More than two decades ago, developers recognized–and responded to–young, urban residents' attraction to dwellings fashioned out of unused warehouses or abandoned manufacturing buildings. The high ceilings, spacious open floor plans and pre-war architectural details offered by these properties in enticing, culturally varied urban settings soon led to occupation of nearly all the available space.
When the supply of this unused, abandoned industrial property started to dry up, urban residential developers started turning their designer's eye toward underused commercial office space. Because of the post-WWII building boom, there are thousands of high-rise office buildings along the Northeastern seaboard from Washington to Boston, and on the West Coast from San Francisco to Seattle.
Relocation of corporate campuses outside cities and offshoring of U.S. jobs have reduced the overall demand for high-quality office space in urban areas.
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