Summary Text: Will repurposing a significant portion of commercial real estate structures and sites as housing be a key solution among the many needed to address the housing crisis? What conditions are needed for obsolete office, retail, hotel, and industrial properties to be viable candidates for conversion into apartments or condominiums? To answer these questions, the Urban Land Institute and the National Multifamily Housing Council conducted in-depth interviews with developers of almost 30 projects to get details about the conversion process. Behind the Facade: The Feasibility of Converting Commercial Real Estate to Multifamily Housing reports on the results of those interviews.

The financial picture is addressed, including the challenges of acquisition pricing and conversion costs, as is the physical picture—the challenges and solutions presented by each unique building. The report concludes with a discussion of the pace and extent of future conversions. The report also includes 24 detailed individual, metric-focused profiles of commercial-to-multifamily conversions, documenting the process and components that made each project successful. The sampling skews toward converted office buildings built from 1962 onward, with a focus on those completed from 2019 to 2021. By grouping the projects into 10 categories of like buildings and/or situations, a compare-and-contrast approach allows the details of each profile to offer insights into the developers’ motivations, expectations, and results, as well as a practical understanding of the distinct physical undertaking of the actual conversion.