Convert medical office to residential

[Sol Romand]

To all the wonderful BP friends! I've got a mixed use building with a vacant 5200 sg ft. medical space on the first floor. It's in on a Main St in an small town in NJ. After sitting vacant for a while I'm entertaining the option of converting to residential units. My plan would be to keep the front waiting room as a small commercial space and the back offices as efficiency units or studios. It will have to go thru township's approval, but I need to figure it. Has anyone done such a project before? Please share your experience!

My starting questions so far are

* If zoning allows multi-family, would I need any zoning approvals for a conversion?

* The offices don't have windows as the building has adjacent structures. Has anyone been successful with rentals without windows?

* The conversion would be costly. If my target would be low income residents, are there any grants, tax credits, or funds available to help me with the conversion? 

Thanks