Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said the city is extending a program that aims to revitalize the downtown by converting vacant office buildings into housing projects for another 12 months.

The city’s office to residential conversion program, which has received 22 applications to build 1,517 new units of housing across 27 buildings since its launch in October 2023, was due to expire at the end of this month, but will instead continue for another year, the mayor announced on Friday.

“As Boston continues to take action to drive down housing costs, the office to residential conversion program is critical to building a more affordable Boston for all residents,” Wu said in a statement. “By expanding the program and building a pipeline of over 1,500 new units of housing, we are building the foundation for a stronger and more vibrant downtown and neighborhoods.”

By extending the program, Chief of Planning Kairos Shen said the city aims “to attract another thousand units to the program in the next year, and continue to catalyze a more vibrant, residential community in our downtown with thousands of new residents in the heart of our city.”

City officials said 284 of the 1,517 new homes that have been pitched through the application process would be income-restricted, “far exceeding” initial city goals for affordable housing.

Four projects totaling 236 units are under construction, and one of the first buildings to apply for the program at 281 Franklin St. has been fully tenanted, meaning that a total of 251 units are under construction or completed, according to the mayor’s office.

City officials said the program allows applicants to take advantage of an expedited city approval process. The Boston Planning Department typically completes its review process for office to residential conversion projects “in just six months.”

The program provides a 75% tax abatement for 29 years as an incentive to developers to convert vacant office space into residential units, including student and workforce housing.

It seeks to convert vacant office buildings into new homes for residents, with an eye toward revitalizing the downtown in a post-pandemic remote-work-oriented world.

The city received a $15 million infusion in state cash for the program last year, to fund up to $215,000 per affordable unit with a cap of $4 million per project. Gov Maura Healey’s administration awarded another $7.4 million to help to fund two planned projects, at 31 Milk St. and 15 Court Square, in June.

While the mayor’s decision to extend the office to residential program was accompanied by supportive statements from participating developers and downtown stakeholders, Wu’s approach to increasing the city’s affordable housing stock has drawn criticism in the past.

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Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn said in July that it is time “prioritize the city’s future with a temporary rollback” of its inclusionary development policy, which sets aside a certain percentage of units in new developments as affordable, “to be reviewed in 3-5 years, depending on economic conditions.”

“It’s time to have the courage to finally acknowledge today’s reality,” Flynn said in a statement at the time. “A higher percentage of affordable units may be noble and with the best of intentions to address our affordable housing crisis for working families. But, in these conditions, if we’re producing less housing, we’re also getting less affordable units for residents and families who qualify.”

Developers now have until the end of next year to apply for the office to residential conversion program, but must commit to pulling a full building permit and starting construction by the end of 2027 to benefit from the program.