Cleveland has emerged as a national model for adaptive reuse at a time when the strategy is gaining traction across nearly every major U.S. city. While coastal markets have more recently embraced office-to-residential conversions, Cleveland has been refining the approach for decades, turning historic office buildings, department stores, and transit hubs into housing. Since 2013 alone, roughly 30 landmark structures have been converted, helping drive a 12% increase in downtown population since 2019 to about 21,000 residents. The growth has come not from new construction, but from reworking what already exists, supported by tax incentives that make these complex projects financially viable.

Projects like the May Company building and Terminal Tower Residences highlight both the creativity and constraints of adaptive reuse. Developers had to solve architectural challenges that don’t exist in ground-up construction, from carving courtyards into deep floor plates to integrating parking into legacy structures. The result is housing that offers something new buildings often cannot: historic detailing, unique layouts, and built-in urban connectivity. These qualities are increasingly being recognized in cities nationwide as developers look for ways to reposition obsolete office stock, but Cleveland’s long track record shows how execution—not just concept—determines success.

That execution is translating into demand. Downtown Cleveland is attracting a mix of Gen Z renters, downsizing empty nesters, and reverse commuters, while maintaining an 86% occupancy rate and steady street-level activity. Adaptive reuse units have also been relatively affordable, with rents running below those of comparable new construction in many cases, even as larger units command premiums due to their scale. As more cities turn to conversions to address office vacancy and housing shortages, Cleveland stands out less as an outlier and more as an early example of a model now being tested—and needed—across the country.

Even the most prominent office towers are no longer insulated from distress. Denver's tallest building, Republic Plaza, is losing value and cannot replace departing tenants fast enough. Net operating income has fallen sharply in just a few years, occupancy is down to about 70%, and the planned departure of Bank of America adds even more pressure. That combination is becoming familiar in central business districts where older towers are still well located but no longer command the same leasing advantage they once did.

One of the clearest lessons here is that the debt can shape the outcome as much as the real estate itself. Republic Plaza is tied up in a CMBS structure, which makes workouts slower and harder because decision-making is spread across multiple parties. That limits flexibility at the exact moment ownership needs room to renegotiate, refinance, or recapitalize. For office owners, investors, and lenders, this is a reminder that financing terms are not a side issue. In a weak leasing environment, they can determine whether a building gets a second chance or stays stuck in limbo.

The city’s efforts also show both the value and the limits of public support. Denver has put real weight behind the building by leasing space there and trying to strengthen the surrounding area, but one public lease is not enough to solve a problem this large. And while Republic Plaza may look compatible with residential conversion on paper, its scale makes that far more difficult in practice. That is an important distinction as more cities look at adaptive reuse as a solution for struggling office stock. Some buildings can be converted, but many of the biggest towers will need to be repriced, reinvested in, and repositioned as office if they are going to remain viable.

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