City efforts across the country to create more affordable housing may see those efforts helped though the adaptive reuse of existing, but abandoned, retail and industrial space.
So said a series of speakers participating in a meeting sponsored by the Washington-based National Housing Conference, a non-profit group dedicated to expanding the nation’s affordable housing stock.
Participants in the meeting additionally noted that abandoned office space can also be readapted for housing purposes.
But David Garcia, policy director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, which is based in Oakland, California, cautioned that in order to make such projects economically feasible, any given abandoned structure should have space enough to build at least 50 residential units.
Garcia also said that efforts to repurpose an older building may be more expensive than first realized, depending upon the condition of the structure: “You don’t always know the full extent of that until you actually open the walls and get to the building itself.”
“There’s a lot of systems that may need to be replaced in older buildings that cost just as much as a new construction project and sometimes more,” Garcia added.
It was also noted that if a structure was built more than four decades ago, there could be asbestos, lead paint, or other hazardous material issues to address before any renovation effort can begin.
Despite such challenges, it was noted that a former Sears department store that was a part of the Irondequoit Mall in the city of Irondequoit, New York, has been transformed into the Skyview Park Apartments, a project housing nearly 160 senior housing units.
A new building housing 84 units was put up next to the existing former Sears store by the PathStone Corporation of Rochester, while the Sears store itself ended up with 73 units.
“There’s an idea that you can turn any building into housing,” commented Amelia Casciani, real estate development vice president with PathStone. “And with enough money that’s true.”
But Casciani added that there are just some buildings that better lend themselves to being re-adapted than others. “There naturally are a series of characteristics that really lend themselves to adaptive reuse,” she remarked.
The larger Irondequoit Mall, opened in 1990 and closed in 2009, has since undergone redevelopment as the Skyview on the Ridge.
By Garry Boulard
