Can I section off personal living space in a warehouse I own?
I'm looking at buying a 10,000 sqft warehouse zoned as Urban Industrial in Pittsburgh for use for a passion project I am interested in (a co-op for self motorcycle repair and tool sharing)

I don't need All 10,000 sqft of this warehouse and I'd be interested to section off and frame out maybe 1000 sqft in the rear as an apartment for myself.

Has anyone tried anything like this before? Any thoughts on the likelihood  of this being permitted or how likely this is to be enforced at all?

Who would I talk to to get a more concrete answer? Just a general real estate attorney?
[{"id": "fyoahqc", "text": "That sounds like something straight out of GTA Online.  Why would you want to live in a warehouse?  I\u2019ve only seen mixed CRE and residential zoning in one township in NY.  Your area might have a similar zoning that you could change to or perhaps a special use permit you could apply for", "replies": [{"id": "fyobjr0", "text": "So I can have 30 foot ceilings! But the more serious answer is that it solves a whole bunch of life problems for me at once in a very cost effective way.\n\nI would intend to basically frame out a 20 x 50 rectangle in the rear the goal being that once you walk inside, it is indistinguishable from a regular apartment.", "replies": [{"id": "fyod7be", "text": "Your city will not approve it. Nothing stopping you except the law lol. Send pics!", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "fyod82c", "text": "That\u2019s cool. I\u2019d just be afraid of attempted break-ins while I\u2019m sleeping", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "fyom3u0", "text": "It's against code but I know a handful of people who live in their business property the way you're describing.  There's almost no way the city will find out about it and even if they do, they may not care.\n\nBefore buying, find out how often (the answer may be never) the fire inspector comes through.  The fire inspector does a walkthrough of our industrial property every 3 years or so.  \n\nYou'd want to keep your \"apartment\" looking more like a space you can crash in from time to time if you're working really late than a full-time apartment.  Something appearing more like an artist studio with a bed and simple cooking apparatus or whatever.  If they fire inspector was inside and saw an obvious full-time apartment situation they may feel obligated to notify the building department.  Or, they may not!  For sure the people I know who are living in their commercial buildings have had fire inspections, and they're still living there.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "fyqkjz5", "text": "Is your area zoned for mixed use? If not, and if you couldnt convince a rezone just do it anyways and say its an office", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyoapic", "text": "Ask your cities zoning.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyob7zv", "text": "I highly doubt your zoning permits it but I also highly doubt it\u2019ll be enforced. You\u2019d be in hot water if you tried renting it out though", "replies": [{"id": "fyoc0wv", "text": "Yeah, definitely would not ever rent out in this setup. Would just be for me.", "replies": [{"id": "fyod420", "text": "Would this be your only address?", "replies": [{"id": "fyoencg", "text": "Hadn't thought about that. Ideally, practically yes, although if it mattered I could probably establish a more traditional address.", "replies": [{"id": "fyomvcg", "text": "You can always get mailbox, not a PO, at UPS with a real address you can use.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "fyr3f2t", "text": "Right answer.  Build your bathroom with shower to code, that wouldn\u2019t be extremely unusual for a garage.  Same with your kitchen, I mean lunch room.  Those two rooms have a lot of permit requirements in PA.  \n\nThe next to that build your living room and BR, I mean offices.\n\nSee what I did?  Fully permitted and allowed, if you happen to fall asleep in there, so be it.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyobgp0", "text": "Not zoned as such. Unless it is mixed zoning", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyobhgn", "text": "Would not be permitted or allowed to be zoned for that use. Odds of getting caught are pretty low unless someone reports you.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyoc5n5", "text": "This is America dammit, do it! But seriously I can\u2019t imagine that would be even remotely enforceable. I\u2019d like to think the law has bigger fish to fry than a guy living out of his motorcycle club", "replies": [{"id": "fyocqp7", "text": "I would like to believe this but I also don't take much for granted any more in terms of laws making sense.", "replies": [{"id": "fyp4iul", "text": "That\u2019s fair, balls get busted over anything these days", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyod5rh", "text": "As a fellow real estate investor and vehicle connoisseur, I'd say this is a situation where the difference between an office with a shower and kitchenette and a non-conforming dwelling unit is negligible and should you get a notice of inspection from the property use inspector (or relevant zoning/bylaw authority) you should make sure you can demonstrate that your building is in compliance at the time of the inspection :)", "replies": [{"id": "fyogxzu", "text": "From my perspective as an industrial broker, this is the correct answer.  