"The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to expand an existing housing incentive program covering downtown residential high-rise projects to include conversion projects with at least 20 new homes. The city will cut certain fees and taxes for qualifying downtown office conversions in an effort to help those developments move forward. Such conversions became an appealing option for addressing San Jose's housing crisis ever since the city's office buildings cleared out during the pandemic."
""Expanding this program to include office to residential conversions is a common sense way to address the ongoing challenges that have been cited about high vacancy rates throughout downtown, while encouraging the conversion of empty buildings into desperately needed housing," District 3 Councilmember Anthony Tordillos said during Tuesday's meeting. However, to date, not a single office-to-housing conversion project has been completed in San Jose, according to local real estate experts."
San Jose expanded a housing incentive program to include downtown office-to-residential conversions that create at least 20 homes. The city will reduce certain fees and taxes for qualifying conversions to spur projects amid a downtown office vacancy rate above 20%. No office-to-housing conversions have been completed to date, partly because retrofitting offices requires complex plumbing, electrical and sewer upgrades. The expanded program uses phased incentives: an initial phase lasting up to two years or covering 500 homes offers a 100% construction tax waiver and 50% park fee reduction, with a second phase offering smaller waivers. Projects meeting specified labor standards will qualify for additional incentives.
Read at San Jose Spotlight
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