San Francisco has one of the highest commercial vacancy rates of any big city in America and now a city supervisor has a new suggestion for filling all that empty space — convert it into homes.
San Francisco's downtown has been the city's engine of innovation and prosperity for years, but it's been slow to rebound from the pandemic.
It has one of the highest commercial vacancy rates of any big city in America and now a city supervisor has a new suggestion for filling all that empty space -- convert it into homes. "Our office buildings are approaching over 30% vacancy, we have one of the worst return to work downtown cores in the entire country," said Supervisor Ahsha Safai.
Safai says the downtown core makes up 70% of the city's gross domestic product. But unfortunately, commercial vacancy rates are likely to stay high as tech and financial firms continue to evaluate how much office space they really need in a post-COVID world.Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter."We have a housing crisis, we have a housing shortage. So, how can we create, in a much more expedited way, housing,” said Safai.
The supervisor is convening a hearing in March to explore fast tracking the conversion of commercial office space into residential or mixed use space.
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