Practice area / Small commercial
Old buildings, second lives.
Adaptive reuse of existing structures into commercial space. Maker studios, small offices, shopfronts, the occasional restaurant or bar. Seven of these since 2018, footprints from 1,500 to 12,000 square feet, and they share a pattern: the building was already standing, the program was specific, and the budget had to come in under what new construction would have cost.
What works for adaptive reuse
Older industrial bones, intact roof framing.
Mills. Single-story warehouses. Mid-century office buildings before the open-plan era. We’ve done two grist mill conversions, three warehouses, and two former bank branches. The bank branches were harder than the mills.
- MillsGenerous floor-to-floor, daylight from clerestories, structural redundancy.
- Single-story warehousesWide spans, structure usable as-is, loading dock geometry intact.
- Mid-century officesPre-open-plan stock. Punched windows. Slab on grade or short basement.
- AvoidPre-WWII residential converted to commercial — the math rarely works.
- AvoidStrip mall and pad-site work — that’s a different practice.
Project: North Mill Studios
1923 grist mill, 14 studios, 80 percent leased on opening day.
A 1923 grist mill converted into 14 working studios for craftspeople, with a shared kiln, a finishing room, and a gallery storefront on the street. The mill had stood empty for 19 years. Roof framing checked out. Foundation needed underpinning along the east wall. Construction took 11 months. The studios were 80 percent leased on opening day.
- Year built1923 · vacant 19 years before conversion
- Program14 working studios + shared kiln + finishing room + gallery
- Structural workUnderpinning at the east wall · roof framing retained as-is
- Schedule11 months SD through CofO
- Lease-up80% on opening day · 100% at month 4
Feasibility
Three questions answered inside three weeks.
Before any owner signs the lease or closes on the building, we run a feasibility study that answers three questions: is the structure usable, will the program fit, and what’s the construction cost likely to land at. Inside three weeks. Fixed fee. The cost credits against the SD fee if you move forward.
Is the building usable?
Walk-through with the partner on the file. Roof framing, foundation, lateral system. We bring a structural engineer on for an hour if the call is close.
1 site visit, 4 studio hours
Will what you want to do fit?
Test-fit drawings at SD-level detail. Egress, MEP zoning, ADA path. Honest answer on whether the program needs to flex or the building does.
6 – 10 studio hours
What does the construction land at?
Order-of-magnitude estimate with two GCs we trust on the line. Range, not a point estimate. Honest about what’s uncertain at this stage.
Bracketed: low / likely / high
When to call
Before you sign the lease.
“We’ve talked owners out of three properties and into two, and the calls we made the most difference on were the ones we took before the deal closed.” Noor Vasquez, partner on commercial
Send the address and a paragraph about the program. We’ll come back inside five business days with whether a feasibility study makes sense.