L.A. Developers Leave Downtown Apartment Boom Behind
Before COVID-19, more than half the city’s apartment development was in DTLA. Now, less than a fifth of L.A.'s multifamily units deliveries are Downtown.
By Nick Trombola May 16, 2025 2:05 pm
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Downtown Los Angeles’ struggling office market often grabs headlines in the wake of the pandemic, but the city’s apartment construction sector has also seen a stark decline in recent years.
About 5,790 apartments were built Downtown so far this decade, or 19.1 percent of all new apartments built in L.A. between 2020 and 2024 — a drop of 31 percentage points compared to 50.5 percent in the previous decade, according to a new report by RentCafe. The drop is one of the steepest declines of apartment development concentration in downtown areas across 50 of the country’s largest cities.
Downtown L.A.’s share of adaptive reuse units has remained steady, however, making up 14.5 percent of both all new units built in L.A. so far this decade, and the previous decade. The adaptive reuse metric was actually among the highest of the top 20 cities for downtown construction.
A representative for RentCafe did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the report.
Still, even though the amount of units in the pipeline is down dramatically compared to pre-pandemic days, the amount of people living in those units is robust. Downtown L.A.’s apartment occupancy rate was nearly 91 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to a recent market report by the DTLA Alliance. The metric is striking when compared with the area’s office occupancy, which has hovered around 70 percent or lower for years.
Several big new adaptive reuse projects are on the way as well, with local developer Jamison leading the pack. Jamison’s 971,000-square-foot conversion of the former ARCO Tower at 1055 West Seventh Street, in particular, is currently the largest in the city.
Other developers, such as the Relevant Group, are focused on more traditional residential projects. Relevant is redeveloping a parcel near the famed Morrison Hotel (which tragically burned down late last year) into 531 apartments.
Topping RentCafe’s list for downtown construction overall was, perhaps surprisingly given its own downtown troubles lately, Washington, D.C., which saw nearly 23,000 units built so far this year — 79.9 percent of the total units.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Comeback Plan and Downtown Action Plan are likely two driving forces behind the District’s construction boom, at least in part. The plans seek to boost the amount of people living and working in central D.C. with incentives for adaptive reuse projects and an investment of $400 million over five years.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
