A 13-story office-to-residential conversion in Downtown Brooklyn has reached completion, adding to the growing inventory of former commercial buildings remade as housing in New York City. According to New York YIMBY, The Bowen at 289 Schermerhorn Street was developed by Urban Development Partners with a design by GF55 Architects, and involved a vertical expansion atop an existing seven-story office building that doubled the structure’s scope to 105,000 square feet.
The project yields 71 condominium units in studio to three-bedroom layouts, along with indoor and outdoor amenities and ground-floor retail space between Bond and Nevins Streets. CL-OTH Interiors handled the residential and amenity design. The completion arrives as Downtown Brooklyn continues its post-pandemic transformation from a nine-to-five office district into a mixed residential neighborhood.
The conversion wave is broadening. Crain’s New York Business reported this week on a rare office conversion marking the latest transformation in Dumbo, while lenders are financing similar projects in Manhattan: Northwind Group announced a $231 million construction loan for an office-to-residential conversion in Midtown, according to REBusinessOnline. City incentives passed in recent years — including the state’s 485-x program and federal changes allowing office buildings to be repurposed — have helped make the math work for developers.
The economics remain challenging, which is why projects tend to cluster in older, smaller-floorplate buildings rather than the large-block towers that define modern office stock. Conversion advocates argue that the city’s high office vacancy rate, particularly in older Class B and C buildings, represents a structural surplus that housing conversions can absorb while addressing the city’s persistent shortage of homes.
City Hall has embraced the trend. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has identified office conversions as part of its housing strategy, and the city’s Department of City Planning has continued processing zoning changes that make conversions easier. The mayor’s office also broke ground this week on a bus-speed project along DeKalb and Lafayette avenues in Brooklyn — infrastructure improvements that neighborhood groups say complement residential growth by improving commuter access.
Still, the scale remains modest relative to the city’s housing needs. Analysts estimate that conversions across the five boroughs have added only a few thousand units annually against a housing market where median asking rents remain near record highs. The Bowen’s 71 units illustrate both the promise and the limits: each completed project trims vacancy at the margins, but a meaningful dent in the housing shortage will depend on how many more office buildings pencil out as homes. Whether that pipeline accelerates may hinge on financing — conversion deals carry heavy upfront costs, and lenders have favored projects with existing subsidy support or strong end-market demand, a mix Downtown Brooklyn has so far offered — a calculation that lower interest rates and continued city incentives will shape in 2027.
