Empty Offices Rapidly Turning Into Housing In Boston

WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel has more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boston's experiment to convert vacant offices into apartments downtown is
going full steam ahead. The city just held another groundbreaking
letting officials have at it with a sledgehammer against some drywall.
Mayor Michelle Wwis says construction has begun on four buildings,
with one of them set to be finished in just
two months.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
This program was launched less than two years ago, and
we already have nearly eight hundred units in the pipeline
that space for more than one thousand new residents.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
After years of stagnation and empty commercial buildings, officials say
the city has started to take back in the other direction.
Michael Nichols, with a Downtown Boston Alliance, says this new
housing will help.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
The number one metric across the United States for people
returning to their office is the proximity they lived to
that job.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
The program is an attempt to solve two problems at once,
revitalize the downtown and create some desperately needed housing. Kyle
Schaffel BBS Boston's News Radio