Recently, large cities to small towns have been considering commercial to residential conversions as a strategy to revitalize struggling districts and corridors, aiming to partner with the development community to meet housing needs create inclusive, sustainable, and economically resilient communities.
Converting commercial spaces including offices and motels to residential use offers solutions for housing shortages and vacant spaces but also presents significant challenges including zoning, structural changes, and high costs.
Panel experts will draw from their experience in the Bay Area and California to weigh the costs and benefits of reforms from zoning and regulatory codes, predevelopment and permit streamlining, public sector finance and partnerships and discuss the on the ground realities of these adaptive re-use projects.
Moderator
Rick Williams, Founder, Van Meter Williams Pollack
A partner and founder of Van Meter Williams Pollack, Rick Williams is a leader in urban design and transit-oriented development. The scale of his work ranges from residential and mixed-use neighborhoods to urban infill multifamily affordable housing.
Rick has worked extensively with public agencies, cities, and nonprofit organizations, and is adept at negotiating the regulatory framework and writing codes for mixed-use and transit-oriented development to complete projects that work on all levels of design, financing, and development
Speakers
Carolyn Bookhart, Director of Real Estate Development, Resources for Community Development (RCD)
As Director of Real Estate Development, Carolyn provides executive oversight and strategic guidance across RCD projects and manages a staff of two associate directors and seven project management staff as they move projects through feasibility, predevelopment, and construction. Since her appointment in 2014, RCD has completed 34 developments comprising 1,830 new or renovated homes. She leads a pipeline of over 1,000 homes in predevelopment and construction.
Ellen Morris, Director of Real Estate Development, Eden Housing
Ellen Morris is the Director of Real Estate Development at Eden Housing, a non-profit affordable housing developer based in Hayward, CA. Since joining Eden in 2016, Ellen has managed a range of affordable housing projects, including new construction, resyndication/rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse projects.
Paul McGrath, Principal, MeyersPlus+ Engineers
Paul McGrath PE is a Mechanical Engineer and Principal at MEYERS+ ENGINEERS and has completed multiple conversion projects in San Francisco, including 100 Van Ness, 2121 Webster and the Aronson Building at 706 Mission), resulting in hundreds of occupied residential units. Paul was a member of the SF Dept. of Building Inspection’s Office-to-Residential Industry Advisory Group; liaising with DBI resulting in the publication of Information Sheet G-29 summarizing the Commercial-to-Residential Adaptive Reuse code provisions exceptions, offering significant grace for adaptive re-use projects. MEYERS+ have undertaken in-depth conversion assessments of over a dozen buildings in recent months; some of which are moving forward as design projects, notably in San Francisco and San Jose.