FINALLY! Repurposing CRE

[Note: Fully realize AI will likely cripple CRE and jobs, so contributor is not only remote work. Either way, office space is dead.]

https://www.businessinsider.com/chicago-plans-office-residential-conversion-affordable-housing-2023-6

■ Chicago's once-bustling downtown district posted a record-high vacancy rate in 2023, citing the persistent remote work trend.

■ To revitalize the area, the city has approved three projects to turn vacant commercial space into affordable housing.

■ While some residents are skeptical, the LaSalle Reimagined Initiative is just one of many creative solutions urban planners are raising to fill the space.

■ This story is part of "Advancing Cities," a series highlighting urban centers across the US that are committed to improving life for their residents.

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Office space does need to be repurposed, sure, but it will never ever be "affordable housing", it will be rich people housing. Many urban industrial buildings have been converted to housing over the last several decades. Have any of them been affordable to blue collar types? No, and office buildings would be no different.

OP post is on point. All you naysayers will be proven wrong. We need to pivot and we will. Necessity is the mother of (re) invention.

"Turning office buildings into apartments is how California eases the housing crisis"

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-06-25/editorial-turning-office-buildings-into-apartments-is-how-california-eases-the-housing-crisis

Turning office space into "affordable" housing comes with an endless? cost. as per this article
"Without the crucial infusion of public dollars into these redevelopments, we would continue with single-digit units and single-digit opportunities for people who need a subsidy to live affordably to be able to live in the Loop".
Most of the profitable affordable housing seems to come from converting farmland to cookie-cuter housing developments (Lennar, KB homes etc).

"affordable housing" that only millionaires can afford. I'm sure glad we're taking care of that pressing need. 😐

Are they cert the offices are vacant because the jobs the workers are 'remote' now. Maybe the job they used to do is no longer there, or was offshored?

Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

FINALLY! Repurposing CRE

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