West Hollywood needs to provide 3,933 new housing units across various income levels by 2029, and to meet its goal, the city is looking to turn commercial properties across the city into residential units.
The West Hollywood Planning Commission’s Long Range Planning Projects Subcommittee is set to meet on tonight to discuss the idea, part of the city’s ongoing efforts to meet the goals of its 6th Cycle Housing Element. Among the many strategies being considered, the subcommittee will look into converting unused commercial spaces into homes, which has become more palatable to City Hall as the need for office space has fallen sharply since the pandemic.
The idea of adaptive reuse, where existing buildings get repurposed for new uses, is at the core of this discussion. With more people working remotely, office vacancies have gone up, and converting these empty spaces into homes could be a way to help solve the housing shortage. The subcommittee will explore ways to make these conversions easier and more attractive for developers.
The city’s Housing Element includes a specific program (Housing Program #11) focused on studying and potentially regulating these conversions. The process has three phases. The first phase began in the third quarter of 2023 and aims to be completed by late 2024, focusing on how to streamline regulations for these projects. The second phase, running from 2025 to 2027, will look at offering incentives, while the third phase will review the balance of commercial and residential uses in mixed-use buildings.
City staff will make the case tonight that adaptive reuse could extend the life of existing buildings, helping with sustainability and creating more housing — even though they can be expensive and difficult. Financially, converting commercial spaces into housing doesn’t always make sense because residential developments often bring in less profit. Plus, many commercial buildings aren’t designed for residential use, making renovations costly and complicated.
For example, current city rules require multi-family residential buildings to provide at least 120 square feet of private open space per unit, plus additional common areas. For an adaptive reuse project, meeting these requirements might be unrealistic or too expensive, especially if the building’s original design doesn’t include such spaces. On top of that, older commercial buildings might need significant upgrades to meet current safety and energy codes, which adds even more cost.
Whether a building can be successfully converted into homes depends deeply on its design. Buildings with regular, simple floor layouts and lots of open space are usually easier to adapt. Studies have found that high-rise buildings with floor plates between 12,000 and 15,000 square feet are ideal for this kind of project. Buildings with high vacancy rates are also more likely to be considered for conversion. Older buildings, however, tend to need more work, which could drive up costs.
Motel and hotel conversions are among the easiest and cheapest. These properties already have residential-style layouts, so they need fewer changes. The California Department of Housing and Community Development estimates that hotel conversions cost around $130,000 per unit, which is much lower than other conversion projects or new construction.
Other cities have seen success with adaptive reuse. The city of Los Angeles created over 12,000 housing units in its downtown area through a 1999 Adaptive Reuse Ordinance. The city is now considering updates to expand eligibility and provide more flexibility for these projects. Nearby cities like Santa Monica and Beverly Hills are also working on similar policies to make it easier to convert buildings into housing. These efforts include relaxing zoning rules, offering incentives like faster approvals and reducing fees.
State laws have also been passed to encourage adaptive reuse. Assembly Bill 2011 and Senate Bill 6, both effective as of July 2023, allow residential development on commercial properties if certain conditions are met. AB 2011 provides a streamlined approval process for multi-family housing on sites where commercial uses, such as offices and retail, are the main permitted uses. SB 6 allows both residential and mixed-use development on these sites, although it doesn’t exempt projects from environmental reviews and doesn’t require affordable housing unless a local law mandates it.
Two other state laws, Assembly Bill 1490 and Assembly Bill 529, passed in 2023 to further support these projects. AB 1490 offers a streamlined approval process for 100% affordable housing projects that involve adaptive reuse. It also allows temporary residential occupancy, even if it doesn’t align with local zoning regulations. AB 529 requires the California Department of Housing and Community Development to form a working group that will suggest updates to state building codes by 2025 to support adaptive reuse projects.
There’s also pending legislation that could impact how cities approach these conversions. Assembly Bill 3608 would make adaptive reuse a permitted use in all zones if certain conditions are met, allowing a streamlined approval process. Assembly Bill 2910 would allow cities that are considered pro-housing to adopt alternative building codes specifically designed for adaptive reuse projects.
In West Hollywood, there are some unique factors to consider. The city’s office vacancy rate is lower than other areas nearby — at 11.8%, compared to 15.4% for the broader Los Angeles region and over 18% in West Los Angeles and Downtown Los Angeles. However, West Hollywood’s existing building stock is mainly multi-family residential, limiting the availability of commercial properties suitable for conversion. Despite this, city staff have identified a few locations that could be good candidates for these projects, including the Emser Tile building on Santa Monica Boulevard, the Pacific Design Center, and parts of Sunset Boulevard.
Over the past few years, there has only been one major commercial-to-residential conversion project in the city. A medical office building from 1962 was converted into a condominium complex at 8899 Beverly Boulevard, which was completed in 2022. Even though it’s not clear how much demand there is for more conversions like this, making it easier for these projects to move forward could help West Hollywood reach its housing targets.
The subcommittee will discuss key policy questions tonight, such as which types of conversion projects should be included in future regulations and whether certain geographic areas should be prioritized. They’ll also consider whether to include hotel and motel conversions in the policy and how to handle affordability requirements. For instance, should the city only offer incentives for projects that include affordable housing, or should all conversion projects benefit from streamlined rules?
Other ideas on the table include potential incentives like reducing fees, offering faster approval processes, and modifying development standards like open space and unit size requirements.
Following tonight’s discussion, city staff may draft a zone text amendment based on the feedback, which would then go to the City Council for consideration.
What good will it do to create more housing when it’s going to be priced so far above what most people can afford? The city is still favoring developers over community.
Great idea. Cities everywhere are doing it.
What hotels are there to convert? We also have very few traditional office towers near empty to convert. This seems like a huge dream.
This is a great idea and should be championed throughout City Hall. That re-use and recycling properties has proven time and time again to benefit our communities.
How about converting City Hall?
Good idea. John Erickson’s office could surely house 2 or 3 people. If they are really serious when they called housing a “crisis”, they would give up their lavish office spaces, and work from home so we could house more out of town homeless vagrants.
It’s not John Erickson’s office, it is the Mayors office. When your person serves that role, will you feel the as same or is this just one of your snarky useless comments.