Adaptive reuse is surging, turning offices, hotels, and schools into low‑carbon housing. Here’s how green tech and AI make these projects faster and smarter.
Most cities are quietly rewriting their skylines — not by building more, but by reusing what they already have.
In 2024 alone, almost 25,000 apartments in the U.S. came from adaptive reuse projects, up more than 50% from 2023. Office buildings, hotels, even former schools are being turned into homes. For anyone working in sustainability, real estate, or city planning, this isn’t just a design trend. It’s one of the most practical tools we have to cut emissions, stabilize downtowns, and add badly needed housing without pouring more concrete.
This matters because the greenest building is usually the one that already exists. And when you combine adaptive reuse with green technology and AI-driven planning, you get a powerful playbook for low-carbon, livable cities.
Below, I’ll break down what’s actually happening in the market, why offices and schools are suddenly conversion darlings, how technology is making projects more feasible, and what you should be doing now if you’re a city leader, owner, or sustainability-minded investor.
Adaptive reuse is exploding — and it’s reshaping office markets
Adaptive reuse is no longer niche. It’s now a major force in how cities grow and decarbonize.
According to recent data, U.S. developers completed 24,960 apartments via adaptive reuse in 2024, up from 16,513 in 2023 and 12,765 in 2022. That’s roughly a 95% increase in just two years.
A few key shifts stand out:
- Hotels lead: Over 9,100 units came from hotel conversions in 2024, especially from aging Class B and C properties.
- Offices are close behind: About 5,889 apartments were created from office buildings, nearly a quarter of all reuse units.
- Constrained office supply: When you add up conversions and demolitions, more office space is disappearing than new product is coming online. That’s exactly what you want in a high-vacancy market.
This isn’t simply a real estate story. Every square foot saved from demolition and new construction is a carbon win. Reuse typically avoids 40–60% of embodied emissions compared with building new, because you’re preserving the structure, foundations, and much of the envelope.
Here’s the thing about office markets right now: many cities are sitting on millions of square feet of underused space, while also facing severe housing shortages and climate goals they’re nowhere near hitting. Adaptive reuse is one of the rare strategies that hits all three problems at once:
- Reduces vacancy and stabilizes downtowns
- Adds housing where transit and infrastructure already exist
- Cuts both embodied and operational carbon when paired with green tech
Why offices and schools are suddenly prime conversion targets
Offices and schools used to be challenging candidates for reuse. Now they’re driving the fastest growth in conversions.
Offices: From stranded assets to high-performing housing
Office conversions produced nearly 25% of all adaptive reuse units in 2024, and activity is still climbing. On average, the U.S. has seen about 58 office conversions per year since 2018, but 2024 alone delivered 94 projects totaling 13.1 million square feet.
The surprising twist? Many of the most successful projects are newer, high-quality buildings — not just obsolete stock.
Developers are targeting Class A or near-Class A assets because:
- They already have modern mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems that are easier to upgrade for high-efficiency performance.
- They’re in prime locations near transit, jobs, and amenities.
- Floor plates and ceiling heights often support luxury or amenity-rich apartments, which is where the capital currently flows.
As one recent analysis put it, newer high-quality buildings “offer big advantages for conversions” and are “especially attractive for luxury apartment projects, which match what many investors are looking for.” I’d go further: they’re also the low-hanging fruit for deep energy retrofits that align with ESG mandates.
Schools: The fastest-growing adaptive reuse segment
Schools are the quiet breakout story.
In 2024, about 2,000 apartments were created from former schools — the highest number on record and four times the volume in 2023. Their share of new adaptive reuse apartments jumped from 3% to 7.9% in a single year.
What’s driving that growth?
- Declining enrollment in some urban districts, leaving beautiful but underused buildings.
- High renovation costs for aging, historic school buildings that no longer fit modern education needs.
- Strong demand for character-rich housing in walkable neighborhoods.
From a green technology perspective, schools are fantastic candidates:
- They usually have good natural light and generous ceiling heights, perfect for passive design strategies.
- Many sit on large sites with room for solar, geothermal wells, or stormwater features.
- Their solid masonry structures are ideal for envelope upgrades that dramatically reduce energy use.
When you pair these physical advantages with AI-driven design and building performance modeling, you can turn underused civic assets into high-efficiency, all-electric housing that honors the neighborhood’s history.
Where adaptive reuse is growing — and what it signals for cities
Adaptive reuse is no longer confined to a handful of coastal markets. It’s spreading quickly across the country.
In 2024, each of the top 10 cities delivered more than 500 apartments from conversions — a big jump from 2023, when most cities were closer to 300 units. Chicago took the top spot with 880 apartments from four converted properties, pushing Manhattan down to fifth place behind Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, and Dallas.
This tells you a few important things about urban recovery and sustainability strategy:
- Secondary markets are stepping up. Cities like Denver and Dallas are proving that adaptive reuse is not just a New York or San Francisco play.
