In Seattle, office-to-residential building conversions win unanimous council approval

It just got easier for developers in Seattle to turn underused office buildings into apartments.

Imagine if the people who own empty office towers in downtown Seattle were to tear them all to the ground. The reason for doing so would be to make space for new buildings better suited to the reality of remote work culture.

There are many buildings that could see this fate, given the record high number of office vacancies in downtown Seattle (and in other cities with downtown tech hubs).

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Collectively, these actions would create a central business district full of rubble-filled, fenced-off lots, like a scene from a post-apocalyptic zombie movie. And once developers started building new apartment towers on those sites — which is what the market seems to want today — the whole of downtown would feel like one big construction site for several more years.

An alternative, which Mayor Bruce Harrell has championed as part of his downtown activation plan, is to turn underused offices into apartments. The idea is that new residents would refill empty streets and help them feel safer.

The city council approved his legislation 9-0 on Tuesday.

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But office-to-residential conversions are complicated and expensive. And the big question is whether the legislation makes the option attractive enough that developers will take the bait.

The answer will depend on whether permit applications start rolling in.