Rehabbing Retro Office Towers Reaps Rich Rewards
The cascade of glow-ups by which obsolete office towers in Lower Manhattan are converted to new residential buildings continues to gather momentum, according to the Downtown Alliance’s quarterly analysis of Lower Manhattan real estate trends, covering the period of January through March of this year. The report notes that while Lower Manhattan currently has 37,283 units in 351 residential buildings, there are another 8,987 apartments in 32 buildings now under construction or planned for development. Of these, slightly more than 7,500 units are office-to-residential conversions.
The Alliance report highlights two recently announced conversions: 61 Broadway (796 apartments) and 80 Broad Street (with 326 homes). These are slated to be followed by 111 Wall Street (1,500 units), 222 Broadway (798), 80 Pine Street (713), 101 Greenwich Street (614), 77 Water Street (600), 30 Broad Street (521), 100 William Street (430), 40 Exchange Place (382), 75 Maiden Lane (300), 100 Wall Street (169), Two Wall Street (169), 40 Fulton Street (169), 64 Fulton Street (49), One Maiden Lane (12), 14 Maiden Lane (nine), and Five Hanover Square (unknown number of units).
Together, these 18 projects are poised to bring at least 7,557 new homes to the square mile south of Chambers Street, boosting the local overall tally of homes by approximately one-fifth in the coming years. Based on 2020 census data, which indicate that the typical size of a Lower Manhattan household is now 2.02 persons, this implies population growth of slightly more than 15,000 new residents.
Many of these office conversions are likely to take place under the terms of the City’s 467-m program (also known as the Affordable Housing from Commercial Conversions Tax Incentive Benefits), which mandates that 25 percent of the apartments created must be set aside as affordable units, in exchange for tax abatements on the entire property for 25 to 35 years. This program could create almost 1,900 rent-protected homes in Lower Manhattan.
But some critics argue that the scheme is overly generous to developers and doesn’t deliver enough benefits to the public. In a 2025 analysis, then-City Comptroller Brad Lander noted, “post-pandemic conversion activity already appears on track to exceed the totals subsidized… in the Financial District in the 1990’s and 2000’s,” but that the 467-m program is “likely too generous in Lower Manhattan.”
Mr. Lander’s report noted that the “opportunity cost” (meaning property taxes that will never be collected as a result of 467-m) is $3.8 billion in Lower Manhattan, and $1.4 billion outside Lower Manhattan. This means that out of a projected total of $5.1 billion in waived revenue, some 75 percent of these benefits will go to developers in Lower Manhattan.