Maxwell Drever
Today, one of the alternative uses of most hotels affected during the pandemic is to transform into affordable workforce housing units. It’s one of the emerging trends that can help the nation ease its increasing crunch in affordable housing.
Maxwell Drever says that the transformation of struggling motels and hotels into multifamily housing provides affordable housing scope for those usually shut out of space due to the cost of rent or buy isn’t within their financial ability. And this demographic comprises lower-income households, young professionals, seniors living on their fixed incomes, and homeless persons. The conversion can also help people who’ve had an income decline due to the economic downswing.
Additionally, hotel conversions will benefit people searching for workforce housing. This group generally has occupations like teachers, construction workers, police officers, nurses, firefighters, and many more. And this group finds it challenging to come across housing near services and employment, which doesn’t lead to a rent burden. Hence, repurposing hotel rooms into very small apartments, usually between 300 and 500 square feet, can enable this group to reside in affordable homes close to their work and helps them in their daily commute.
The hotel conversions provide cheap scopes to new construction- Insights by Maxwell Drever.
The affordable rental development and workforce housing projects might be cost-prohibitive to establish because of costly land, building codes, restrictive zoning, and various factors. Owing to the hotel industry’s difficulty, the developers are making use of the financially distressed motels and hotels as an affordable option for developing multifamily units from scratch. For example, setting a brand-new multifamily project in a metropolitan region can cost anything between $150,000 and $200,000 each unit, in comparison to $60,000 and $70,000 each unit for conversion. The lesser conversion cost can provide more reasonable rents to households residing here once it gets completed.
Today, people can access major hotel conversions in regions easily from and to highways, major roads, bus and rail lines. They are well suited to transform into one-bedroom or studio units and usually have the best parking, fitness center, pool, and other amenities.
Avert conversion issues by joining hands with an appraisal firm
It is prudent for those planning for such a conversion to join hands with a commercial assessment and valuation firm. Maxwell Drever says that the firm should have ample expertise in similar projects to avert the multiple challenges of starting these projects. The challenges can include deciding on the viability of the hotel conversion and navigating to a complicated maze successfully of stringent building codes, zoning, and various needs.
Today, these firms can help the developers, property owners, and others at all the conversion stages, comprising the zoning analysis, appraisals, environmental assessment, market viability, and other essential services for such projects. Furthermore, such a firm has its set of appraisers specializing in multifamily and hotel properties, comprising reasonable housing, available to assist clients in addressing specific problems associated with multifamily conversions.
