Developers say conversions can be completed more quickly than new construction at costs up to 20 percent cheaper than demolish-and-rebuild projects.
Several existing federal programs already support commercial-to-residential conversions, and the Biden-Harris Administration aims to further facilitate commercial-to-residential conversions through new actions announced today through its Housing Supply and Action Plan. The Community Development Block Grant, which provides $3 billion annually to support community housing and revitalization projects for low- and moderate-income families, and new actions make it easier to use these funds for acquisition, pre-development and construction associated with conversions. This compliments other actions like HUD’s recently announced $860,000 in grant funds to study office-to-residential conversions undertaken since the pandemic. Similarly, new DOT policies unlock $35 billion in available lending capacity for development projects at below market interest rates, which will make conversions easier to finance.
The announcement today also catalogues the broad set of federal tools that can be used for conversions. This includes the Historic Tax Credit, which has supported more than 47,000 properties and created more than 150,000 low- and moderate-income housing units since its inception. New opportunities will continue to arise.
Not "easier" for US taxpayers who end up subsidizing the 'below market' rates...
When this is all done - big developers will be rich, the Federal debt will be $100 Trillion, the Dollar worthless, and we'll be speaking Mandarin...