It's an executive office.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "fypdvlo", "text": "Yes, this. Make it look like a place you pay the bills, take an afternoon nap and eat a snack before pulling a late night working on your bikes. Tons of industrial spaces are required to have showers for safety reasons. And plenty of clothing changes for when you need to clean up after a test drive.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyodfm1", "text": "You can go tot he cities planning department and ask them. Usually you walk in, go to the planning department desk and ask them what the zoning is and if you would be able to do xyz at a property.\n\n\nIf you are more of a ask for forgiveness instead of permission, you can reference a theoretical property in the same area under the same zoning.\n\nFirst look up your property here:\n\nhttp://cityofpittsburg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=54f347e4fe8b405ab2b93b922bcce89c\n\n\nThen you can read all about the zoning and permitted uses if you look up the zoning type. It should literally all be on the city website.", "replies": [{"id": "fyq3p12", "text": "That's Pittsburg california. Ha I'm in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. It's a cool tool though.", "replies": [{"id": "fyrz0i7", "text": "https://gis.pittsburghpa.gov/pghzoning/", "replies": [{"id": "fystmnt", "text": "ha, epic! thank you!!", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyodra9", "text": "It sounds like you'll have a lot of customers in the building. Should one get pissed at you, he might report you. I don't think you'll be able to hide the fact that you live in the building. I also wonder about the insurance implications.", "replies": [{"id": "fyp7llz", "text": "Yeah, if you have a fire at the warehouse that started in an illegal residence you knew about, your insurance is not paying.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyoeb0e", "text": "It's actually quite a cool idea.  I highly doubt any jurisdiction would allow it though.\n\nIn our jurisdiction the FD comes by once a year to do a quick inspection and it would get noticed if someone was living there.  \n\nBut of course if you framed it out and made a hidden door, no one would probably ever notice.\n\nThe biggest issue I would think would come from plumbing for a kitchen/bath.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyof948", "text": "Your building department will be able to tell you if you have flex zoning, central city zoning, or some other zoning type that would allow a live/work scenario either in the current zoning plan, or in the future land use plan. Otherwise, its not a legal dwelling. Are you likely to get caught? no. Are you completely fucking fucked if if it floods, burns down, or is otherwise destroyed with all of your stuff in it? 100%. Your insurer won't cover any of the loss to the dwelling, and you may lose coverage altogether due to a non-conforming use (check your docs). I had to kick a lady making bars of soap out of one of my apartment units after I bought it bc she was a non-conforming use and put the entire residential insurance policy at risk.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyoffqx", "text": "I\u2019ve seen a few industrial properties that do this in my market. While it\u2019s not legal, it\u2019s not really enforced unless you try to make money off of it. You could always call it an \u201coffice\u201d if for some reason the city looks at it", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyog55g", "text": "Remember in San Francisco, the ghost ship fire where all those hippies were illegally living in a warehouse and it burned down and a bunch of people died? Why do you aspire to be a dead hippie son?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyogdai", "text": "no not legal without zoning variance. but in college I and bunch of others rented warehouse space, built our \"studios\", kitchen, bathroom, etc. and once a year the firemen would come through and inspect the building. uS and the people upstairs would load all of our beds, the evidence of living in the freight elevator and send it up to a floor not being inspected. that space worked like that for years until neighborhood gentrified. good luck. check out this:\n\n[https://www.reddit.com/r/secretcompartments/](https://www.reddit.com/r/secretcompartments/)", "replies": [{"id": "fyq3iho", "text": "Living the dream!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyol4gk", "text": "I work in CRE in Pittsburgh, where more specifically are you looking in Pittsburgh? I could try to get some further insight for you.", "replies": [{"id": "fyq3bgb", "text": "Pretty much anywhere in the east end.