I quite a lot of American films, you see people living in these massive open plan, kind of run down/urban chic looking converted warehouse apartments, quite often with old looking lifts to get into them, and big sliding doors as front doors… how common are these? do they actually exist? and what end of the housing scale would they be? like would they be middle class accommodation? or low income? also… if anyone does live in them… whats it like to heat them?
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I’ve never personally seen one in my life nor have I ever met somebody that has but I wouldn’t doubt some older building gets revamped into living areas
They exist. I think at one time they were inhabited by the poor just looking for a place to live. No they are the domain of higher income hipsters and yuppies. And “starving “ artists.
I’ve never heard of warehouse apartments, [but old mill buildings getting converted into studio apartments](https://www.peabodyproperties.com/communities/images/com_jea/images/57/main.jpg) is super common in my area.
They definitely exist. Primarily in urban areas. They are usually higher end on the rent expense spectrum. Depends a bit on how small or large they make the units.
A factory I used to work in is now apartments. When I worked there I told my boss, “This building is going to be awesome as apartments someday.”
I’ve seen loft apartments in converted old factory buildings or similar. They tend to be on the more expensive side since they’re usually in trendier areas or locations undergoing some level of gentrification. I don’t know if that’s exactly what you’re describing.
I think in older cities that had urban factories
https://chicago.curbed.com/2020/3/3/21161396/lofts-in-chicago-for-sale-best-neighborhoods
Reusing old manufacturing mills (mostly textile mills, sometimes paper, etc) is common.
Here’s a [few good examples](https://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/2018/08/08/massachusetts-mills-condos-apartments/) in Massachusetts.
A buddy of mine lived in a condo that was converted from an old factory, so yeah they do exist to some extent. It was a real nice place on the inside.
Could you give an example?
Yes. The Dixon Ticonderoga pencil factory in Jersey City is an apartment building now.
They definitely exist. I have been to numerous of them and know people who live in them, in NYC and SF. They may be less common in other cities. Generally in my limited experience they are fancy/expensive. Although I did once look at one in Brooklyn during an apartment search (like 20 years ago) that was more down-market.
[I had the opportunity to tour this old Ford plant](https://goo.gl/maps/ReuxCCQRdKaQCnmLA) before it was converted to apartments. The bones on this structure are so good, and the space that was needed to build and assemble these vehicles was massive. Also great views from the rooftop.
Within downtown is the [Stutz Building](https://goo.gl/maps/LvhWhxg8MP4e3QBF8) which is office and restaurant space. There’s a classic car collection on the first floor. You can also still use the freight elevator used to transport large parts.
Absolutely. Brick warehouses and mill buildings in New England have been revamped and refurbished for residential places. They are usually a bit upscale for rentals.
Definitely a real thing in places where there are old, defunct factory and warehouse buildings. They’re actually often quite expensive luxury apartments rather than middle or low income, or at least the ones around here are. The rent for some of them is double what I’m paying per month for my rowhouse’s mortgage for half the square footage. It might seem a bit silly, but people will pay more for less renovation/revamping. They like the old exposed structural brick of the building, so many of them will have new interior walls put up for the purpose of conversion into individual apartments, but the old brick won’t be covered over, or at least not entirely.
The odd thing about commercial real estate is that they can turn anything into a place to live. It’s amazing to be honest. I have a place me that was a train depot before they converted into this awesome looking apartment complex. Usually, these type of things are apartments or condos, they’re usually a bit more upscale, and they’re usually found in areas that are urbanized. Also, the elevators you see on those shows would not pass code.
I once lived in an apartment complex that was an old factory that was in involved in dairy processing- a cream separator or something like that. It was a higher end apartment complex but renovated. The old architecture like the exposed wooden beams were part of the selling point. The stables for the cows were turned into a covered parking garage. The actual buildings that processed the milk became the lofts and apartments. I think the heating and AC were central to each apartment. I don’t recall where the hvac unit was but I controlled my own apartment’s temperature.
Minus the sliding door, I lived in one in Chicago. It was modernized, but it was a converted warehouse from 1900. Very industrial. Exposed wood beams, brick, metal windows.
Loved it.
Warehouse or LOFT as in was an old factory or whatever that has been converted?
The latter is fairly common in older northern cities as industry moved out leaving massive building in prime real estate unused.
Very common in older industrial cities.
Britain has these as well, don’t they?
Not super common but totally a thing, usually considered to be a cool place to live. Maybe they used to be cheap, now in my city I’d imagine they’re some of the more expensive apartments (cause they’re cool).
Middle class but in areas that are generally upper-middle class.
Yes, quite common in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Only know about old mills turned into condos / apartments. They vary but generally middle class.
>how common are these?
Not very common
>do they actually exist?
Yes
>what end of the housing scale would they be
pretty high end
>like would they be middle class accommodation?
Middle class if you stretch it but not low income
>whats it like to heat them?
pretty expensive
Lots of people talking about how this is a lot of “old factories/plants” being repurposed… But I’ve been in commercial and multi-family construction for decades and a lot of these are brand new buildings made to look “industrial”.
