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ZweitenMal t1_ja7x64b wrote

Reply to comment by drpvn in Midtown Owners Hedge on Costly Office-to-Home Conversions by psychothumbs

I read the entire article, because i have a background in commercial real estate, construction, and architecture and the topic interests me.

They are business owners. If you have a business and your market disappears, too bad. That was a risk you ran. Your investment is no longer profitable, so convert the business into something that is profitable, or lose your money.

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-wnr- t1_ja874bo wrote

It's not as easy as owners just deciding to do a conversion. The article discusses some real challenges that stand in the way. Even buildings with a lot of vacancy still have some long term commercial tenants still on lease, or a company with no experience with conversions may look to sell to someone who does, or zoning changes might be needed first. There's a lot of things that takes time and bog down the process.

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CaptainObvious1906 t1_ja8dpxa wrote

much of the challenge seems to be zoning, conversion laws created before the pandemic and developers whining for tax breaks. I also don’t understand how we have politicians who don’t support doing everything in their power to remove the red tape and allow owners to convert their buildings more easily.

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drpvn t1_ja7xh3e wrote

Of course business owners run a risk of losing a lot of money. This is not an interesting statement.

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ZweitenMal t1_ja7zxjf wrote

Then they shouldn't be whining about it.

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GVas22 t1_ja88axf wrote

Did you read the article? I don't see any of these responses as "whining".

Developers got asked why they haven't converted office buildings and the responses are:

  • Building code requires large overhauls in the buildings structure that would be costly. Especially with the large increase in interest rates, finding funding for these projects is much more difficult now.

  • Residential conversions are not something they are experienced in and would most likely need to outsource the job or sell the building.

  • And the biggest one, even if they wanted to convert they legally are not allowed to because of zoning laws and need the government to step in to rezone districts.

Giving, in my opinion, legitimate reason on why these conversion haven't happened yet is not developers crying about people not coming back to the office.

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ZweitenMal t1_ja8ddly wrote

That's pretty rich considering the real estate lobby is able to buy decisions that favor them all the time. The problem is these conversions will cost money and hurt their profits in the short term and they don't like that. They'd rather sit with easy excuses and write the temporarily money-losing properties off against their profitable ones.

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drpvn t1_ja80b5a wrote

The only ones whining here are you (whining about landlords) and me (whining about you).

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flightwaves t1_ja81zp4 wrote

Look who’s whining though lmao

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drpvn t1_ja85gnz wrote

> But obstacles facing Midtown are many. They include the need for legislation from Albany to relax strict rules for residential housing, rezoning to allow apartments in what are now commercial districts, a tax break if affordable units are required, and generally daunting economics.

>What’s more, even properties with many vacancies typically still have some office tenants in place. Ten-year leases are common.

>“Most office buildings are encumbered by existing office tenant leases and typically have to be emptied before being converted,” said Max Herzog, a specialist in financing conversions at the real estate firm JLL. “Deeper, bigger floor plates and other structural elements are often problems, there is a need for changes in the zoning and increased floor area ratios, and then there is also the financing.”

sToP WhininG, i hAVE No sYmpaThY!

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marketingguy420 t1_ja85i7f wrote

But "this is expensive and hard and I am a landlord", a thing we are all aware of, is an interesting statement, which they've repeated many times.

And your defense of them is an interesting statement.

And you complaining about people not caring is an interesting statement.

Sure.

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drpvn t1_ja85npm wrote

Lol 420

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AgentBester t1_ja8e0wu wrote

Yes, when you can't win resort to insults. You are always in these threads taking it on the chin; I guess masochism is a valid kink.

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drpvn t1_ja8e7uj wrote

That was quite cruel of me when I mocked the “420” in the username of a man who is obviously a very serious person worthy of respect.

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