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Another Boston office building gets green light for housing conversion
The city has approved 11 office-to-apartment projects so far as officials push to bring more residents — and life — back downtown.
Boston has granted building permits to another office-to-housing conversion, this time in the South End.
Developers are converting a former office building at 615 Albany St. into 24 apartments as part of the city’s effort to transform underused commercial space into much-needed housing.
It is one of 19 projects participating in Boston’s office-to-residential incentive program, which aims to revitalize downtown by replacing outdated offices with homes.
The South End project is one of three under construction in the city, with 129 Portland St. in the Bulfinch Triangle and 263 Summer St.
The project involves converting a five-story, 19,200-square-foot office building into a six-story, 20,000-square-foot residential building with 24 units. The building will include 12 studios, one one-bedroom, six two-bedrooms, and five three-bedrooms. Per the city’s policies, 20% of the units will be income-restricted.
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The City of Boston Planning Department approved the project in September 2024.
According to land records, the developer, Gregory McCarthy, bought the building in July 2023 for $3.4 million.
According to a city release, the project will be the first to add a floor to increase the number of housing units while remaining consistent with the other buildings in the historic South End. The building was originally a Naval Blood Research Laboratory.
“I believe this program provides solutions to multiple issues that are critical both now and for the future of Boston,” McCarthy said in the release.
McCarthy is also behind the office-to-apartment conversions of the Bulfinch Triangle project and at the approved 4 Liberty Sq. and 112 State St. projects downtown.
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Boston’s downtown office vacancy is about 20% and expected to rise to 30%, whereas residential vacancy is about 4%.
The conversion program allows developers to have a 29-year, 75% residential abatement. It also gives builders as-of-right zoning in the downtown area and a fast-tracked Article 80 permitting process to save time and money.
The city aims to revitalize 1,000 new housing units and 1 million square feet by 2026. Developers can apply until December.
The first office-to-apartment conversion opened in September at 281 Franklin St. in the Financial District.
The story was updated to reflect the correct number of applications approved in the program and that received building permits.
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