THE FALCON BUILDING

This long vacant seven-story office building in Old Town is set to be one of Portland's first office-to-residential conversions!  Since the Covid pandemic, the vacancy rate of office space downtown has skyrocketed, and the lack of housing in the area has meant that the downtown of Portland, like many cities across the nation, is at risk of being hollowed out by the low occupancy rate. One solution to this is to convert office buildings into housing - tackling both the vacancy rates and the housing crisis in once fell swoop! There are barriers however: seismic standards differ between office and residential uses, as do utility needs. Sound mitigation is an issue as well as a lack of operable windows for fresh air. The City of Portland seized the opportunity to allow conversions by waiving the difference between seismic standards for the two occupancy classifications and has also pledged a waiver for either the system development charges or the cost for a seismic retrofit if the building didn't already meet the office seismic standard. Luckily, the Falcon Building had undergone a full seismic upgrade around a decade ago as an office building. That upgrade also included all new high performance windows, a whole building ERV for fresh air throughout and a radiant slab heating and cooling system. All in all this conversion will take seven stories of mostly vacant office space and turn it into 59 generously sized apartments, both market rate and affordable.