wbur, July 8, 2024, Converting Boston’s Offices To Housing Is Tricky, But It’s Starting To Happen
When Rich Kershaw’s company bought the building at 95 Berkeley St. in 2016, the plan was to renovate and rent out the offices.
“Upgrade the elevators, upgrade the bathrooms, redo the lobbies and the facade and hopefully increase the office rent per square foot,” said Kershaw, vice president of development at CIM Group, a Los Angeles-based real estate firm with $29 billion in assets.
They did the overhaul, but then the pandemic hit, and they could only land a tenant for one of the building’s six floors. Theirs is one of many commercial properties with persistent vacancies in the era of hybrid work, particularly at older buildings. Now the city and the state want to help transform these offices into housing.
“I don’t see the office being a viable use for the near future,” Kershaw said. “So I think residential is perfect.”
