Storefront To Living Space Conversions – Magazine Yes, you can turn vacant retail into housing Rethinking ground-level regulations to include residential uses is a controversial but feasible solution to a lack of housing production and an overabundance of vacant storefronts.
In Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, this former retail space was transformed into housing without compromising the quality of the pedestrian environment. Photo by Larissa Ortiz.
Storefront To Living Space Conversions
In city centers and central business districts across the country, two disturbing trends are converging – too much vacant retail space and too little housing.
America’s #1 Shipping Container Modifications
Downtowns are facing a confluence of global forces, from online spending to hybrid work, which means fewer dollars are circulating between local businesses. Many retailers have closed, and recent market analysis by Streetsense (my company) found that vacant and inactive storefronts account for 25 to 30 percent of ground floor space, particularly in office-dominated city center environments.
Meanwhile, the housing crisis continues to worsen. The 2023 Growth Report sponsored by the American Institute found that U.S. housing production is short of 3.9 million new homes. The National Low Income Housing Coalition says there is a shortage of 7.3 million units of affordable housing.
There’s an elegant solution: put residential use (and not just commercial use) in the ground-floor spaces of certain buildings. Yet many communities have zoning regulations that restrict ground-floor residential uses downtown, which planners and policymakers claim undermines sound principles and reduces pedestrian amenity.
Now is the time to explore adding ground floor housing to our toolkit, with safeguards in place to ensure a high-quality, comfortable pedestrian environment.
In Chicago, Office Conversions Are Being Used To Create Affordable Housing
In most circles, the idea of converting ground floor space to residential use was out of the question. Planners were concerned that ground-floor residential units would create an unsafe or unpleasant pedestrian environment—perhaps a continuation of Jane Jacobs’s legacy of “mind the streets”—or that the residential units would disrupt users by creating gaps between retail uses. experience.
But many ground floor retail requirements simply don’t match market demand. This has resulted in an already severe structural oversupply of retail space. The United States has about 25 square feet of retail space per capita, compared with 17 square feet per capita in Canada and just over 4 square feet per capita in the United Kingdom. Without changes to zoning restrictions, many city centers could become chronically vacant, undermining city center resurgence and limiting opportunities to build much-needed housing.
As places like San Francisco struggle to fill vacant storefronts, planners may have to broaden their views on allowable ground-floor uses. Photo by Emily Badger/
Promising solutions to America’s retail oversupply include reconsidering overly broad ground-floor retail requirements and allowing vacant storefronts to be used for residential purposes.
Repurposing And Converting Our Sleeping Porch Into The Ensuite Bathroom: Before And After Photos
These retail needs are widespread. In San Francisco’s Union Square, “active ground floor” requirements apply to nearly eight miles of street frontage, while in Norfolk, Virginia, “active use” requirements cover nearly five miles. Both areas were the region’s premier shopping destinations decades ago, but the market demand is no longer there.
Some planners believe the new housing units will generate enough spending to support the required ground-floor retail. However, most market analyzes suggest that new residents in existing markets can only support about four to seven square feet of retail space per person.
Developers often resist ground-floor retail requirements if the market indicates the spaces are likely to become vacant. Instead, they may push for the construction of more housing units that can generate cash flow. These discussions can reach an impasse: developers end up following the requirements rather than abandoning the project.
While it’s still uncommon, planners in places like Champaign, Illinois, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, are implementing zoning changes to increase housing supply and appropriately sized retail demand.
Century Old Department Store Converted Into Creative Office Hub
A recent article on zoning practices by Thomas Smith delves into the experience of two cities that now allow ground floor housing in certain areas. Champaign, Illinois, in February 2022 lifted a zoning ordinance that prohibited the construction of such housing on select blocks and streets within its three central business districts, recognizing that these areas do not have the pedestrian activity to support commercial activity .
In January 2021, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, changed its regulations to allow ground-floor housing in certain commercial areas “to help distressed property owners while increasing the housing supply,” Smith wrote. Grand Rapids Supervisor Kristin Turkelson estimates the change will provide greater flexibility for about half of the city’s 6, 000 commercial and business district properties.
