The floorplate test
Window to core
Apartments need daylight. Much past 35 to 40 feet from glass to core and you are building interior rooms nobody will rent. Narrow pre-war buildings convert beautifully; deep 1980s floorplates usually do not.
The riser problem
Plumbing, not architecture
An office building has a few wet stacks. An apartment building needs one per unit line. Where those risers can land, and what they cost to cut, is often the real number that decides the deal.
Envelope and egress
Operable, rated, reachable
Residential occupancy changes egress, fire separation and ventilation. On a historic building it also changes what you are allowed to do to the windows, which is where conversion and preservation collide.
Historic status helps
20% to 60% of qualified costs
A conversion candidate that is listed or eligible carries credits a newer building cannot. That is frequently the difference between a conversion that pencils and one that does not.
Unit mix against the rent roll
Design as pro forma
Where the corridors land determines the mix, and the mix determines the rent roll. We draw it against the model rather than handing the model a finished plan.
Parking, or the absence of it
Downtowns and transit
Older downtown buildings rarely have it. On transit corridors that is survivable and sometimes an advantage. We underwrite it honestly instead of assuming a variance.
