As Canada’s housing crisis persists and the federal government continues to add properties to the Canada Public Land Bank, discussions about converting empty government buildings to housing are becoming all the more prevalent.
The federal government’s latest announcement about the addition of 14 properties to the Canada Public Land Bank brings the total up to 70 properties that the government has identified as being suitable to support housing.
The answer seems simple: the city needs housing, and the feds have properties in prime locations that aren’t being used. Why not turn the former offices into housing units?
But not all buildings are suitable for conversion, says Kevin Morris, chief financial officer at JBPA Developments Inc. JBPA has been at the forefront of the conversion conversation, having converted office buildings to residential at three properties: 169 Lisgar St., 170 Metcalfe St. and 341 MacLaren St.
The latest project underway with JBPA is 200 Elgin St., a building owned by District Realty. JBPA has been working to encourage the private sector to consider converting their unused or unleashed spaces into housing in addition to government properties.
And while the government’s disposal list is a step in the right direction, Morris said the buildings are not automatically suitable to be converted into housing. There are a variety of factors to determine whether or not a property can be successfully converted.
“Every conversion is unique, because every building is unique,” said Morris. “Only about a quarter of buildings that are identified as potential conversions actually do make it as actual conversions.”
So what are the ideal features a building should have for office-to-residential conversion?
Firstly, the layout of office buildings tends to differ from residential, Morris explained, which can become complicated when creating floor plans for residential units. For this reason, square buildings are not usually well-suited to hold apartments.”
“Apartment buildings are longer and more narrow. Some office buildings are really big, so then the apartments themselves would become really long and narrow,” he explained. “And this is somebody’s home. This wouldn’t feel very homey; it feels like you’re living in a long, narrow hallway.”
The location of the building within the city is also a factor, he explained. When considering a building for conversion, he said he looks at the community around the property, including access to transit, grocery stores, medical facilities, and other amenities nearby.
“Like anybody’s home, you want to have a community around it,” said Morris. “Converting the office building is one part of it, but having all those other things that need to be part of a community for people also needs to be addressed at the same time.”
Many other features of a building that JBPA looks at are “building-specific”, like whether or not the elevator is positioned in the middle of the building, if there is space for parking, and where amenity spaces like fitness rooms and other facilities could be built.
“Any building is a complicated machine. There’s lots of things that go into building any complicated machine, and you only build that machine in one direction, so it is complicated no matter which way you go about it,” said Morris.
So is it actually more efficient to convert, rather than starting from scratch?
“Depends on the client,” Morris says. Converting a property saves concrete, which is a carbon-intensive process, so reusing the existing material can be more environmentally- and fiscally-responsible.
Efficiency also comes into play with red tape and the processing times for properties on a municipal level, he added. While it might be attractive to purchase a property with the aim of converting, itve could take around five years from acquiring the building until it can actually be converted, he explained.
In some cases, “you may as well buy new” after investing in a vacant building. So whenever possible, if the City can work to speed up the approval process, he said it will encourage people to invest in a conversion project.
Although JBPA has been trying to get private property owners involved, there are some possible candidates for conversions in the Land Bank, said Morris, that are located in prime areas downtown and rectangular in shape. Some, however, just aren’t well-located enough to quality — “Again, the building is only one part. The community around it is also important.
“I think the intention is there, but I think without some meaningful ways to accelerate it, it may not happen as fast as people want,” he explained.
Ultimately, he said he hopes property owners will at least consider evaluating whether their buildings are suitable for conversion before starting anew. And with extra support and boosts to the current timelines for approvals, he said the city’s conversions can be heading in the right direction.
“When people are motivated to come up with a solution, things will happen. I think what I’ve seen these last few months of people in Ottawa, the federal government, and the City is people want to have a meaningful solution,” Morris said. “So we may stumble a little bit, but with some creativity and wanting to do the right thing, I think a solution will be found.”
