A Blog About Tax Savings for Building Owners

Tag: Adaptive Reuse

The Secret to Making Office-to-Residential Conversions Financially Viable: How Green Zip Tape Can Unlock Massive Tax Savings

Green Zip Tape

Office to residential conversions are continuing to happen but maybe not at the pace many of us expected as we started to come out of the morass of the Corona lockdowns. They are progressing but the costs to convert these buildings are enormous. We have a product that might make these projects a lot more doable.

We know there are many projects that are sitting on the shelf and are not moving forward because the proformas don’t work. But what if a most of that interior cost associated with the renovation could be reclassified as 5 year class life instead of 27.5 years? That would be a game changer for many of these projects.

Office to residential conversions do not qualify for QIP – Qualified Improvement Property. QIP gets 15 year class life and it’s what many are used to when they are doing interior renovations on commercial buildings. Those improvements, if not structural and aren’t part of an elevator or escalator, automatically get a 15 year class life. Now we study a lot of these projects because they want to properly identify everything, but let’s look at the buildout of an office conversion to apartments.

Depending on where these conversions are happening, those costs might be $300-$500/SF. Those costs generally will get depreciated over 27.5 years. Perhaps 15-20% of it can get reallocated to 5 year life with a cost segregation study. But what if 60-80% of those costs could get 5 year class life. That’s a game changer because it opens up a lot more of the building costs to be able to be taken as either bonus depreciation or accelerated depreciation. You can do this if you spec in and use our patent protected drywall tape called Green Zip Tape. It allows for more of the building to be accelerated. Everything that touches the Green Zip Tape gets a 5 year life – the sheet rock, the paint, the studs in the wall, the electrical, plumbing and cable in the walls. It’s a massive game changer.

The costs for the Green Zip Tape run $3/SF. We guarantee you’ll see a $30/SF tax benefit by using our tape. No other tape or product frankly can do this. If you are working on an adaptive reuse project with a significant sheet rock application, Green Zip Tape might be right for you. Want to learn more? Reach out and lets have a conversation about it.

John Murphy CSSI

Panera Bread Coming to Anderson – 1702 E. Greenville, Anderson, SC

Panera Bread Anderson, SC – Photo Credit Garrison Smith and Zane Landwerlen, McCoy Wright

Panera Bread continues to expand in the Upstate of South Carolina and will soon be opening a new store later this year in Anderson, SC.

Garrison Smith and Zane Landwerlen of McCoy Wright announced on LinkedIn that the Freddys will be converted to a new Panera Bread. The address is 1702 E. Greenville St., Anderson, SC 29621.

Freddys building was about 2,700 SF and sits on an acre lot. This property just closed in January 2025 for $1,725,000.

I’m a Panera Sip Club member so it’s always nice to have more places where I can stop in and grab a coffee or lemonade as I’m out and about studying commercial property.

© 2025 Cost Seg Building

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