put the roof on the house, cut the grass, etc. Just because those in power (corporations) have funneled us into this existence doesn't mean we have to stay there. @@maxwellblackwell5045
Hey thanks for the great video! I think it will be interesting to do a follow up on this place in about 5 years. This is what I think and feel, but what do I know. Most of the issues you talk about make sense if you have standards. But last time I looked outside people are living under tarps, even in winter, and its fine with everyone I guess? I live in London Canada, which is a decent sized city. I used to rent a 3 bedroom portion of a home, about 1500 sq feet. After I moved out 12 people moved in to the same space. 1 bdrm? It depends how many matresses you can fit in it. Or bunk beds. You could have 4 renters in there easy. Plumbing? They might just make a few more communal bathrooms/showers on each floor and thats it. Maybe just like a sink in each unit. Alternatively, each unit has a water tank, like camping-fun! For basic washing up and drinking. Bathrooms are busy? You gotta go? Thats what jars and buckets are for. This sounds ridiculous I know, but I have seen standards fall dramatically in the last 10 years, I just wouldn’t be surprised if things go at least closer to the above in the future. I hope I’m wrong, and that I feel dumb looking at this in a few years haha.
Why cant you have a communal bathroom and kitchen. The problem is all the issues your listing, are, you cant convert it to luxury apartments. It would have to be affordable units. 500-700 square feet units, around 800-1200 a month. We dont want luxury, we want cheap.
I watched this after seeing a video by Evan Edinger about office building conversions in London in the UK. He found similar issues there compounded by the fact that the national government allowed the retrofits to not be 100% up to local code. Residents had issues of noise from their neighbors, and electrical issues on top of the ones that Ken mentioned. Another issue was that building was between two large highways that would busy all day and most of the night--road noise and smog.
The whole idea does seem to be wishful thinking.
Excellent Ken.
awesome video! Everyone sign up for the inner circle it’s worth it. Ask questions every week
Very good explanation. Thanks!
Excellent. Less than 10% of office buildings nationwide can be cost effective converted to multi family.
Doesn't work....
Thanks Ken.
In Canada we’re suffering a worse housing crisis from what I understand. Both political parties have been talk about converting commercial to residential… which is total hopium. There’ll have to be extreme changes to residential laws… like allowing bathrooms to be used by everyone on the floor. In the coming commercial property crash and the poverty of the people to create a massive homeless problem turning into a squatting issue.
We need to figure out how to reuse buildings like they do in Europe. If it costs too much then the government needs to offset the cost with tax credits or a subsidy. Maximize the number of units and it becomes doable. Totally agree with zoning issues. We need to get more flexibility in zoning rules in most large cities to allow different types of uses to be next to one another like retail & office next to residential.
Great job #KenMcElroy!!!!…these incompetent politicians need to watch your channel/platform!!!!!!
You could have the plumbing running under the ceilings along the sides of the rooms blended with a wooden cage or colored.
They are doing well in my area converting.
Great video, thanks!
There are some businesses that operate from buildings that were, or could easily be residential buildings. In the recent past I've been to a lawyer, notary, hairdresser that rented residential flats to conduct their businesses.
With the work from home thing making office space cheaper, I'm sure many of those will give up their current leases and move to an office space.
Well I think it will be cheaper to reconstruct it vs demolish and rebuild. Same with any other commercial building. The TD ameritrade building was set up in a failing mall which used to be JC penny. It makes sense to repurpose something vs starting new.
I used to live on 3810 s 13 st Omaha Nebraska (across the street from the zoo) in this old school that was turned into apartments. They were beautiful.
Great video. On the ground and interactive with the actual product. Would be great if u show how u do inspections with ur acquisition team and other on the ground aspects. 1luv
Why would he do that? Seems like a thing you should keep a secret.
👍Thanks, this detailed and super-informed case study is important for understanding how the current Commercial Real Estate crisis is bad news, and for the national economy. 👍(Least costly conversion: student aparts, with few windows and shared kitchens/rest spaces??)
One time I bought into a old office building that was converted into lofts. The units were nice but the building it’s self sucked. There wasn’t enough sound proofing not just in the walls but in the the floors. I could always here my Neighbours
There is a group in metro Cincinnati, who have converted an old Holiday Inn into a senior living facility. It's frightening.
Assuming zoning changes to allow residential and retail in commercial areas, how about leaving the physical structure of the bldg as is and put ground floor retail plus bicycle, and if possible automobile parking, second floor fitness and amenities, third floor professional office, and then add a three story apartment bldg on top or how ever many it takes for the math to pencil out.
I was thinking about how to repurpose malls and do something where say the bottom floor was like what you see on Royal Caribbean ships w/a promenade and the upper stores could be residential but I get as now the plumbing would have to upgraded etc which would affect stores you could keep/open on the ground floors. Nice ideas converting these things but impractical.
