Offices to apartments: not so fast
An analysis of the potential for turning disused office buildings into residential space has found 611 possible buildings in downtown Montreal, but it’s expensive and takes time. And many larger buildings are disqualified because the floor size is too big to allow natural light into the interior.
Blork 16:04 on 2023-07-15 Permalink
There are many ways to think about this issue. One way (and probably the most common way) is for developers to look for ways to make a buck by turning these spaces into chic residences like all the other new construction downtown. Personally, I think that’s the last thing we need.
I’d rather they found ways to turn them into reasonably priced condos or apartments. Forget the quartz countertops and the gleaming top-of-the-line appliances. Forget the imported tiles and Italian marble. Just make them liveable and basic, leaving room for the people who live there to fancy them up if they want.
Think about people living in “loft space” in Manhattan. Super expensive and unattainable for most people. But think of what those lofts were like in the 1970s. Cheap and basic, and no frills, because they were empty with no hope of being rented to businesses, so the landlords rented them cheaply to artists and other bohemians who used their own money and effort to make them liveable.
I used to know a guy who lived in such a loft space on St-Alexandre in Montreal in the early 90s. Huge open loft (probably 2000 square feet) with a makeshift kitchen at one end. The bathroom was funky too, and when he took a shower he had to run a garden hose from the sink in the kitchen to the shower stall in the bathroom. Not luxury, but a fantastic space to live and work (he was an artist) and I think he paid something like $700 a month.
So there are the extremes. Fancy Griffintown-like spaces or funky lofts where you run a garden hose to take a shower. Surely there’s a middle ground that would be appropriate and useful for these office spaces.
Kate 17:06 on 2023-07-15 Permalink
I also knew some people who had a place in the same area, next to St Patrick’s – in fact I think the building had been an orphanage connected to the church, then a warren of artists’ studios. They had a fair bit of space once they took down some plywood partitions, but the fittings were not luxe.
PO 18:55 on 2023-07-15 Permalink
No idea how the tax code works at that level, but eliminate the ability for the building owners to take any sort of deduction or write-off for unrented square footage. Watch em scramble.
All land and any space on the island is extremely valuable, finite, and scarce. People shouldn’t be subsidizing anyone who willingly sits on it and takes a loss. From the empty store-front on St-Denis to the empty office suites on René- Levesque. No write offs. No deductions. Full tax burden.