Washington, D.C.-based Perseus Realty has contracted to acquire a six-acre site in Alexandria’s Hoffman Town Center with plans to convert an obsolete, 610,000-square-foot building into a residential-dominated mixed-use project. Reports the Washington Business Journal:
The effort, if approved, will entail the addition of 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, conversion of two lower floors into parking and the construction of upper floor additions that raise the building’s height from 150 to 200 feet. Perseus representatives were not immediately available for comment. It is unclear how many units the building might include when complete. …
The Perseus project comes as Alexandria considers whether, and how, to encourage additional office-to-residential conversions. In Eisenhower East, for example, a 2003 small area plan sought a 50-50 split between commercial and residential. But now, city staff and the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership are of the belief that for the community to thrive, it will need 2 to 3 times more residential than office.
Conversions have had a net positive fiscal impact for the city, generated significant private investment, and changed obsolete office buildings to a “higher and better use,” according to a report produced by AEDP, city staff and consultant TischlerBise. These projects take excess office space off the market and shield aging office buildings “from potential years of high vacancy, special servicing, or foreclosure.” …
There is a downside to conversions, in that residential requires far more city services than office. According to the study, for every dollar of tax revenue generated by an Alexandria multifamily project, 38 cents are needed to support that project with government services while 62 cents are available for general budget use. With office, only 12 cents on the dollar are needed for services and 88 cents are available to the general fund.
Bacon’s bottom line: It looks like office-to-residential conversions are the next big thing in real estate development. I’ve blogged about the trend in downtown Richmond and Norfolk, and it should be no surprise that it’s happening in Alexandria, too.
As the WBJ article pointed out, the conversions address two problems. First, they find a new use for aging and obsolete commercial structures with prime locations. Second, they create new housing stock for growing populations. While apartment buildings are not as “profitable” for localities as office buildings — they generate a smaller surplus of revenue over costs — they are hugely beneficial from a Northern Virginia regional perspective. The alternative would be to build more green-field housing on the metropolitan fringe, requiring investment in new roads, water, sewer, sidewalks, etc, as well as the transportation infrastructure to move workers from exurban bedroom communities to urban job centers.
Judging by the article, the City of Alexandria has made the calculation that office-to-apartment conversions pencil out profitably. The infrastructure is already in place. And tax revenues even cover the cost of education.
Every urban locality in Virginia has large tracts of land zoned decades ago for commercial and retail uses. The rise of Internet commerce is demolishing the retail sector, especially big boxes and department stores, and the demand for office space is shrinking as corporations rationalize the excessive use of office space. (Although I must note a possible counter-current in IBM’s recent announcement that it was calling thousands of work-at-home employees back into the office.)
Localities that figure out how to retrofit aging and obsolete retail strips and office parks into vibrant, mixed-use communities will prosper in the years ahead. Those who dither will be left behind.
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