By Gabriela Rico | Arizona Daily Star
As investors continue to snap up existing apartment complexes around town, several developers are creating new dwellings by converting hotels, offices and even churches into living spaces.
Tucson leads the state in apartment conversions, and both office and hotel properties on the market are being touted with that potential use in mind.
The conversion of the former Benedictine Monastery into a 292-unit complex put Tucson in the top spot, and interest in that conversion is growing as the housing shortage has pushed rents up nearly 50% in some parts of the city since the start of the pandemic.
“There’s no stop for conversions in Tucson as two hotels are undergoing redevelopment and are on their way to deliver about 200 more apartments,” says a report by RentCafe’s analysis of Yardi Matrix data. “On a national level, hotels remain one of the most popular building types for conversion, with 3,575 apartments coming from this niche in just two years.”
