The thing to be careful of is the perception that you are "creating inventory" in that conversion process. 

I would say though that in a civil court the perception is what matters.

My suggesting is go wide, before you go deep.I was not a fan when I had to move to Milwaukee 15 years ago, but I am now: the city has been re-inventing itself over the last decade and is not anymore the slow rust belt city it has been in the 80s, however that is still the countries perception and will take a while - I talk about this on my YouTube channel a lot.

Try to readjust your perception of how the real estate market works.

In addition, you have the tenant perception.

However, the "corporate" contractors seemed to own the market there, specifically because of all the consumer protection/ licensing fees, requirements, etc, at least to my perception.

The rest of the country thinks we are nuts - and at times, I agree :)  I think the biggest mis-perception for New Yorkers living here is that uptown and the boroughs are not NYC.  

The average investor’s perception of risk is backwards.

When you are young, you have not had time to create perceptions of what cannot be done.

Now we are in the realm of low-return value-add under the auspices that these marginal projects are acceptable due to this false perception of no- risk.