With record-high office vacancies persisting as the pandemic wanes in the US, a growing number of cities are adjusting single-use downtown zoning to encourage office conversions to multifamily and mixed-use developments.
Mixed-use neighborhoods generally fared better economically during pandemic shutdowns than single-use business districts. With much of the workforce now embracing work-where-you-live options, the days of office-only city districts that empty out at night may soon be numbered.
In Washington DC, the combination of a housing crunch and a record office vacancy rate of more than 18 percent has spurred a wave of recent office-to-apartment conversions. Absorption of Class A apartments in the Washington metro area was 16,310 in 2021, with vacancies at 3.4 percent at the end of the year, according to Delta Associates.
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