By Taylor Williams Successfully executing a commercial conversion project is like hitting a six-leg parlay in sports betting: A lot of dominoes have to fall the right way, and without a little luck and outside help, it’s probably not happening. Take the embattled office sector. Even working professionals from outside the office real estate market who read the plethora of mainstream news articles recognize that it’s no small feat to turn those buildings into apartments. After all, when you’re dealing with thousands of tons of steel, glass and concrete in any capacity, things are bound to get messy. But theoretically, if the demand for more housing is there — and there can be little arguing that it is — and cities recognize that office usage has forever changed, then why aren’t we seeing more of these projects come to fruition in our cities? Setting aside the fact that office-to-residential conversions are incredibly expensive and fraught with risk even in the absence of a tight and constrained lending market like we currently have, there are still numerous reasons as to why these deals don’t proliferate. Does the city in question have flexible zoning? Does the community have a reputation for NIMBYism? …