They are typically in tv shows/movies to show how cool, urban and relatively “poor” a person is. But in reality they are expensive as fuck.
Yeah, they exist. There’s a section of the downtown in my hometown that has them.
[https://www.toledowarehouse.org/residential-directory/](https://www.toledowarehouse.org/residential-directory/)
I may be wrong but aren’t those with open floor plans referred to as flats?
My mother lived in Boston in the late 50’s and she knew someone who lived in one, it wasn’t renovated at all. She said the toilet was just sat in the middle of the living space, no walls or even a screen. She knew a lot of starving artist types that lived where they could afford.
Renovated textile mills are very common apartment buildings on the east coast. They definitely range in quality quite a bit. I have lived in some, and have friends living in some that look like pretty standard apartments on the inside but the hallways and common spaces are more industrial in appearance. My sister lived in a rather high end one that I think I purposely leaned into the aesthetic because of its trendyness on tv with rustic wood floors and lots of iron work but none of it was original to the building being a functioning mill.
They exist, sure. I’ve never lived in one, but I’ve been inside a few.
Even in large cities, I typically lived in a fairly standard flat, maybe with parquet floors and a small balcony. My apartments were always purpose-built apartments, not converted factories.
They’re not nearly as common in actual American life as they are in media.
I suspect they’re a common form of housing in TV and movies for two reasons:
1. It’s shorthand for, “this character is a hip, urban person, probably a bit artsy and edgy.”
2. A large, open room is easiest for moving cameras and crew around. So if a set looks like a warehouse apartment, that’s much more convenient for filming.
Yeah, it started in bigger cities where former industrial buildings (factories warehouses etc) that were built well but being unused getting converted into apartments. It’s starting to spread to other places with large empty buildings (recently and old church here got converted into a dozen apartments)
I’ve seen a lot of these in the south.
Former cotton mills (and things of that nature) which are converted into apartments.
Usually pretty nice. Hardwood floors, really tall ceilings, and huge windows.
Typically solid spots.
They definitely exist. I used to live in a converted factory building back in the early-mid 2000s. Decades before it was turned into apartments, it was a factory/warehouse for a company that made shipping and storage containers
Basically many of our cities have (or at least had) these vacant and crumbling warehouses and factories, the ghost of our massive industrial history. When manufacturing moved overseas, these buildings were left empty. Initially, repurposing these places was an affordable living option for those with less income.
But they became trendy and areas became gentrified. Anymore you generally have developers buying them up and either demolishing and redeveloping… or converting them into “luxury” apartments
They are definitely a thing. Not in DC per say, but I have been to plenty of them in Chicago.
I wanted to buy an abandoned warehouse near downtown and live/work in it when I was young. Now it’s the cool thing to do and has been for a few decades.
My sister used to live in a warehouse that had been converted into apartments, but they looked more like apartments then a warehouse. She actually lives in a real warehouse today, but it’s also her business. Several people do the same in her area, although it’s still an industrial area.
I don’t think she really likes living there, but it just makes sense. She’s been looking for a house, though. Her living space is nice, but there are a lot of challenges and I’m sure heating the space is one of them. In her case, it’s more about the A/C though and how costly it is for upkeep.
Yes, they exist… lofts were first cheap artist housing live/work space in places like New York in the 1970’s, and then as the areas began gentrifying they became trendy/popular in the ’80s. The trend expanded to other cities that have older warehouse/factory buildings that had become obsolete as urban industrial activity moved to more outlying areas, waterfronts went from industrial to recreational use, historic preservation became a prevailing movement in urban planning, etc. You’ll mostly see them in older big cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Philly, Milwaukee
They’re real. They’re called lofts.
Yes, they exist. They’re not everywhere though
Yes. They’re pretty common up here in the northeast. They purposely leave the facade of the building looking like whatever old mill or factory it used to be because people, for some stupid reason, are more willing to spend money on something that looks like that.
From what I’ve seen theyre generally converted to loft-style apartments.
There are several old tobacco warehouses in my hometown that have been converted to “loft” apartments. Around where I live, a lot of old schools get converted to apartments as well.
There are a bunch of them in Chicago. We call them lofts. When many old factories started going dormant, people would live in them rather inexpensively – mostly because they were located in factory districts. Since then, many have now been repurposed into expensive condo buildings in now chic neighborhoods and they can be rather costly.
Its sort of a Boomer dream, be an artist living in a cheap warehouse loft.
If you can find one these days, it won’t be in NYC or LA. And it will be in a bad part of town. Or stupidly expensive.
When I first moved to Tampa I knew a guy who bought an old warehouse and built a apartment into it. His band woudl rehearse there.
That neighborhood got gentrified, and no warehouses are left.
i used to live in one, at least it sounds like what you’re describing, idk i was like seven to eleven maybe?
I’ve seen warehouses turned into apartments. There’s a building here called the Bekin building that has been turned into apartments. Seems to be pretty common. There’s also the Old Market in Omaha which has some of the old Jobbers Canyon buildings left over.