Innovations in Office Space Reuse

When it comes to Office Space Conversions, Innovation Shows Few Limits 

CCIM Designees today are at the forefront of representing and supporting organizations in transforming properties from office spaces to something completely innovative and different.  

According to CBRE, as of Q3 2024, 71 million-sf (1.7% of U.S. office inventory) was planned for or already undergoing conversion.1 Additionally, between 2021 and 2024, the number of apartments scheduled for conversion from old office spaces increased from 12,100 to 55,300.2  

From offices converted into multifamily dwellings to offices transformed into data centers, AI hubs, and beyond, there is no lack of creativity in the way vacant or underutilized offices are being repurposed.  

Interested in taking your knowledge of property development to the next level to navigate these conversions? Consider courses from The CCIM Institute here. The Institute is launching a Development Certificate program in early April 2025.  

Now, let’s dive deeper into office conversions:  

Office to Multifamily 

Directly across the street from The CCIM Institute headquarters at the REALTOR® building in Chicago, the Tribune Tower stands tall as a symbol of a great daily newspaper and freedom of the press. Today, this historic neo-Gothic skyscraper – once home to the Chicago Tribune newsroom, a radio station, and other offices – is now mostly made up of luxury condos. This redevelopment began in 2016, and the first residents moved there in 2021. It’s a unique building for conversion to residences, but its amenities are remarkable – 55,000-sf of amenity space on four different levels. Below the massive “Chicago Tribune” sign on the building’s south exterior is a 75’ indoor lap pool and an outdoor sundeck. This redevelopment shows how any office space can be made into an attractive residential setting.  

Office conversions are not easy to accomplish, with challenges ranging from zoning issues all the way down to plumbing. Jaime Henson, CCIM, a commercial broker with Crye-Leike Commercial and CCIM Memphis Chapter president, told us more. 

“The biggest challenge I see with trying to take vacant office buildings and converting them into multifamily is plumbing for the apartments. Most floors usually only have one set of men and women's bathrooms, so to rerun plumbing would be expensive,” Henson said. However, she notes that the trend is catching on.  

“I think people are looking at office buildings in the same way investors/owner users started looking at vacant big box stores when they all started closing up shop. It's a great idea if it can actually happen,” she said. 

Multi-Housing News recently shared a variety of interesting examples of innovative office-to-multifamily conversions. One of them is The Sinclair Residences located in downtown Dallas, a 49-story former office building.  Over 4 million-sf was transformed into hotel, residential or mixed-use space. Unique to the conversion of this all-glass tower, developers added balconies to 30% of the rentable units. According to the article, “the solution to only have it at the corners created not only a more activated exterior skin for the building, but also a covered outdoor balcony space. It is sizeable enough for outdoor dining or an outdoor living room—a feature that gives Sinclair a leg up.” Read more here.3 

Office to… Innovations of the Future 

The trend of office space conversions goes far beyond multifamily. There are conversions for today’s computing technologies: Data centers, AI hubs, and more. 

The demand for data centers close to where work is being done provides developers with opportunities to convert office spaces. HOK Group, an architecture firm based in St. Louis, showed how this could be done in this article.4 The firm says latency and lag associated with cloud computing can impact businesses that require fast speeds for technologies like AI and Large Language Models. 

“An opportunity now exists to bring data connection even closer—literally within arm’s reach of the programmers, data scientists and computer engineers spearheading today’s advanced technology,” HOK noted. “Moving data centers on site would give tenants faster connections and greater customization than ever before.” 

Lastly, they share how these retrofits could be used to make buildings greener by recycling the high heat generated by the servers for vertical farming – literally urban agriculture.  

These are just a few of the innovative ways developers and commercial real estate professionals are converting office space. Whether its multifamily, data centers, or tomorrow’s high-tech solutions, there are limitless possibilities for converting office spaces. There are opportunities that continue to emerge globally with the evolution in how companies and their employees do business.