With in-office workers still slow to return to pre-pandemic levels, New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday unveiled his push to convert a big chunk of that underused office space into new apartments for New Yorkers.

Touting the recommendations from a city-led task force, the mayor presented 11 recommendations for changes to both state laws and city zoning requirements that would make it easier to convert from commercial/office to residential space, with the aim of adding as many as 20,000 homes in the next decade – or enough to house at least 40,000 individuals. 

“The need for housing is desperate, and the opportunity offered by underused office space is clear — we know what we need to do,” said Adams in a statement. 

“These concrete reforms would clear red tape and create the incentives to create the housing we need for New Yorkers at all income levels.”

The 32-page report by a special task force headed by Dan Garodnick, chairman of the City Planning Commission, and another 11 housing experts, builds on prior announcements by Adams to tackle the city’s housing affordability crisis.

The recommendations include:

• A goal of relaxing residential conversion regulations for buildings constructed prior to Dec. 31, 1990, which would relax standards for offices built between the 1960s and 1980s 
• Expand conversion standards to even more commercial districts such as Downtown Flushing in Queens and the Bronx Hub, in the South Bronx – accounting for roughly 16 million square feet of older office buildings
• Evaluate Midtown Manhattan zoning requirements – specifically districts between West 23rd Street and West 41st Street that don’t allow residential buildings – for the conversion or construction of new residential buildings 

Last month, Hizzoner pledged a goal of creating 500,000 new homes and apartments within the next decade – exceeding the 169,000 units constructed in the 2010s or the 198,000 units in the 2000s.

The city added over 700,000 jobs over the last decade, amounting to about four new jobs per each new unit of housing built. 

What’s more, companies have come to grips with employees favoring either a hybrid work schedule, blending in office work and at home work, or workers being fully remote in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The slow return to office has prompted business leaders to rethink the need and cost behind underutilized, pricey real estate holdings. 

“I am a big supporter. Our city economy is diversifying and becoming less Manhattan centric, which is a good thing,” Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, told The Post. 

“At the same time, we have big vacancy rates in older office buildings that can be converted to housing at far less cost than new construction if we create more flexibility in zoning and other requirements. This is the best and fastest way to deliver more housing options in diverse locations and improve the safety of areas of the city that lack 24/7 activity.”