If you’re partial to “in and out” lists, here’s a trend you’re likely to see more of in 2025: office building conversions.
The work-from-home movement may be popular with employees, but record-high office vacancies are posing some significant economic problems at the local level. When commercial buildings lose tenants and property owners can’t pay their taxes, municipalities lose the revenue they need to fund essential services like schools, emergency responders, libraries and parks. What’s more, empty offices leave support services in the neighborhood (think lunch cafes and dry cleaners) without a customer base.
Across Northern Virginia, the commercial vacancy rate stood at 23.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm. So it’s no surprise that property owners and local governments are exploring creative ways to reinvent and repopulate those empty buildings.
The trend is already well underway in the D.C. metro region, where more than 6,500 office-to-apartment conversions are in the works, according to RentCafe. And with about 61.3 million square feet of office space suitable for conversions, more projects are likely.
Faced with the double whammy of a housing shortage and a glut of empty office buildings, Arlington County in November adopted an adaptive reuse policy that allows developers to transform “outdated office buildings into vibrant, multi-use spaces.”
What might these kinds of building conversions look like? We took a peek in side two experimental projects in Northern Virginia that are already rethinking new uses for old buildings.
Three Collective in Falls Church
In the Bailey’s Crossroads area of Falls Church, a new development called Three Collective (3co), is a self-described “groundbreaking flexidential community concept.” Previously home to office space for defense agencies and contractors, the three buildings situated at 5203 Leesburg Pike were largely empty for decades before construction began in mid-2021.
Now the towers house a combination of apartments, coworking areas, conference rooms, creative studios and even an indoor dog park.
In May 2024, 3co’s three 16-story buildings began welcoming new residents to fill 675 loft-style apartments with huge windows and exposed concrete ceilings. Forty of those units are part of the Workforce Dwelling Unit Homebuyer Program, which helps people earning 70%-120% of the area median income find housing at below-market prices.
3co also offers an activator-in-residence program whereby residents who create special events or social media content for the property can get a rent-free apartment for one year in exchange for activating or boosting engagement. Noelia Voigt, Miss USA 2023, is an activator-in-residence who has posted Instagram reels about 3co’s Makerspace.
The property’s amenities and community spaces are a big draw. About 30,000 square feet are devoted to spaces such as Hub & Spoke, a bicycle storage and repair shop that has a vending machine stocked with bike tools and parts. A mail room called Part & Parcel is stocked with boxes, wrapping paper and a machine that prints labels for any shipping service.
“The outside is largely the same as it always was,” says Amber Huntley-Ruiz, vice president of marketing at the Wolff Company, the investment firm behind 3co and Mosaic District. “All of the windows are new and some new trim features, but those buildings, you can actually see them when you fly into DCA, so they just stand as the three rectangular towers that they’ve always been.”
Between the buildings are common green spaces for residents and a city-owned public park.
Inside, however, the floor plans have been completely reconfigured. Prep & Proper (above) is an exhibition kitchen built for licensed chefs to use for parties and demonstrations.
“We’re going to have a restaurant in Building One, so we thought it’d be lovely if they use that as an extension of their space,” Huntley-Ruiz says. “There are cameras pointing down so you can see what the chef is sautéing on the stovetop. Through our activator-in-residence program, we had a chef living with us for almost a year who did exactly that. He’d go down there and do tastings, host private dinners and just cook for the residents. We’re looking for another chef now to continue on with that.”
Also among the complex’s amenities is Level Up, an arcade and duckpin bowling alley. On the other side of the wall is a virtual reality room with two screens and gaming chairs.
The partition wall contains “little Plexiglas boxes which have bowling shoes as artwork,” Huntley-Ruiz says. “Every space, every plane at Three Collective has something interesting visually going on.”
A space called The Switchboard serves as a photography studio: “The rolls that look kind of like wrapping paper are different color backdrops for taking photos,” Huntley-Ruiz says. (The backdrop in the image above is white.)
The doors lead to soundproof recording and podcasting studios, complete with recording equipment. A music practice room is outfitted with keyboards, guitars and other instruments for residents to use.
Canvas Co is an art studio where residents can create new work or host classes. “Much like the exhibition kitchen, this is designed with some cameras for instruction, so an artist could be teaching a painting class, and everyone would be able to see it well,” Huntley-Ruiz says.
The Barking Lot, an indoor pet park, is popular with residents and their dogs, particularly when the weather outdoors is less than ideal. “You never have to leave the building,” she says. “You can go downstairs [to the garage level], and there’s this space that looks like you’re outdoors for your pets to run.”
