What We Know About Paris and DC Turning Offices Into Apartments

A nine-story office tower in Paris called Le Diamant, where 1,800 people currently work, is set to close and be converted entirely into apartments, according to Roland Cubin, deputy chief executive of French real estate company Groupama Immobilier, speaking to the BBC. The building sits in La Défense, the purpose-built business district on the edge of Paris, and it is expected to be the first of many similar projects in the area.

How many offices in La Défense are being converted?

Paris La Défense, the public authority that runs the district, has unveiled plans to turn up to a fifth of its office buildings into housing, the BBC reported. Pierre-Yves Guice, chief executive of Paris La Défense, said the district's vacancy rate now stands at 14 to 15%, which he described as higher than it used to be.

Why are offices being emptied out in the first place?

Demand for office space in Paris has fallen sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated remote and hybrid work. Ludovic Delaisse, chief executive of the French arm of Canadian real estate firm Colliers, told the BBC that demand for office space in Paris has dropped by almost a third over the past five to six years. Guice said the shift is also about keeping companies from leaving the region altogether.

"To retain companies in France and in Western Europe we need to diversify these office landscapes of the last century, because no-one wants to work in such an environment any longer," Guice said.

What makes converting an office into an apartment hard?

Touring a section of Le Diamant that will eventually become a flat, Cubin pointed to a windowless conference room near the building's core. "There won't be any rooms there. Just access," he said, referring to space that will instead hold elevators and stairwells. Office floors are typically built around a wide central core with no natural light reaching it, which does not work for bedrooms or living rooms. Converters also have to add plumbing that offices were never built for, and some ceilings are too low for residential code, according to the BBC's reporting.

Is this happening outside of Paris?

The BBC describes the same pattern playing out in New York, Washington, D.C., and London. In Washington, the Geneva building is cited by city officials as the largest office-to-apartment conversion completed so far, according to DC.gov material referenced in the BBC report.

What does the district need besides apartments?

Delaisse said tall office buildings will still be needed, but cities have to give people a reason to stick around after work. "People like the idea of grouping together in a centre of expertise [for work] — in tech hubs, for example," he said. "The challenge for La Défense is to be a place where you want to be, that you want to see when you leave work in the evening." Guice said that means adding restaurants, bars, cinemas and gyms near the towers, not just converting floor plans into bedrooms.

For residents of Le Diamant's future apartments, that mix of amenities, not just the flat itself, is likely to determine whether the conversion succeeds. Read the full BBC report.

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.