NYC's best shot at affordable housing has hit some roadblocks

Vacant office buildings are one of NYC's main options to boost housing supply.

Gary Hershorn/Getty Images Several NYC office-to-apartments conversions faced safety issues this summer.

Retrofitting plumbing, windows, and floor plans for housing is costly and complicated.

To solve the supply shortage, conversions are here to stay.

Office-to-residential conversions — one of New York City's leading housing strategies — have been shaken by recent safety concerns.

This summer, a "stop work" order was issued for the former Pfizer building in Midtown due to structural issues with steel columns, prompting fears of a collapse and temporary evacuation of the surrounding area.

A lower Manhattan conversion at 222 Broadway was briefly halted over reports of a cracked horizontal concrete beam, and a Midtown East conversion — 750 Third Avenue — was partially stopped, also because of problems with steel columns.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to build 200,000 new homes during his first term.

The issues with the office conversions raise questions about one of NYC's main means of boosting housing supply .

Business Insider spoke with policy analysts and developers about the safety concerns, construction challenges, and what it all means for the future.

Office conversions require costly retrofitting When constructing dense housing , cities have a few options: They can build from scratch, build above existing businesses, or convert underused hotels and offices into apartments.

Offices, in particular, are ripe for housing because many were fully or partially vacated at the height of the pandemic .

The NYC office vacancy rate was 15.2% in the second quarter of 2024, the state comptroller reported, up from 7.8% in the second quarter of 2016. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Former workspaces provide a lot of space, but developers and policy analysts said construction can be challenging — part of the reason conversions have faced structural safety issues.

Offices typically have a different foundation setup than residential buildings.