Count Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser among those who are calling on the federal government to do something to help solve the vacant office problem in the nation’s capital.
Bowser, who directed her message to President Joe Biden, is seeking to either end allowing federal employees to work from home or, alternatively, turn over vacant office space to the city to convert into affordable housing, ABC News reported.
“We need decisive action by the White House to either get most federal workers back to the office, most of the time, or to realign their vast property holdings for use by the local government, by nonprofits, by businesses and by any user willing to revitalize it,” Bowser said, according to the outlet.
The city has 20 million square feet of vacant office space, with the federal government owning a significant portion of it, according to ABC News.
Bowser said converting office buildings into housing could help lure 100,000 new residents in the upcoming years as part of a “reimagined” downtown area.
Office-to-housing conversions have been slow, however, with just 218 projects completed nationwide between 2016 and 2021, and an additional 42 in 2022, ABC News reported, citing data from CBRE.
A major issue in Washington, however, is the city likely has to negotiate with the federal government, which owns or leases one-third of D.C.’s property, the outlet reported.
In December, Bowser announced the Vanguard building will be converted into 163 units of housing by May 2024.
“By converting vacant offices into homes, we can put these spaces back to productive use, add much-needed housing, and create a vibrant downtown where people live, work, and play,” she said at the time, according to ABC News.
The federal government has been feeling increased pressure to provide a solution to the vacant-office issue. Last month, The Real Estate Roundtable — a major-real estate-industry group composed of ownership, development, lending and management firms along with trade associations — sent a letter to the Biden administration seeking to bring back federal workers to their offices.
“We are concerned that certain administration policy guidance is encouraging federal agencies to adopt permanent work-from-home policies for federal employees and thereby actually magnifying negative economic and social consequences for cities,” the letter, signed by Real Estate Roundtable Chairman and Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish and the trade group’s president and CEO Jeffrey DeBoer, said.
— Ted Glanzer