This week, Keith Lesser talks about how IS&L uses the practice of repositioning as well as adaptive reuse to revamp old structures and get them back on track.
Can you tell us a little bit about why IS&L has become interested in the practice of adaptive reuse?
Adaptive reuse is generally beneficial from an economic standpoint. It's also green because you're not demolishing a building and putting it into the landfill, which wastes effort and energy. It took energy to build the building, and now you're using fuel and manpower to put it in a landfill where it's going to do no good. If the building is structurally viable and it can be converted to another use, then it automatically gets major green points. It's also generally economically viable for the developer or the property owner to do that because again—if the building is structurally viable—you don't have to pay for a new foundation, new steel frames, new exterior walls, or new roof, because much of it is usually already there. The structure can be either remodeled or retrofitted and save a major dollar amount.
What about repositioning? How is that different?
Repositioning is not adaptive reuse. It is taking, for example, a Class D office building and turning into a Class A office building. Adaptive reuse is when you change from one use group to another use group. For example, an industrial building can be redeveloped for retail or residential use. There are ranges of adaptive reuse: some are easy and some are difficult. Converting a retail building to a restaurant is still adaptive reuse, but it's very close to the same purpose because it's in the vein of mercantile.
We've done both. Some recent projects have been to convert old defunct factories that are out of business and turn them into warehouse, distribution, and industrial condos for small entrepreneurial companies- to create a sort of “flex building” if you will. We take a 100,000 square foot industrial building that is no longer producing product and convert it into 20,000 and 30,000 square foot tenancies. You redo the outside, redo the inside, and the building is back. So, what was an abandoned structure now has a new life again. It has a similar use, but now it's back in use, back on the tax role, and producing jobs and income. At the university level, we're about to start construction at Bloomfield college of a 96 bed dormitory. This was an old apartment building that the college bought and it's now going to be a really nice dormitory for students. We're also converting historic homes into classrooms, offices, and honor student dormitories. Even smaller structures like homes, with the right approach, can have a new life while still maintaining their historic character.
Are there any other projects that you'd like to share?
One of the other things that we did a few years ago, was the conversion of an old AT&T switching station and service. They had all of the machinery and service personnel and transformed that into corporate headquarters for a real estate company. If you look at the before and after pictures, you wouldn't believe it's the same building.
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