62-74 Essex St
62-74 Essex St is a 8-story building in Downtown Boston with 96% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 70 homes and scores it 90 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.
MA-7 & MA-8 · Screened 2026-10-04 · Strong candidate
Where 62-74 Essex St is
Its block in Downtown Boston, drawn from Boston's own building outlines and street centerlines.
- Already housing
- Not screened
- 62-74 Essex St
This building's conversion pencils at default assumptions without any subsidy.
Every floor carries 372 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment. Across 7 residential floors that is 2,602 sq ft of cost carrying no revenue.
Modeled conversion metrics for 62-74 Essex St, 2026-10-04.
| Suitability scoreStrong candidate | 90 / 100 |
|---|---|
| Storiesfrom 100 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor | 8 |
| Floor plateper floor, from the city footprint | 9,825 sq ft |
| Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade | 96% |
| Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft | 43 ft |
| Windowless coreper floor — renovated but never rentable | 372 sq ft |
| Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average | 70 |
| Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 68,774 sq ft | $24.8M |
| Gap before grantpencils unsubsidized | -$6.1M |
| Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap | $4.2M |
| BuiltBoston's own record of the construction year | 1899 |
| ZoningDowntown Boston | COMMERCIAL CHINATOWN |
| Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract | No |
The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm
43 ft of exterior wall for each home the screen estimates — enough for two- and three-bedroom homes across the plan.
The typical floor has 433 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 3,033 ft of it in total, divided among the 70 homes this screen estimates.
Its plate is moderately compact at 0.66: a squarish plan, with enough perimeter for a conventional double-loaded corridor. How window line and plate shape are measured.
At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 10.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.
Why 62-74 Essex St scores 90 out of 100
Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 91, Scale 47, Finance 100 — each out of 100, then weighted.
Score components for 62-74 Essex St. Points are the subscore times its weight.
| Component | Subscore | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight efficiency96% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90% | 100 | 45% | 45.0 |
| Interior depthdeepest interior point 43 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft | 91 | 25% | 22.9 |
| Scale70 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150 | 47 | 15% | 7.0 |
| Financecompleted value covers conversion cost with 42% to spare, which tops out the component | 100 | 15% | 15.0 |
Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 47 out of 100: 70 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.
Built in 1899
Boston records this building as going up in 1899, which puts it in the pre-1920 stock.
As a rule, the era that converts most readily: load-bearing masonry, small floor plates laid out before deep-plan offices were possible, operable windows and generous floor-to-floor heights. The usual obstacles are not daylight but hazardous materials, lifts and bringing structure up to current code. That is the era’s general tendency rather than a finding about this building — the model reads an outline and a height, and can see nothing inside — but it is the first thing an architect would want to know, and it colours how much confidence the 96% daylight figure above deserves.
What the conversion would cost
$360 per square foot all-in across 68,774 sq ft of converted floor, or $24.8M in total — about $354K for each of the 70 homes.
All-in cost per square foot for 62-74 Essex St: base cost plus the code work a change of use triggers.
| Base conversion cost | $260/sq ft |
|---|---|
| Plumbing risers to every unit | $40/sq ft |
| Operable windows and glazing | $30/sq ft |
| Additional egress stair | $18/sq ft |
| Fire sprinklers (NFPA 13R) | $12/sq ft |
| All-in | $360/sq ft |
That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 2,602 sq ft of windowless core, which has to be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered like the rest of the building and then earns nothing. Against it the model sets a completed value of $442K a home, which for 70 homes is $30.9M.
What would have to be true
This one already clears the bar. The question is how much room it has before it stops.
At $442K a home, completed value covers the $24.8M of work with $6.1M to spare. Value per home would have to fall to $354K — 20% below the assumption — before the conversion stopped penciling, or all-in cost would have to rise from $360 to $449 per square foot. Neither is a wide margin in a market that moves, but this building does not need a grant to work.
Each of these, moved on its own, would be enough to undo that for 62-74 Essex St:
Single-assumption flip points for 62-74 Essex St, each holding the other three at their defaults.
| Circulation efficiencythe binding constraint — the least this building would need | 29% downto 57% |
|---|---|
| Completed value per home | 33% downto $294K |
| Average unit size | 41% upto 1,059 sq ft |
| Conversion cost per square foot | 58% upto $410/sq ft |
All four are sliders in the survey, where 62-74 Essex St re-scores against your own numbers.
How it compares in Downtown Boston
62-74 Essex St ranks 36th of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.
Its floor plate is better lit than 68% of them, and shallower than 63% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 77th largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 96 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.
Its nearest match in size: 172-180 Federal St
The screened building closest to 62-74 Essex St in converted floor area is 172-180 Federal St: 65,533 sq ft over 7 stories, against 68,774 sq ft over 8 here.
The two land within a few points of each other — 90 here, 88 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each pencils without a subsidy. The two stand about 1,400 ft apart.
Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?
The model awards 62-74 Essex St $4.2M, on the assumption it qualifies. Whether it does, no published dataset can say.
That figure assumes the building meets the Act’s vacant-and-abandoned test, which turns on code-enforcement and receivership records no city publishes.
It does not sit in a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, so it would not draw that Section 201 priority.
Other buildings screened near 62-74 Essex St
The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 80 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.
- 11 Avenue De Lafayette6 stories · 99% daylit · 61 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)about 80 ft away
- 99 Chauncy St11 stories · 97% daylit · 178 estimated homes · scores 98/100 (Strong candidate)about 160 ft away
- 588-622 Washington St8 stories · 53% daylit · 199 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)about 330 ft away
- 22-40 Chauncy St11 stories · 86% daylit · 195 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)about 470 ft away
A screen, not a feasibility study, from outlines and heights rather than plans: the method and how to correct a figure. If you know this building’s interior, you know what this model cannot see.