Big cities like New York have two real estate problems. Housing is scarce and office buildings are under-utilized. So there would seem to be an obvious solution: turn the office buildings into housing. Indeed, there's been a lot of talk lately about "office-to-residential" conversions given the current, post-pandemic state of affairs. But it's not that simple, for at least three big reasons. Zoning, financing and the often-complex necessities of construction all need to be addressed. On this episode of Odd Lots, we speak with Joey Chilelli, a managing director at the Vanbarton Group, a firm that's been involved with these projects for a decade, and discuss the challenges of actually pulling off a conversion.