William Macklowe Co. filed plans this week to convert 291 Broadway in lower Manhattan into apartments, according to The Business Journals — another entry in the office-to-residential wave that's been reshaping downtown filings all year.

291 Broadway sits in the Financial District/Civic Center corridor, an area already carrying several conversion projects through the pipeline. No unit count, construction timeline, or general contractor has been named in the filing coverage — this is a plans submission, not a permit approval or a construction start, and the distinction matters for anyone estimating when abatement, demo, and MEP retrofit bid packages will actually hit the street.

Office-to-residential conversions carry a specific trade signature: selective demolition, asbestos and lead abatement in older office stock, all-new vertical risers, and often a full facade recladding to meet residential light and air code — different scope mix than ground-up new construction, and often friendlier to firms without ground-up high-rise experience.

Manhattan's office conversion pipeline has been a rare bright spot in an otherwise cooling permit market this year — worth tracking for any GC or abatement contractor deciding where to put estimating hours over the next two quarters, since converted-building work tends to move faster once a plan is filed than a from-scratch tower does.

Watch the DOB filing itself for the actual scope breakdown and unit count once it clears initial review — that's the point where subcontractor bid packages typically start circulating.