Mayor Wu today announced a proposal to open up empty commercial space downtown to residential use by offering 75% off standard residential tax rates for up to 29 years for building owners - and by setting up a new office to speed conversions through the city's normal development approval process. Read more.
I don’t want to sound like an ass but… surely they’ve spoken to some developers about this and think there’s scope for it to work.
One would think. You might be surprised.
Maybe things are different in Boston. The general rule is the older the office the better it will work, and I’m betting that Boston has some pretty old office buildings.
What I can say is that this is a pretty popular political football at the moment. I wouldn’t be surprised if this it was initiated by the mayor and not the planning department.
There some that are looking into similar conversions in other cities:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90866323/too-big-too-small-no-these-offices-are-just-right-to-become-housing
^ San Francisco
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/cities-look-to-revive-downtowns-by-converting-offices-to-housing
^ New York