Turning all that old empty office space into state-of-the-art living space.
Caitlin Bowers' new apartment building has a little bit of everything. Game room. Party space. Work nooks.
“It’s pretty sweet,” Caitlin said.
Her building used to be filled with filing cabinets, desks and copy machines.
“It doesn’t feel like that,” she said with a laugh. “So that’s what’s nice.”
The Falls Church development is called Three Collective, and it may just be the future of housing, while solving one of the biggest problems created by the country’s pandemic past – empty office space.
“What most people don't realize is that, before the pandemic, only 8 million people sort of worked remotely in this country,” said Robert Seldin, whose company Highland Square Holdings developed Three Collective. “Today, that's 90 million people. It's the single largest and fastest migration in human history.”
Leaving many office buildings obsolete and millions and millions of square feet of office space sitting unused. Office vacancy rates in Fairfax County are at 17%. A 20 year high.
Arlington and DC are over 20% – all-time highs.
Montgomery County is over 16% – 33% increase since 2018.
Costing local governments millions of dollars every year in tax revenue.
“Most of this was the defense department and defense contractors,” said Seldin, standing in an empty office slated for future development.
Seldin has patented his idea to take all that empty office space and turn it into a multifunctional living space.
“We sell time in a box, and you bring the furniture you want,” he said adding the units are designed to be used as home, office or both.
A two-bedroom, two bathroom unit in Three Collective measuring 1149 square feet rents for just under $2,900 a month.
Seldin calls the office-to-residential trend the single biggest innovation in real estate since the elevator.
“It's the most meaningful change in how space has been used in this country since we unleashed the sky,” he said.
Washington Business Journal named Seldin to its 2023 Power 100 list, crowning him one of the Real Estate and Construction Icons who will reshape the D.C. region.
“Now that people can do more things everywhere, everywhere needs to permit them to do more things,” he said.
Seldin uses office characteristics like high ceilings, 6-foot windows and open floor plans to designers’ advantage. Leaving columns exposed to create the urban loft feel many young professionals are looking for.
He said those features are something he could never do building from scratch due to cost.
In fact, the building is supposed to be one stop shopping, literally. It even has its own private entrance to a Target.
The first phase of Seldin’s office to residential conversion in Falls Church opened in the fall of 2023. A second phase is currently construction, with a another abandoned office complex in the planning process.
Seldin says Three Collective is the first multi-use concept of its kind in the U.S.
Caitlin Bowers said what she likes most is the sense of community.
“I don’t ever want to own a house,” she said. “But with a house you get that neighborhood feel that goes with that.”
She says Three Collective is her new neighborhood.
A neighborhood that might be coming to an office park near you. A number of similar projects are planned in the District, as developers look for more ways to use all that empty office space downtown left over from the pandemic.