I’m a contractor and that was the first thing I thought about when the idiots in New York City said they could easily convert office buildings to residential. Totally clueless!
When dealing with this type of property it will be necessary to investigate mixed use. By mixing commercial with residential the building can be kept and residential mixed in to the plot. This is tough to get by government regulators, but it will be needed to save the commercial RE market which is otherwise heading for a BIG tumble.
The challenge is not likely to be design as much as financial in these low rise suburban office islands-in-a-sea-of-asphalt. With sufficient funds, anything can be done. Being on a major stroad with terrible transit just off the end of the runway for a jet-airport that is very busy doesn’t make sense to live there anyway. I’m curious though about the block to the south that had 1-story office-warehouses that were demolished. If transit were better along Scottsdale Rd, it’d be convenient to take it to Kieran Plaza or Scottsdale Quarter, but a car or heat tolerance bicyclist would be needed.
Great video! As a former multi-property landlord.....forget it!
great video. I do wonder how all the factory loft conversions were done, re plumbing. I realize those are very different buildings than most modern office buildings.
It is do-able but the main issue is changing our thinking on housing....Number 1 = The setup would need to be more like a hostel, including communal bathrooms and showers or if not truly communal the bathrooms/showers would still be outside the apartment. Number 2 = Think 500sf vs. 1,500 sf. The space is not for families as much as for singles or couples without kids.
Well done.
For us investors the entire idea is a non-starter short of a permanent loan at 3% and a government guarantee to eliminate any risk...oh and tax credits for brownfields, no property tax for 10 years as a development zone assignment...
Pipe dream? Great examination Ken on the fallacy of the “idea” to convert to individual living units… in San Francisco, political leaders have been touting this in the decline of financial district leases… I have seen one tall 20 floor office building convert however, it had to be gutted down to the i-beams.
That atrium is probably making the conversion process a massive headache. Lots of unleasable wasted space. Floor-plates with a small to medium footprint with central cores are probably ideal, but the plumbing and mechanical becomes an issue, but perhaps in buildings with large floor-to-floor heights (12 feet or so?) they could build up raised floor platforms to put in the plumbing/drainage without tearing up the decking.
Plumbing is best done by adding a new floor say 8 inches above the cement floor and run all the plumbing inside the cavity.
It sounds like 9 million is way to much money for that property...
It is if you can't use the property in the manner it was constructed for? Plus your stuck with every quirk of the building.
Probably why he said it with a smile on his face.
Maybe the location is very good...
This is common sense for anyone whose ever been in an office building. I cant understand why people cant grasp that...
Seems like so much overhead managing a building like this and its only gonna get worse as it ages. Interesting video thanks for sharing.
You don’t need to move bathroom. Kitchens can be shared. Apartment can be communal. Students, tech workers, or whatever can live there. Apartment can be cheap because its communal. Parking lot already exists, so no major changes needed, just the mindset.
Thank you Ken. I wish people such as yourself could testify in front of congress to show them the impracticality of their ideas before they start spending our tax dollars.
I have seen conversion like that in 3rd world countries. You turn all that open space into a giant dorm. Everyone shares the two bathrooms. They usually build some kind of shared kitchen using a spot near the restrooms to jury rig connect the plumbing. Rent the beds out for $20-$50/month. Rent the actual rooms out for about $100/month.
That's exactly it!! Shelters for more migrants
Well, we are becoming 3rd world
I would like to see his analysis of high-rise office conversions.
Great video. Small contractor here. Very true statements based in reality.
I’m guessing the current cost of labor and materials make it impossible too, assuming you could even find people willing to work.
@@dagsterblaster4973 it gets more difficult all the time to find skilled help.
Like Ken said, you can only charge so much per unit and that trickles down to us guys doing the work. I can only charge and/pay so much before I price myself out of work too.
Mortgages for commercial are not fixed and long term. They are fixed, shorter term, and need to be regularly refinanced. For 42 years, real estate loans were generally refinanced at lower and lower interest rates. Now rates are much higher and in the decades ahead likely to slowly creep higher. In the next year to 5 this refi wave is going to lead to the greatest foreclosure event in cre history. This happened with farms and residential during Great Depression
Non profit. I’m sure the numbers could be figured out.
What if it a condo with a communial bathroom like a college dorm. I’m pretty sure a lot of lonely people will come and start
There is social issues that wouldn't work.
THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN
No one is going to do that, it's not profitable
IT'S BEING DONE NOW, certainly it won't work in many buildings BUT they are talking about doing it to empty malls here, not sure if that would be easier or not.@@michah321
NYC been doing warehouse conversions for decades. ✌️
It could be possible, doing the Manhattan approach. One central shower room every floor or every other floor. Add a kitchen area for each floor. Allow a microwave in the suites.
