The days of lockdowns may have come and gone, but the shift to a work-from-home model has seen office vacancy rates in downtown Toronto remaining around half of pre-pandemic levels, enough for politicians hungry for housing crisis solutions to look closely at what those empty offices could become.
The city’s Planning and Housing Committee has now endorsed a motion directing staff to look into what it will take to convert offices to housing units. Part of the fact-finding mission Toronto’s Chief Planner Gregg Lintern will be on will require a close look at Calgary, which has already had success.
Alberta’s most populous city began exploring office-to-housing conversions not because of the pandemic, but because of an oil and gas bust nearly a decade ago. Currently the city has more than a dozen buildings either under construction or in other various stages of the planning process, enough to create 2,300 homes. The city’s grant program proved to be so popular, it recently paused the process because funding ran out.
“If you look at the time to do a new build, versus a conversion, the conversions we’ve seen that once you’ve got your building permit, it’s about 12-18 month to get that conversion completed and have occupancy,” said Sheryl McMullen with the City of Calgary.
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“So it’s a quick way to deal with the housing crisis.”
That’s precisely the approach Coun. Brad Bradford said he was looking to address with the motion to explore the office-to-home model in Toronto.
“The challenges on the housing and affordability front are so steep right now, we have to put all the options on the table,” said Bradford, who vice-chairs the Planning and Housing Committee. The emphasis on a speedy turnaround is what makes the option one worth looking into for him.
“It’s unlikely that they’re ever coming back to a higher level of occupancy, but the building is there, the servicing is there, the concrete’s been poured,” he said, “so let’s take advantage of that existing structure and find pathways to bring residential housing opportunities forward, now.”
It’s unclear how many buildings would actually qualify for conversions and Bradford said of the office buildings throughout the city, it’s likely only a handful would meet the demands. Brand-new, high-demand building will obviously be ruled out due to their popularity, but so will those without floor plans lending themselves to a natural apartment-style layout.
The likely sources are more likely to be dated buildings in need of a refurbishment.
The city is already on the prowl to build tens of thousands of affordable, rent-controlled homes in a plan introduced earlier in the week by staff and Mayor Olivia Chow. Housing advocate Mark Richardson said the city’s planning office, which is already overburdened with requests, should still find time to seriously look at the office model.
“Every little bit helps,” said Richardson, a member of HousingNowTO.com who noted some housing methods are going to work better than others.
“We kind of need a Swiss army knife approach to affordable housing. You need the knife, you need the spoon, you need the potato peeler. Whatever tools you have available, we’re in a crisis. We have to try a little bit of everything,” Richardson said.
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