- Policy and incentives matter. Where cities streamline permitting, adjust zoning, and align building codes with electrification and reuse, projects move faster.
- Housing plus climate is the winning frame. When conversions are pitched only as an office market fix, they stall. When framed as a tool for climate action, housing supply, and downtown revitalization, the coalition gets much stronger.
Looking ahead, the pipeline is even more telling. Across the U.S., there are about 181,000 apartments in various stages of conversion planning or development — a 19% increase in just one year.
Breakdown of what’s coming:
- 78,500 units from offices
- 35,800 units from hotels
- 31,000+ units from industrial buildings
If even a solid fraction of these projects integrate advanced green technology — heat pumps, smart controls, AI-based building management, and low-carbon materials — the emissions impact over the next decade will be enormous.
How green technology and AI make adaptive reuse more viable
Adaptive reuse on its own is good. Adaptive reuse combined with green tech and AI is where things really get interesting.
Here’s how technology is changing the economics and performance of conversions.
1. AI-driven feasibility analysis
One of the biggest historical barriers to office or school conversions is simply knowing which buildings are viable.
Now, AI tools can rapidly evaluate thousands of buildings against:
- Floor plate depth and daylight access
- Structural grids and unit layout options
- Code compliance constraints (egress, accessibility)
- Retrofit potential for all-electric systems and high-performance envelopes
Cities and investors can use this to create a ranked inventory of high-potential buildings, instead of guessing one property at a time. That cuts soft costs, de-risks projects, and speeds up decision-making.
2. Digital twins and performance modeling
For buildings that make the shortlist, digital twins and energy modeling tools simulate:
- Heating and cooling loads under different retrofit scenarios
- Impact of envelope upgrades vs. HVAC replacements
- Potential energy savings from daylighting, shading, and natural ventilation
- On-site renewable potential (solar PV, battery storage, possibly geothermal)
The result is a data-backed retrofit package that can target:
- Net-zero-ready performance for new apartments
- Compliance with local building performance standards
- Lower operating costs that make the pro forma work — and satisfy ESG investors
3. Smart building systems for long-term savings
Once conversions are complete, smart building technology keeps the carbon and cost savings coming.
Examples that work particularly well in reused buildings:
- All-electric heat pumps managed by AI-based controls that respond to occupancy patterns and energy prices
- Smart thermostats and submetering to give residents real-time feedback on energy use
- Predictive maintenance that uses sensor data to spot failing equipment before it breaks, extending asset life and avoiding waste
The reality? Most companies underuse these tools. They stop at “code compliant” instead of aiming for high-performance, data-informed buildings. The ones who go further build portfolios that are more resilient to future carbon pricing, performance regulations, and tenant expectations.
What cities, owners, and investors should do now
If you care about green technology and urban sustainability, adaptive reuse should be on your 2026 priority list. Here’s a practical playbook.
For city and regional leaders
- Map your reuse potential. Use data and AI tools to inventory offices, schools, hotels, and industrial buildings that are strong candidates for conversion.
- Align zoning and codes. Remove barriers that block office-to-residential or school-to-residential uses in transit-rich areas. Bake in requirements or incentives for electrification and high-efficiency retrofits.
- Tie incentives to performance. Offer tax abatements, grants, or expedited permitting for projects that hit specific energy targets, reuse materials, or integrate on-site renewables.
For building owners and developers
- Stop treating older buildings as write-offs. With the right partner, many can become high-performing, green multifamily or mixed-use assets.
- Run a quick-screen feasibility study. Use modeling tools to test scenarios: partial conversions, phased projects, or mixed typologies (eg, housing plus lab or educational space).
- Design for both tenants and the grid. All-electric, highly efficient buildings with smart controls are easier to market to residents and easier to integrate with demand response or virtual power plant programs.
For sustainability and ESG teams
- Prioritize embodied carbon. Advocate for reuse-first strategies in your real estate portfolio before approving ground-up projects.
- Track and report performance. Use building analytics platforms to show actual energy and emissions reductions from conversions; that’s gold for ESG reporting.
- Partner with cities. Many jurisdictions are hungry for private-sector partners who can help meet climate and housing goals. Bring adaptive reuse projects into those conversations.
If your organization is trying to hit emissions targets while also managing cost and risk, adaptive reuse plus green technology is one of the most efficient paths you can take.
The next decade of green cities will be built from what we already have
The pipeline of 181,000 planned conversion units is a clear signal: adaptive reuse is moving from exception to standard practice.
The question now isn’t whether cities will reuse buildings — it’s how intelligently they’ll do it. Will they simply swap one use for another, or will they combine reuse with AI-driven planning, high-performance retrofits, and smart building systems that drive emissions close to zero?
If you’re working in green technology, real estate, or urban policy, this is the moment to step in. The buildings are already standing. The market is shifting in favor of conversions. The data and tools exist to make them genuinely low-carbon.
There’s a better way to grow our cities: reuse first, then optimize with technology. The sooner we treat that as the default, the faster we’ll hit both our climate and housing goals.