The Cosmopolitan is a Brussels office-to-housing conversion that reused a neglected office tower dating from the 1960s. The building stands near the canal in Brussels; the report does not give a more precise address. Its conversion took place between 2014 and 2019, producing 156 dwellings alongside two levels of office space.2
The project turned an underused commercial building into a mixed-use property while retaining office space. The Brussels Times report identifies the building’s former use and the conversion’s scale, but does not name the developer, architects or other project leaders. It also provides no founding date; 2014 marks the start of the reported transformation period, not necessarily the project’s formal founding.2
The Cosmopolitan is presented in the article as one example of office reuse amid Brussels’ housing pressures and vacant office stock. The article reports that Brussels had more than one million square metres of empty office space in 2022, with at least 20% considered potentially convertible into housing. It also notes that conversion has limits: not every vacant office building is suitable for housing.2