The 3,800-square foot doggie playground is outfitted with canine-friendly exercise equipment, water stations and an area for pet parents to hang out.
Next to the Barking Lot is, fittingly, one of two pet spas, called Paw Spa. It’s a pet washroom with multiple wash stations and dryers.
Makerspace is equipped with sinks, a pottery wheel, drying racks, worktables, communal tools and more. Lockers contain toolboxes that residents can borrow for free. “Say you have a home improvement project up in your apartment and you don’t have the tools you need,” Huntley-Ruiz explains. “You can come down to the locker, you push in a code, you grab a toolbox and take it up to your apartment.”
Coworking spaces throughout the buildings give people the opportunity to work “alone together,” Huntley-Ruiz adds. “There are little work pods where you can take a meeting, always with a great background for your Zoom calls.”
The entire property is decked out in what she calls “Instagrammable moments” with visually interesting signage and artwork livening up communal areas.
Buildings One and Three each have 240 apartments, while Building Two contains 195 units, including larger residences with two or three bedrooms and bathrooms.
Although it can be tricky to get substantial natural light when converting office buildings to residential properties, these three buildings had wall-to-wall windows, Huntley-Ruiz says, so the structural aspects are the same. “There’s an abundance of natural light for residential use.”
Balian Springs in Alexandria
Some 150,000 guests have flocked to the Balian Springs day spa since its grand opening in October 2022. But what many might not realize as they dip in hydrotherapy pools and sweat in saunas is that the brick-and-glass structure at 6432 General Green Way was once a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission building.
“It was vacant for about five years prior to us acquiring it, which was in December of 2016,” says Stephanie Chon, founder of Balian Springs.
It took quite a bit of vision to turn the “ugly red brick building” filled with offices and cubicles into a 100,000-square-foot wellness retreat on par with those in Korea and Europe, Chon says.
“The biggest challenge we had to overcome was the ceiling height,” she adds. “You didn’t want to feel like you were in a home or an office space, so we actually shaved the second-floor concrete slabs to make the ceiling on the first floor a little higher.”
On the plus side, the existing building had lots of windows bringing in natural light. “That’s when the idea came to create this atrium,” Chon says, with a second floor mezzanine overlooking a sprawling hydrotherapy pool.
To make the spa feel like an otherworldly escape, Chon worked with a Disney Imagineer who designed structures for Shanghai Disneyland Park in China. The Imagineer dreamed up the towering Gates to Heaven arch that now anchors the atrium pool.
“He created these beautiful structures that are reminiscent of Bali…to make it seem as though you are not only not in a government building, but you’re not in Virginia,” she says.
Hydrotherapy is the spa’s most popular offering, Chon says. “We have 16 different hydrotherapy pools, and everyone likes to be in the waters.”
The saunas are a close second. Balian Springs offers eight different kinds, including Far Infrared, Loess Clay (made with mineral-rich soil from South Korea) and Charcoal, which purportedly extracts toxins from the body and skin.
The Gold Sauna looks to be on par with something you might find in Mar-a-Lago or Las Vegas. The idea behind it, Chon explains, dates to the ancient Romans and Egyptians, who believed in gold’s healing power.
In the Himalayan Salt sauna, humidity condenses on the surface of the salt blocks, triggering an ionization process that is said to remove impurities from the air. Chon says a good sweat in the space can be beneficial for those suffering from respiratory or skin ailments.
A second-floor Immersion iLounge was designed to be a “transporting place,” featuring still photos and video footage of surfers in Hawaii. The footage comes courtesy of a photographer who was sponsored by Canon to capture the beauty of the 50th state.
“He set up three different cameras to create these 30-minute clips at natural scenic places,” such as a beach and a bamboo forest, Chon says. The immersive experience aims to make visitors “feel one with nature.”
Another feature that was most definitely not part of the original SEC building is a rooftop pool deck.
The next phase of the building transformation will convert 50,000 square feet into a one-stop shop for self-care, Chon says, with chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists and functional dentists brought in to analyze clients’ diets, sleep habits and other lifestyle factors to create personalized wellness plans.
Similar creative approaches may soon be coming to National Landing in Arlington. Shortly after Arlington adopted its commercial building reuse policy in November, JBG Smith filed an application to transform 550,000 square feet of empty office space on Crystal Drive into a hotel and a multifamily apartment building.