Mayor Eric Adams announced a new effort on Thursday to turn empty offices into needed housing more quickly — while also detailing a timeline for plans to transform a swath of Midtown into a “24/7” community.
New York City’s new “office conversion accelerator” program, which is currently live, will help the city reach the mayor’s goal of turning 20,000 empty offices into new apartments over the next decade by streamlining what critics have called a cumbersome bureaucratic process down to six months, the mayor said.
Adams also said the city will be amending zoning language for buildings built before 1990 to allow for residential conversions — and office-to-residence conversions in areas already zoned for housing — after a public review process next year.
“Every elected in this city, the number one thing they hear is housing, housing, housing,” Adams said during a press conference in Manhattan on Thursday. “And there’s just not enough of it.”
New York City has less than 5% of apartments vacant and available to rent, according to the city’s most recent housing survey. Low-income New Yorkers are bearing the brunt of the crisis, with less than 1% of units priced below $1,500 a month empty and on the market.
Housing experts say office conversions aren’t a silver bullet — they are costly and can be inconvenient depending on the building’s composition — but can put a dent in the city’s housing needs.
Adams’ office conversion goals hinge in part on plans to change rules in a commercial section of Midtown where apartments and condos are currently banned. He and Dan Garodnick, the city’s planning commissioner, said the city has kicked off the planning process to allow for housing conversions in that area, with the administration starting public engagement around the change this fall and the public approval process next year.
They have likened the Midtown proposal to the redevelopment of the Financial District following rule changes that…
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