Phoenix ranks among biggest office-to-apartment converters in U.S.

Article originally posted on AZ Big Media on April 13, 2026

The 2026 Office-to-apartment conversions report by RentCafe.com revealed that in the Phoenix metro area 1,550 units are expected from no less than 6 office-to-apartment conversion projects, ranking as the 13th biggest converter in the nation.

Here are the details:

• Phoenix’s biggest conversion of this type is  Kierland Sky, where 420 units are expected to come online once the project is completed.
• Canyon Village on 2510 West Dunlap Avenue and Monroe Street at 111 West Monroe Street are the two projects that plan to add more than 300 units each.
• In fact, two-thirds of all the adaptive reuse projects in the metro area are from transformation of old office buildings.
• Zooming out, only 12% of the total office space in the Valley is suitable for residential conversions — more than 17 million square feet.Empty office buildings across the country are being reimagined as housing. Spaces once filled with desks and conference rooms are now being redesigned into rental apartments, giving new purpose to towers that no longer operate at full capacity.

  At the start of 2026, 90,300 apartments were in the process of conversion nationwide — up 28% from 70,600 a year earlier — marking another record year for office-to-apartment projects.

  Key national takeaways:

  • The national office-to-apartment conversion pipeline reached 90,300 units at the start of 2026, up 28% year-over-year and nearly four times larger than in 2022.
  • Office conversions now account for almost half (47%) of all future adaptive reuse projects nationwide.
  • The New York metro area leads with 16,358 conversions in the backlog, followed by Washington, D.C. (8,479) and Chicago (4,360).
  • Denver, Philadelphia and Cleveland are among this year’s newcomers in the top 10, ranking #6, #7 and #9, respectively.

  The imbalance in the office sector didn’t emerge overnight. As Peter Kolaczynski, director of Yardi Research, explains, “COVID-19 is to the office market what e-commerce was to retail. As a result, there is simply too much office space in the market right now.”