Comments by "serafina costa" (@serafinacosta7118) on "How to Convert Empty Offices Into Luxury Apartments | WSJ" video.

Because office workers don’t want to work under a dungeon without natural light. Hence the term Corner Office being a perk.
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Light shafts come way short of a courtyard building such as you have uptown. It is meant to allow for air circulation and some dim lighting , at best. Now, if you have a core shafted building with a large floor plate ( a typical floor plan in a large corporate tenancy type of building ) , you can even parse your units throughout the building perimeter, by keeping the elevator hallways in a concentric inner ring shape and scatter your units throughout the outer perimeter of the building. On the video they explain how a C- Plate would be impractical for these type of projects. For the neophytes here, a C-plate is a floor plan that has three out of four exposed perimeters with office windows , whereas the fourth leg of the perimeter is only used to the stairwell , elevator shafts. Using a corporate lease tenancy building , this is the range of 2,000 to 4,600 sf. A core shafted floor plate has a larger floor footage , usually around 5,000 plus sf , and elevators , stairwell , and no hallways ( except for a cut through at the elevators , if that many ) , all fit into the center core of the building. In both cases , on office usage , the riser cables , heavy duty plumbing ( including fire ) is around the shaft.
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@java4653 downtown is not meant to be a free for it all. It’s for the moneyed empty nester folks who work there. Your wishful thinking ain’t going to help yourself to land plush digs at subsidized rates. The days of rent control aren’t coming back. I would start to getting used to Jersey City , Yonkers , White Plains , The Bronx, Corona . Anything on the island , and that includes Harlem , is going to command top rental rates. Get over it.
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@paxundpeace9970 that is called mixed use. However , the same folks who live at these towers won’t necessarily be leasing up office space within. This is a conversion meant to enable downtown financial workers to walk towards their office space. At a best , you can earmark a conversion that bunches market rate residential units , and short term or extended term lodging. All separated by different stacks of floors , and serviced by different elevator shafts. And maybe sharing a grand common lobby. Which , by just looking at the renderings , is what they intend to do. My educated guess, there is.
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Folks in the financial district do. It cuts into their commuting. Those are the types that spend more time at the office.
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Besides , Pre War buildings have more architectural appeal. Most of them already have been converted.
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@gjsoriano1 well , Lobby is common space. Office crowds in and out flows are controlled by turnstile and elevators badges, FOB cards, or finger print scan. Not something residential or lodging dwellers want to be imposed upon. Hence the lobby segregation. As for the mix lodging and residential , it is a perfectly adaptable environment. You add personnel. One desk exclusively for the residential concierge , and your check in counter for lodging guests. Most residential dwellers won’t be fazed by the added lobby traffic, which won’t be that considerable on extended stay. Further segregation, beyond floor stacks , can be accomplished by pre assigned elevator cars with some kind of digital readout ( key code , finger print , FOB ). People who rather have an exclusive lobby can go elsewhere at a higher rental rate. A flexible lodging and residential can improve cash flow , a plus when tenancy rates might not be at best.
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Older building featured light wells, higher ceiling clearances , larger window frames, whose panes opened up. Newer office buildings have either a C plate or a core shaft plate. As for fire safety , older buildings have wider emergency staircases within. Newer buildings have chamber staircases. Night and day.
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@lazygardens you are going over board. No baristas. Just a concierge will do. And the building super. These days , most condo associations , or even single owner buildings ( a.k.a. Fee Simple ownership ) outsource security, maintenance , janitorial labor as to not to get tangled up on workman’s claims. And before you try to hit me with your social agenda , this is a very miniscule enclave , the tip of New York City. So yes the adresseable tenancy demographics is realistic.
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@julialane6645 please elaborate Juliana. Thanks.
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@poppinc8145 with dwindling tax collections , give it time. Eventually they will be forced to cave in. Or become a Detroit. Even the commies in the West will have to figure out that with shrinking tax rolls , fewer programs they can milk. Between the NIMBYies and the Plutocracy at city hall , they have to see the cow udders are going to dry up and be an end to fat times.
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@myoldvhstapes Downtown LÁ and NYC financial are not in the same league. All office vacancies aside , Manhattan is a whole lot more dense than downtown LA, whose core is in the Jewelry District. As for Luxury LÁ , there are buildings with large apartments. And then , there are the shoe box stacks. The Luxury moniker , yes , it is a stretch. But everything in the Real Estate Development world is about hype , pretense life style over selling. This is true everywhere else around the world.
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Setting up your little tent across the street huh ?
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