When Los Angeles-based CIM Group bought a six-story office building in Boston, the plan was to renovate, according to Rich Kershaw, vice president of development at the firm.

“We were going to upgrade the elevators, upgrade the bathrooms, redo the lobbies and the facade and hopefully increase the rent,” Kershaw said.

This building was an industrial warehouse before becoming office space. It’s a stately, old structure — almost the antithesis of the glass towers going up in other parts of the city. That’s because demand for the most modern work spaces in Boston is as healthy as ever.

One in 5 office spaces in the United States are empty. According to Moody’s, that’s the highest vacancy rate in history.

Now some developers in major cities want to turn that unused office space into housing. But it could take big subsidies to make it happen. That’s why Boston is offering building owners a 75% property tax break for the retrofits.

Standing in the empty building, next to huge glass panes overlooking the city’s South End district, Kershaw said they did do the upgrades. But then the pandemic hit. Working from home became the norm for many urban workers — and he could lease out only one of six floors.

“I don’t see the office being a viable use for the near future,” he said. “So I think the residential is perfect.”

This office building is one of 13 in Boston whose owners are exploring “resi conversions.” The city says this can do two things: ward off the threat of office vacancies while adding apartments in one of the country’s most expensive housing markets.

Helping lead the effort to explore resi conversions across Massachusetts is Tim Love, founder of Utile Architecture and Planning in Boston.

“Your downtown will be more successful if you’ve got more people living over the commercial space on the ground floors,” he said. “That is going to make your downtown more lively and less a place that goes completely quiet after 5 o’clock.”

This also helps preserve old buildings, but only a slice of them are viable for converting. One study suggests that 15% of office buildings in the country’s largest cities are physically suitable.

Among the other challenges for developers are high interest rates, the cost of labor and materials and the need to overhaul mechanical systems. Not to mention that housing often commands lower rents than office space.

That’s why the state is offering owners up to $4 million for resi conversions. Developer Rich Kershaw said these subsidies are key.

“It’s gotten us all here to talk about this and starting looking at it seriously,” he said.

Developers also face Boston’s affordability requirement: 20% of new housing must be set aside for people with lower incomes.

Other cities are moving ahead on similar projects. Chicago is in the middle of a massive conversion involving 10 city blocks. The city was able to set aside more than $150 million in subsidies to convert four commercial buildings into apartments: 3 of every 10 units will be considered affordable.

And New York City is looking to rezone to make it easier to do conversions in more neighborhoods.

Valerie Campbell is a land use attorney in New York. “Our clients have a lot of interest — particularly if these current zoning initiatives become effective, we’re going to see a lot more office conversions,” she said.

Campbell added that most New York resi conversions have happened in pre-World War II buildings. But now developers are considering newer structures that are more difficult to convert, with huge floor plates and windows that don’t open.

In Boston, conversions aren’t likely to fix the commercial real estate market or solve the city’s housing crisis. The city says it needs 69,000 new units in the coming years.

But conversion proponents say doing even one building can make a big difference, starting on its own block.

The Boston Red Sox enter play on Friday at 54-47 and in contention for a wild card spot in the American League. The Red Sox haven’t been to the playoffs since 2021 and are ahead of where most prognosticators thought they would be at this point in the season.

One of the driving forces behind the success this year is star outfielder Jarren Duran. Duran, who won All-Star Game MVP, has been the catalyst of the lineup this year, even as Triston Casas and Trevor Story have been hurt.

According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, Duran is on pace to accomplish something that hasn’t been done in baseball since 1925.

Jarren Duran is on pace for: 48 2B, 19 3B, 21 HR, 35 SB

players with 40/15/15/30 since modern SB rules began in 1898:

1925 Kiki Cuyler: 43 2B, 26 3B, 18 HR, 41 SB
1920 George Sisler: 49 2B, 18 3B, 19 HR, 42 SB

Any time you can do something that hasn’t been done in 99 years, you are doing something right and Duran certainly is. In addition to being All-Star Game MVP, Duran is hitting a cool. 292 with 13 homers, 51 RBI and 22 stolen bases. He’s posted an OPS of .865 and is in line to get some MVP votes at season’s end.

The Red Sox open a critical divisional series with the New York Yankees on Friday night at Fenway Park. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET as Nestor Cortes (NYY) pitches against Brayan Bello (SOX).

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It was no coincidence that an alleged meth and fentanyl kingpin was arrested and charged Wednesday, the day after Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn called for a new plan to deal with the resurgence of the Mass and Cass drug market.

You can’t have addicts without drugs, and efforts to clear open-air drug markets are bound to be short-lived as long as the suppliers are working.

As Gayla Cawley reported in the Herald, Flynn’s hearing order stated: “There is an urgent need to reevaluate the current strategies in addressing the public safety, quality of life, neighborhood services, and public health issues related to the situation in Mass and Cass and in the impacted neighborhood of South End, Roxbury, Dorchester and South Boston.”

“We need to identify ways to improve the city’s response to the opioid crisis, drug-dealing activities, and homelessness,” Flynn wrote.

The Boston Police Department’s Drug Control unit has been doing a terrific job of arresting and charging people with drug trafficking, selling, and possessing firearms and ammo. We need more officers.

But that’s half the solution. Getting addicts off the streets and arresting dealers won’t ultimately take down the opioid crisis in Boston and the country.

For that, you have to follow the money.

As Flint McColgan reported,  Schuyler Oppenheimer. of Cambridge,  allegedly conducted illicit trade with Chinese suppliers under the name “Michael Sylvain.” He was arrested last week and charged in federal court in Boston with possession of 500 grams and more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine and two counts of wire fraud. This followed an investigation which indicated he could have produced millions of counterfeit pills — partially funded through Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but a key takeaway is Oppenheimer’s alleged work with Chinese traders.

According to a DEA report, China is the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail…as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.

In February, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas met with People’s Republic of China State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong in Vienna, to boost cooperation with the PRC to fight against fentanyl. Discussions were held, commitments were made, and the fentanyl continues to flow.

Senator Elizabeth Warren isn’t having it.

At a January hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Warren called for action to address crypto’s role in facilitating the illicit fentanyl trade.

“Crypto plays a role at every stage in the illicit fentanyl trade,” Warren said. “Chinese companies sell the chemical ingredients used to make fentanyl to drug cartels and they get paid in crypto. The drug cartels and the traffickers sell their deadly drugs in the darkest marketplaces, and they get paid in crypto.”

Warren’s bipartisan Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act aims to close loopholes in U.S. anti-money laundering rules to crack down on crypto’s use by drug traffickers and other bad actors.

The bill hasn’t moved since the January hearing. The victims of fentanyl and their families need action now.