In the wake of COVID, millions of square feet of office space sit empty in cities across North America. CUI’s recent report, The Case for Conversions: Understanding opportunities for conversion of office space to housing in Canadian downtowns, examines the barriers and opportunities for the adaptive reuse of office space across Canadian cities. As work from home practices persist and office vacancies remain stubbornly elevated in many downtowns, there is an opportunity to reimagine how these under-utilized assets could assist in downtown revitalization: bringing people and complementary uses to create more resilient, diverse and equitable cores.

Explore conversions that are underway, what makes them feasible, how stakeholders are leveraging office space conversions to create a balance of uses in downtowns, and what other initiatives need to be considered to revitalize urban cores.

Panelists:
Melissa Román Burch - Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC)
Tracy Hadden Loh - Fellow at Brookings Metro, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking (Washington D.C.)
Joe Nickerson - Vice President & Partner, Sidewalk Real Estate Development (Halifax)
Steven Paynter – Principal, Gensler Toronto (Toronto)