America is sitting on hundreds of millions of square feet of vacant office space, while developers are turning some of the most unlikely buildings into apartments. In 2026, office-to-residential conversions reached a record 90,300 units in development nationwide.
1. A Former Office Can Become Hundreds of Apartments
In Washington, D.C., two vacant office buildings near Dupont Circle are being converted into more than 500 apartments.
The projects show why developers are looking at empty offices differently: the buildings already sit in established neighbourhoods with restaurants, transit, and other amenities.
2. New York Has a 588-Unit Example
Manhattan’s Pearl House transformed 480,000 square feet of office space into 588 apartments.
The project even added five floors to the existing tower and includes amenities such as a gym, lounges, coworking space, and a bowling alley.
3. Some Conversions Are Becoming Co-Living
Developers aren’t always creating conventional apartments.
A Pew/Gensler study found that small co-living units could cost substantially less to create than traditional studios. Across 10 cities, the model could produce an average of 3.9 times as many affordable homes per dollar of public subsidy.
4. Not Every Office Can Become a Home
The idea sounds simple until engineers open the walls.
Only about 25% of more than 1,300 buildings analysed by Gensler across 130 North American cities were considered suitable candidates for office-to-residential conversion. Deep floor plates, limited windows, plumbing, and mechanical systems can make conversions extremely difficult.
5. Some Cities Are Rewriting the Rules
Cities are changing zoning and approval processes to make conversions easier.
Denver has an adaptive-reuse program, while Houston removed parking requirements in its central business district to help make some conversions financially feasible.
6. The Office May No Longer Be the Final Destination
The bigger story isn’t simply apartments.
Hotels, schools, life-science facilities, self-storage, and other uses are also competing for obsolete office space. After decades when offices dominated downtowns, some of those buildings are now being given entirely different jobs.
