With the shortage of affordable housing and a rise in distressed hospitality and office space, some are starting to see both problems becoming solutions for each other.
Even prior to the pandemic, retrofitting a hotel into residential housing was becoming a common practice. A 2018 purchase of a former Days Inn complex in Branson, MO is nearing completion for affordable studio and one-bedroom apartments.
Converting hotels into studio or one-bedroom residential units is typically an easy task – most of the plumbing and living quarters are in place; it’s only a matter of expanding the kitchen area, and viola – new housing!
But what about converting office space into housing? This poses a more difficult task, as there may be stairwells and elevators that may need to be relocated. For buildings in historic downtowns, there may be landmark statuses to deal with.
For more information, read MarketWatch’s “No vacancy? Here’s one fix for the affordable-housing shortage”, April 12, 2021