Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
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.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
This time, the people marched in resistance to the harsh treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration.
“We descend from Immigrants and Revolutionaries,” read a battle cry beamed onto the side of the brick meeting house Tuesday.
“The society that stops seeing the people at the grocery line or the people that ride the bus with us, as human beings with beating hearts, then it’s not far off before our society devolves into no society at all,” Gilberto Calderin, director of advocacy at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said to the crowd of hundreds.
The protest was organized by activist groups Boston Indivisible and Mass 50501, and began at the Irish Famine Memorial Plaza, just steps from the meeting house.
The lively crowd held up signs, waved American flags, and chanted during the march along Milk Street and Congress Street to the harbor.
Janet England of Brighton held a sign that read, “Democracy Needs Courage.”
The protesters, she said are “true patriots because we want freedom and democracy.”
“Although protest is a long game, we can’t give up. If you think about women’s suffrage, gay rights, the civil rights movement, it took years, but we just can’t give up,” she said.
Gloria Krusemeyer, from Alrington, used a walker to join the march.
“I’m irritated that I haven’t done more, and I’m just lucky that I can walk fast enough to be doing this,” she said.
Rick Mueller, from Cambridge, was dressed as Uncle Sam and held a large sign that read, “Liberty and Justice For All.”
“We’re fighting for America, so I’m gonna be America,” he said of his costume.
He handed small American flags out to protesters who waved them enthusiastically.
Ice dumping duties was limited to volunteers and select people.
Among them was Sarah, a mother who brought her 4-year-old daughter, Fiona.
Sarah declined to share her last name for her daughter’s safety.
After throwing ice into the harbor, Fiona shyly said that she wanted to come to the protest to “help families stay together.”
Through tears, Sarah said her decision to bring along Fiona came from wanting to teach her daughter to care about people from all walks of life.
“Kindness and compassion are things we learn in kindergarten and she will be in kindergarten so it’s really important for her to be kind and compassionate,” Sarah said, kissing her daughter’s check.
Likewise, Sara Sievers, from Cambridge, brought her parents, sister, her nephews and niece to dump ice.
“I think this is one of the most brutal regimes we’ve had in this country, and I want my niece and nephew to remember that it’s important to protest, and that we in Boston are part of a proud tradition of dumping things into the harbor with which we disagree,” Sievers said.
The family wore costumes of historical figures including Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and King Charles.
As the protest came to a close, Martha Laposata, spokesperson for Boston Indivisible said she wanted protestors to walk away knowing their voices matter.
“We cannot stand down,” Laposata said. “When people rise up against an authoritarian government, if they stay consistent and they keep growing, ultimately an authoritarian government will stand down.”
Camille Bugayong can be reached at camille.bugayong@globe.com.
Crime
An MIT professor was shot and killed in Brookline on Monday night.
Brookline police responded a report of a man shot in his home on Gibbs Street, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was transported to a local hospital and was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning, the DA says.
Loureiro was the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a professor of nuclear science and engineering and physics. Originally from Portugal, the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs announced his death in a regulatory hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities on Tuesday, according to CNN.
“Sadly, I can confirm that Professor Nuno Loureiro, who died early this morning, was a current MIT faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, as well as the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” an MIT spokesperson wrote in a statement.
In January, Loureiro was honored as one of nearly 400 scientists and engineers with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from former president Joe Biden.
The investigation into the homicide remains ongoing. No further information was released.
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
A man was hospitalized after being shot Monday night in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The shooting happened on Gibbs Street. There was a large police presence at the scene.
The victim was brought to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His condition was not known.
Police said the victim was shot three times and grazed by another round.
Authorities did not say if any arrests had been made.
No further information was immediately available.
Addy Brown motivated to step up in Audi Crooks’ absence vs. UNI
LIVE UPDATES: Mudslide, road closures across Western Washington
Matt Campbell reportedly bringing longtime Iowa State staffer to Penn State as 1st hire
How much snow did Iowa get? See Iowa’s latest snowfall totals
Man shot, killed at downtown Cleveland nightclub: EMS
Elementary-aged student killed in school bus crash in southern Maine
Chiefs’ offensive line woes deepen as Wanya Morris exits with knee injury against Texans
Frigid temperatures to start the week in Maryland