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyoo5d5", "text": "We have one exemption in DCs zoning code that allows for residing in industrial zones but only if it is an artist live/work situation. I think you could plausibly qualify if Pittsburgh has a similar provision.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyoxeec", "text": "The UI zoning in Pittsburgh looks like it intends for mixed uses, they allow a number of residential uses, either as permitted or what I would call discretionary uses.  Multi-res, assisted living, care of the elderly are all considered potential uses in UI.  Multi suite res is also a permitted use, either with 8 or fewer (permitted), or more than 8 (discretionary) suites.  \n\nMulti suite res looks like it would be the easiest (have 2 'suites' and a communal kitchen etc) but you would still have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make it legit.  Doing it legit would be easier if it were in a more heritage industrial building rather than a new build in an industrial park.  \n\nProbably easier to set it up as an 'executive office' type arrangement, although that might be harder to sell as what's actually happening for a motorcycle co-op than a for-profit enterprise.   \n\nIt's common in my neck of the woods to have caretaker suites for self-storage buildings, just so someone's there 24 hours a day.  This is included in our zoning ordinance but I didn't see anything in Pittsburgh's.  Otherwise, there's the occasional rooftop apartment in office buildings, but those tend to be in less industrial areas anyway.  \n\nIf I were looking to do this here, I'd probably start by inquiring with some planning/engineering consultants and seeing what they thought.", "replies": [{"id": "fyq3ga7", "text": "Great informative answer! Thanks! I did get started on reading through the zoning code and reaching out to a commercial real estate attorney.\n\nI'll look into planning consultants. I had never heard of that before.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fypczhz", "text": "As long as you\u2019re not renting it out and living it yourself, I don\u2019t see it being an issue.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyq04os", "text": "Are there ways to get away with it? Probably.\n\nLikely hood of personal residence to be established in an industrial building, next to zero.\n\nTalk to an attorney before you try and blur the line", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyq0p7e", "text": "Not a chance in hell the municipality allows this, but look up the allowed uses under your current zoning. At best, it would be a special permit scenario, but would not be a cheap endeavor.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyqbtc7", "text": "Can't say about Pittsburgh but where I'm at in Seattle our industrial zones allow for one caretakers quarters not to exceed 800 square feet. I'd look into whether your local zoning code allows something similar.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyqc964", "text": "You should wait until the market cools off a bit in Pittsburgh. It\u2019s nuts right now", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyqevia", "text": "Here in Hawaii industrial properties are allowed to have watchmen/security quarters on premises. They are not that common, but they are legal. And if you are going to have high value motorcyles and related equipment on the premises I suggest you have your engineer check the code to see if such units are permitted in your state, and what the requirements are for permitting and certificate of occupancy. On a personal note I'd be interested to know how your project works out. I have a client who collects vintage mortorcycles  is considering a similar venture (motorcycle co-op repair shop and gents hang out for riders of vintage bikes.) Message me how to get in touch with you.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fyxc4cv", "text": "Does your Urban Industrial zoning allow for self storage?  If so, does it allow for self storage with 24 hour access?  Many jurisdictions allow self storage facilities like this to have an accessory dwelling unit for the on-site property manager of the self storage facility.\n\nIt all depends on how you present it to your local planning and zoning authority. If you go in and say you want to build out 9,000 sf for an automotive use and then build a 1,000 sf apartment for yourself the answer will almost certainly be NO.  If you say that you want to build-out a self storage facility with 24 hour access with an accessory dwelling unit for the on-site manager then in many jurisdictions you would have a decent chance of getting it approved.\n\nJust divide the warehouse into 300-500 square foot interior \"storage\" bays using chain link fencing and rent each bay to each bike enthusiast. \n\nDo it the right way. Hire a good commercial land use attorney to get your approvals.  It will cost you some money up front but it may very well save you far more money down the road.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]