I've had a clouple of friends refit single family homes. They said that it's not worth it. It costs more than the purchase price.
wow thats a big building yes there are no windows - people like opening windows you are right awesome video
Some of these vacant office buildings don’t make sense to convert from commercial use to residential use because of plumbing,load barriers,codes,electrical,HVAC,parking,environmental impact cost!!!!
Why not convert these office buildings into selling office condos? Let small business owners have more options to purchase their workspace. Maybe no closings until 75% sold so seller is not stuck with a half sold building. Maybe challenge is NNN costs / HOA makes it not pencil, but seems like that would be a hybrid solution, at least for buildings that are small to mid-sized.
As you know all plumbing pipes are not in concrete slabs, they are suspended below slabs, above suspended ceiling. So, you do not need to rip the pipes out of concrete, add pipes and re-route them. The same is required to outher MEP utilities. Partition walls must be rebuilt to go full height between units. Good luck!
depends on location as to whether it would be profitable
Value goes up when made residential so conversion even when it cost millions will benefit regardless.
I think closed Malls would be better ,bigger area but stores are already downstairs ,apartments could be upstairs ,plenty of room to add a pool ,indoor farmers market ,gym,playground ,and factor in the malls were like a fortress in day of the dead.
Convert it to SROs ,plywood cubicles, with common toilets ,NYC has thousands of units like that
Ive seen that bldg. Scottsdale?
Thats true for windowless modern office buildings on Concrete Floors in AZ
Here in New England we have former offices that were Chair Manufacturing Facilities in 100+ year old buildings that have gigantic support wooden beams that renters like
There are 2 such manufacturing-office buildings that have been converted to Residential
There is a 3rd that is 100,000 sq ft that might work basically is zoned mixed-use..our current rental market in Massachusetts is about 1% Vacancy because of so many low-end buildings being snatched up by State for immigrant housing for the people from Mexican Border
Would that work?
The New York Times did an in depth piece on the topic. As you note, it essentially comes down to how old is the building, how many windows, and how much of the overall footage is in close proximity to those windows. 1800s building tend to be fantastic candidates, as they were often mills built before electric lighting, and have great space to convert. 1980s office buildings tend to be the exact opposite, and are unikely to ever be anything but future demolition projects. The building featured in this video is probably going to go forward as an office or a pile of rubble.
@@kerrykerry5778 Thanks for the quick response Kerry
Can you provide a link to that NYTimes article?
Turn them into high end lofts,…🤗🎉
Standard size for ceilings is 8ft you can run overhead instead of ripping anything up unnecessarily, or sunken living rooms and a subfloor for plumbing....the coring cost would be worth buying a drill and hiring an hourly worker to prepare ahead of the plumber........
When Ken speaks, he makes politicians look like the dumbest people when they tout that will convert empty downtown office buildings to apartments.
The price to rent for commercial at least $25+ per sqft+ NNN.
With commercial a business owner has to take care when things brake down inside their business.
Compare to residential landlords have to fix stuffs when things broke.
Which this doesn’t apply for residential.
This office isn't triple net.
Just have to adopt a new model to accommodate low income. Community bathrooms, community Kitchen. At least it’s housing
as someone who's been in construction for 30 years I've been saying the same thing and people look at me like I'm stupid .. Our society is run by the most uneducated people.. 80% of people these days have no clue how anything works
Cant you run piping through the access panels in the ceiling for plumbing?
Yes, you can. But demolishing and building again iS sMaRtEr.
In the city's heartbeat, where secrets swirl,
An insider speaks, truth unfurls.
Office walls witness conversions untold,
A vital understanding, a tale to be bold.
From cubicles to kitchens, a transformation grand,
Insider's whispers in the concrete land.
Truth behind conversions, now laid bare,
In the urban evolution, secrets to share.
Apartments rise from office floors,
Insider's truth, revealing more.
Vital understanding, a city's dance,
In the rhythm of conversions, a chance.
Walls that echoed business dreams,
Now cradle homes in silent streams.
Insider's voice, a truth profound,
In the conversion's echo, wisdom found.
I would rather spent 17 or 20 million and buy a already functioning complex with 100 or 150 units and star making money right away that would be a big headache to deal with everything you said it makes a lot of sense I managed apartment complexes and I own apartment buildings
Convert only half of building, leave downstairs as a mall where the residence can shop and dine.
What IF, the plumbing and electrical stayed outside of the concrete? Go for an industrial look. Easier to install and maintain. Think outside the codes, then change the codes!!
Can we just say No! At least for the vast majority. Horrible idea that sounds somewhat plausible on paper. Excellent and well thought out presentation.
$2500 rent in Los Angeles for 1 bedrooms no pool, fitness center 1 parking spot. Small and no green space at all.
Know a lot of people who would share Sanitary and cooking facilities, just to have an affordable, and stable room of their own with a lock... So ... Yeah , regular people housing wouldn't work, but there are people who need housing and aren't as particular as some might be