Archive - December 17, 2022

For years, the Vanguard building in downtown D.C., once home for two decades, to the Peace Corps, has sat empty. On Thursday, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) celebrated the future of the 1960s-era Vanguard — and housing in downtown — at a ceremony kicking off the building’s conversion into swanky new apartments. After the coronavirus pandemic accelerated already rising vacancy rates in the city’s central business district, city leaders are looking at alternatives to fill unused office space and attract people back to downtown. Converting commercial buildings such as the Vanguard into residences is a solution leaders have looked at for years and hoped could accomplish two things: add more housing stock to combat D.C.’s affordable housing crisis and revitalize the city’s struggling downtown. Nearly 2.5 million square feet of office space in downtown D.C. is already dedicated to residential conversion projects. But with more than 20 million square feet of vacant office space across . . .