DTLA Adds 500 Units, Brings Resi Occupancy to 91 Percent

Developers have just opened two apartment buildings with more than 500 combined units in Downtown Los Angeles, where residential occupancy rose to nearly 91 percent.

Last quarter, Portland-based NBP Capital completed a 280-unit market-rate complex at 200 Mesnager Street in Chinatown, while Seattle-based Housing Diversity opened a 230-unit affordable complex at 1411 South Flower Street in South Park, L.A. Business First reported.

At the same time, the Downtown L.A. residential occupancy rate ticked up to 90.8 percent, from 90.1 percent a year earlier, according to a report by DTLA Alliance, based on CoStar figures.

Downtown has more than 2,600 residential units under construction, and another 29,300 units in the pipeline, according to the DTLA Alliance.

Nick Griffin, executive director of DTLA Alliance, credited the growth of Downtown’s residential market to a state housing shortage, as well as more residents helping to draw more residents.

“There’s the macroeconomic component of it, which is that we have a longstanding housing shortage in California, particularly in cities like Los Angeles,” Griffin told L.A. Business First. “Downtown is one of the few, if only, places that is able to and has been building new housing at any scale.”

The Alliance pointed to the pending redevelopment of the Arco Tower by Koreatown-based Jamison Partners, which will convert the 971,000-square-foot skyscraper into apartments at 1055 West Seventh Street, the largest adaptive reuse project in Downtown L.A. history.

The addition of the two buildings by NBP and Housing Diversity brings more residents Downtown, as workers continue to move out of its soaring offices.

NBP’s Park East, designed by GBD Architects, contains two six- and seven-story buildings with 20,000 square feet of ground-floor offices, shops and restaurants, with underground parking for 300 cars. It contains a pool, spa, central courtyard, yoga studio and dog park.

Its studio, one- and two-bedroom units are priced between $2,248 and $4,284 per month.

Housing Diversity’s Liv DTLA, designed by Simon Ha and Steinberg Hart, was completed under an L.A. Homeless Services Authority master lease.

Of its 227 affordable studios, 25 are set aside for extremely low-income tenants. Another 66 studios are projected to accept housing choice vouchers for low-income families, seniors, veterans and disabled tenants.

NBP Capital, founded in 2009, has more than $1 billion in assets, according to its website. It is led by Lauren Noecker, who launched the firm with her brother Spencer and now serves on the executive committee for the USC Lusk Real Estate Center.

Housing Diversity, founded by Brad Padden in 2019, has built more than 3,000 affordable homes, including 374 for homeless residents, many of them in Los Angeles, according to its website.

— Dana Bartholomew