➤ The Signal
Tax incentives, rezoning, and depressed values opened a genuine adaptive-reuse window in NYC, and developers are running through it: conversion starts have doubled in a year. But the same office recovery that makes the city investable is quietly removing the raw material — every Class A block that re-leases is a building that will never be converted.
Chicago’s Millennium on LaSalle is the test case for the next question: what is a finished conversion worth to an investment-sales buyer?
➤ Implications
The economics favor moving now. Feedstock is a depleting resource, and the best-located obsolete assets get bid first. Underwrite conversion as a time-limited arbitrage, not a permanent pipeline.
Key Takeaways
- “The office recovery is closing the conversion window it opened.”
- “Source: CRE Daily · CoStar · CommercialCafe — June 2026”
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