Downtown Los Angeles continues to embrace office to multifamily conversions

Since 2014, over 2,000 units per year have been delivered to the downtown Los Angeles market. The push by developers was catalyzed by the 1999 "Adaptive Reuse Ordinance" which allowed for the conversion of dilapidated office space in apartment buildings. With many downtown Los Angeles office buildings suffering from the impacts of COVID-19 and unattractive economic conditions, will we see history repeat itself?

Downtown’s newly constructed apartment buildings are offering attractive rental rates and have sparked demand in the submarket. At a 20% or more discount, downtown Los Angeles has the highest percentage of newly constructed inventory when compared to all other submarkets. New construction, in this case, means new amenities for its occupants, furthering bolstering the case to consider downtown as a very livable option.

Interestingly, most downtown residents, commute elsewhere for work. And on the flipside, most of the workforce in downtown commutes from outside boroughs.