Tired: Office conversions to residential. Wired: Turning dead malls and suburban shopping strips into apartments.

The article discusses the potential for converting underperforming retail spaces, such as strip malls and shopping centers, into residential housing as a solution to America's significant housing shortage, estimated at 3 million to 6 million units. A report from Enterprise Community Partners suggests that transforming just 10% of these retail sites could yield 700,000 new housing units. While there are successful examples of such conversions, challenges remain, including the need for significant renovations and the political and financial hurdles associated with redevelopment. The article highlights that retail locations often have existing infrastructure that can facilitate these conversions more easily than office spaces, which have proven more difficult and costly to repurpose. [Extracted from the article]