Ground-level entrances and high floor heights typical of modern retail spaces provide flexibility for residential conversions. One option is a slightly raised entrance, which prevents passers-by from seeing inside. Rendered by Alex Crawford of Streetsense.
Planners can use a number of tools to ensure that ground floors remain occupied rather than empty.
Continuing Education: Office Conversions
Expand permitted uses in established commercial areas. New York is moving forward with an overhaul of the city’s zoning code, allowing for wider use zones, including small-scale production, and simplifying and updating use definitions. For example, under current zoning, a small bakery cannot exceed 750 square feet, and a small bicycle shop can sell but not repair bicycles because maintenance and repair services are not allowed in the “local retail zone.”
Adjust ground floor retail requirements and allow ground floor residential. Priority is given to the continuity of retail frontages where there is a high concentration of existing retail activity. Outside this core area, planners can relax the “active frontage” requirements that restrict ground-floor dwellings.
Provides design guidelines for ground floor housing. Resistance to ground-floor housing often stems from real-life examples of poorly executed projects with long blank walls and low-hanging windows that offer residents limited privacy.
Cities like San Francisco are developing design guidelines for new buildings. At the end of 2023, the department published guidance on ground-floor dwellings, requiring new units to increase safety, encourage activation and “focus on the street” while ensuring amenity and high-quality housing.
School Bus Conversion For Pregnant Family
San Francisco’s 2023 Ground Floor Housing Design Guidelines show planners and developers how to create housing units that interact with the street while providing comfort, security and privacy for residents. These approaches are particularly important for “large-scale projects with significant street frontage to create vibrant, fine-grained residential areas,” but are also important for smaller infill buildings.
Get creative with commercial to residential remodeling. Commercial spaces built in the past 25 years are more challenging than older commercial storefronts, which are typically smaller in size and size. For new retail space in large multifamily buildings, transforming aspects of modern retail design—large single-pane windows, dual storefront glass doors, ground-level entrances, and high ceilings—will require some creativity. How will the space be subdivided? How do residential entrances connect to sidewalks? How will the space within the unit be arranged to meet architectural requirements (e.g. windows for light and ventilation)?
Ultimately, zoning policies governing downtown environments need to adapt to a changing world in which the pandemic has accelerated disruptive technological advances that forever change the way we live, work, shop and play. Planners can embrace this change by incorporating flexibility into zoning regulations, amending obsolete definitions, applying retail requirements, and opening up new housing opportunities to city centers, even on the ground floor.
Larisa Ortiz is Managing Director of Public Nonprofit Solutions at Streetsense, a global creative collective of place shapers, brand builders and storytellers. She is also a former New York City Commissioner. Forget what you’ve heard about the streets of South City, this one-of-a-kind home is nothing short of luxurious. The historic storefront has been transformed into a light-filled home with a custom kitchen, four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. Dig an open industrial loft style huge room perfect for your own art gallery or yoga studio. There is a more traditional space upstairs so you can easily hide your private space and separate it from the public areas. This Tower Grove Heights gem is for sale with Garcia Properties for $489, 000. Not bad for a functional (and gorgeous) live/work space.
Office To Residential Conversions Are On The Rise—what Does That Mean For Cities?
Forget everything you’ve heard about the streets of South City, this one-of-a-kind home is nothing short of luxurious. The historic storefront has been transformed into a light-filled home with a custom kitchen, four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.
Dig an open industrial loft style huge room perfect for your own art gallery or yoga studio. There is a more traditional space upstairs so you can easily hide your private space and separate it from the public areas.
This Tower Grove Heights gem is for sale with Garcia Properties for $489, 000. Not bad for a functional (and gorgeous) live/work space. There’s been a lot in the recent headlines about office-to-residential conversions (see last month on Office to Residence: 6 Myths and Facts About Conversion Market Dynamics ), and it stands to reason that remote and hybrid work arrangements are taking hold longer than expected. Be long.
Changes in where and how people live not only affect office properties, but also have a profound impact on the retail industry. While these changes in lifestyle preferences are exacerbating the decline in office market values, we also see less institutional investor focus on retail, as many institutional investors are focused on retail.