Three Tucson hotels have been bought in 2022 for the sole purpose of converting them into apartments. A fourth one-time hotel is up for sale, being marketed an ideal candidate for repurposing as a multifamily community. Besides hotels, investors are buying underperforming office buildings and converting them. Larger offices in abandoned big cities provide a better conversion opportunity than smaller offices scattered on the outskirts. Even churches are candidates to convert to rental units.

RentCafe/Yardi Matrix has suggested that Tucson leads the nation in hotel/office to apartment conversions. Tucson actually jumped to the lead after a developer bought a mid-town Benedictine monastery (see picture) and turned it into a 292-unit apartment complex.

Among the reasons given for the trend are 1) steady rent increases, 2) people working from home due to a holdover from the pandemic, 3) higher interest rates have made entry-level homes less affordable and forced potential home buyers to look at apartments.