The city of New York is now the top city with the most number of commercial spaces converted into apartment units and homes.
A new report from real estate listings website RentCafe found that NYC, specifically the Manhattan area, is at the forefront of the country's adaptive reuse initiative, which sees empty commercial spaces being repurposed as residential properties. In 2023 alone, Manhattan converted a total of 733 commercial spaces into apartments. This makes the city home to 5.8% of all converted units in the country.
Much of Manhattan's conversions can be attributed to the repurposing of the former New York Marriott East Side, a hotel at 525 Lexington Ave that ceased operations in 2020. That conversion resulted in 655 converted units for students.
Which Other Cities Converted the Most Commercial Spaces Into Apartments in 2023?
Following Manhattan in terms of hotel conversions is Albuquerque in New Mexico, which produced 300 converted apartment units last year. Those units come from the repurposed Hotel Cascada off Carlisle Boulevard and Interstate 40.
Claiming third place on the list is Richmond, Virginia, where the old Quality Inn & Suites was repurposed into a 291-unit apartment building called The Icon.
Other cities on the list include Hialeah, FL, with 251 converted apartment units; Overland Park, KS, with 220 converted units; Sterling Heights, MI, 213; Richland, WA, 207; Las Vegas, NV, 199; Salt Lake City, UT, 184; and Ruskin, FL, 158.
Apart from converted hotels, the report also analyzed office conversions in the U.S. Topping that list is Peachtree Corners, which produced 295 apartment units after converting an office building at 5672 Peachtree Parkway.
Tied for second place are Milwaukee and Indianapolis. Both cities successfully produced 216 new apartments each from former office spaces.
Other cities on the list of most converted apartments from offices include Alexandria, VA, with 212; Cleveland, OH, 202; Rochester, NY, 189; Birmingham, AL, 177; Chicago, IL, 176; Lansing, MI, 172; and Richmond, VA, 168.
In total, 12,713 apartment units were produced through adaptive reuse in 2023---marking a 17.6% increase from the number of converted apartments the year before. An additional 151,000 commercial spaces are in various stages of conversion, the report noted.
