New Yorkers don’t live in cubicles — but too many of our future homes are still trapped inside them.
Across the five boroughs, we have empty commercial buildings with high vacancies that go dark after 6 p.m., while families hunt endlessly for an apartment they can afford. The case for action is straightforward.
Converting offices is one of the fastest, greenest, and most cost-effective ways to deliver housing supply where it matters most, near transit, jobs, schools, parks, and small businesses.
Adaptive reuse prevents needless demolitions, slashes embodied carbon compared to ground-up construction, and respects neighborhood character. It also helps our commercial districts evolve into true 24/7 neighborhoods with lights on at night, safer streets, and steady foot traffic for local stores. This is the rare policy that checks every box: climate, affordability, livability, and economic vitality.
We’ve already shown what’s possible when local government and the private sector pull in the same direction: conversions are moving forward across the city. The transformation of 160 Water St. into Pearl House, a residential building with nearly 600 homes, proved that we can turn yesterday’s office space into today’s homes quickly, safely, and with real benefits for the surrounding community.
And even more projects are moving forward: the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 E. 42nd St., which will become 1,600 homes when complete (the largest office-to-residential conversion in the country); 55 Broad St., where former Goldman Sachs offices are becoming 571 homes; 25 Water St., where New Yorkers can already apply for one of more than 300 affordable apartments; and more.
As New York City policymakers, we helped identify the path for projects like these with the Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force, created in 2022 by a bill sponsored by Justin in the City Council and chaired by Dan.
Then, with the passage of the historic City of Yes zoning reform, we extended more flexible regulations to more buildings, sparking a boom of conversions across New York City. With that one action, we made more than 136 million additional square feet of office space eligible to convert to housing.
Prior to City of Yes, only buildings built prior to 1961 — or 1977 in parts of Lower Manhattan — could convert to housing, an arbitrary limitation that needlessly held back our city from adapting to the 21st century. With City of Yes, we updated the year of eligibility and expanded the possibility to convert to housing to buildings citywide, instead of limiting conversions to a few business districts.
New York State has helped to clear the path as well. The state tax incentive for conversions, 467-m, has made many more conversions feasible — and thanks to that program, for the first time ever, we are getting income-restricted affordable housing as a part of these projects too. Soon, thousands of affordable homes will be coming online for working families.
Our work on zoning eligibility and financial feasibility isn’t the end of the line: we still need to execute. Even good projects can still die on the vine if they are tied up in red tape or economic uncertainty.
To create a smooth path and clear instructions for getting all the required approvals, the city has established an Office Conversion Accelerator that is helping 85 buildings across the city navigate across agencies, on everything from landmark protections to fire safety.
Financing also must meet the moment. The math for conversions is different from ground-up development, especially in a higher-interest rate environment. As these projects prove successful, we hope banks and lenders will continue to show confidence in New York’s recovery. Our city’s population is growing again, and investment should too.
This is not theory; it is already happening. Projects are moving in Lower Manhattan, Midtown, Downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City, and beyond. We can point to buildings that will soon put families close to transit and jobs, turn empty blocks into living neighborhoods, and give small businesses a steadier customer base.
Conversions alone are not a silver bullet for the housing crisis, but they are an important part of the solution — and the blueprint is real. Now we need to scale it with speed and discipline.
This is what common-sense government looks like: clear rules, fast decisions, and results that people can feel on their block. From boardrooms to bedrooms. We can turn our city’s surplus office space into the affordable, vibrant neighborhoods New Yorkers deserve.
Brannan is chair of the City Council Finance Committee. Garodnick is director of the New York City Department of City Planning.
