Dog Friendly Offices & Adaptive Re-Use

Here is an interesting gimmick for some office space above Twenty used distinguish themselves in a sagging commercial market. Dog friendly... last week they got a park – now they are getting offices. The Advocate recently quoted office vacancy rates at almost 20% in town, so competition is high.

In light of those vacancies I think we’ll also continue to see adaptive re-use of many smaller office building into housing. Increasing centralized housing stock while decreasing excess office space would be beneficial to the city. The Metropolitan & 100 Prospect are among recent examples. Conversion I’m assuming is cheaper for developers. From what I’ve seen it can give awkward layouts to some units but I’ve also heard the steel and concrete construction of these converts is less flimsy than some of the stick construction which can significantly cut down on neighbor noise. The conversions thus far have also spruced up the exteriors. A lot of these small office “shoe boxes” age really poorly and start to look pretty bad with only the slightest touch of entropy. They aren’t architectural wonders to begin with so a high degree of upkeep is needed that the office landlords don’t seem willing to provide to keep them looking halfway decent. So far the re-uses examples have all been marketed as luxury. The word “luxury” in apartments though is kind of like “extra strength” in the pharmacy – “regular” is just not something that’s made anymore. Market realities though might help make some existing or new re-uses available at more affordable rates.