Will L.A. Have a Ghost Town or a Downtown?
From Bunker Hill to the Civic Center to the Figueroa Corridor, when the workday is over, the heart of Los Angeles looks more like a ghost town than a vibrant downtown.
Why? Because downtown still lacks the critical ingredient: A varied supply of housing, agreeable to the sensibilities and pocketbooks of all kinds of Angelenos.
The CRA’s Downtown Strategic Plan Advisory Committee has recognized this problem, and it has just recommended that downtown’s population increase by 100,000 residents by the year 2010 in addition to the 86,000 people now living there.
Make no mistake, plenty of Angelenos are eager to live downtown, primarily career-oriented singles and couples among the 300,000 people who work in the area. The success of several apartment projects proves the demand for downtown housing at unsubsidized “market rates.”
However, not all market-rate downtown housing developments have been successful in the past decade. Therefore, developers, architects and the CRA cannot just build more housing--and hope for the best. Before spending millions on the next project, we must incorporate what I believe to be the three “success factors” for any downtown residential development.
The first success factor is the building’s actual architectural design and layout. Of course, the successful building must look attractive and be constructed with quality materials and durable finishes. More important, a building must offer residents a pleasant and secure environment at all times.
The spacious and well-lit lobby should be a welcoming oasis in the midst of downtown. The parking garage must be attractive, functional and secure. Make the walking distance from car to dwelling unit as short as possible for residents and visitors alike.
Another important building-specific issue is the right combination of apartment sizes, which should be determined by a market analysis. In downtown, for instance, the rental market is mostly made up of singles and couples without children. A good mix is 30% studio units ranging from 500 to 550 square-feet, 30% one-bedroom apartments ranging from 600 to 650 square-feet, and 40% two-bedrooms.
Design all apartments as practical and attractive as possible. These days, residents who rent downtown apartments want the same amenities that they would find in suburban complexes.
Give all units an entrance foyer, a full kitchen, a dressing alcove off the bathroom and preferably a balcony. Units should be designed so that the tenants have an expansive view through the living room and out the windows the moment they open their front door and step into the entrance foyer.
Another vital building-specific issue is on-site recreational amenities, such as landscaped gardens for residents, swimming pools, sun decks, fitness facilities and supervised children’s indoor and outdoor play space. These amenities not only offer residents a convenient place to exercise and relax but also an opportunity to meet one another.
The second success factor for a downtown apartment complex is the surrounding neighborhood--specifically its appearance, safety, services, amenities and sense of community.
Downtown Los Angeles architects and developers, unlike their peers in San Francisco or Manhattan, are not fitting their projects into existing neighborhoods; they face the challenge of literally creating new residential neighborhoods on Bunker Hill or South Park. No easy task.
In any healthy neighborhood, the value of the whole is greater than the sum of the individual buildings. Therefore, each building must engage the street, make pedestrians feel comfortable and complement nearby existing structures. The complexes should not stand behind isolating plazas or walls; they should be built out to the sidewalk line. The ground-level space along the sidewalks should be devoted to retail space for everyday neighborhood services.
Critical mass is vital for new downtown neighborhoods. The CRA must continue to provide financial incentives for the construction of sufficient apartment units at Bunker Hill, South Park, and other locations to support a full array of neighborhood retail services and amenities.
These include day-care centers, parks, van pools to downtown, an elementary school, and a supermarket instead of an overpriced convenience shop in each building.
The third “success factor” for downtown apartment complexes is affordable rents for potential tenants. At present, fair market rents in a new downtown high-rise complex with full services and amenities are $690 to $835 for studios, $925 to $1,100 for one-bedroom apartments and $1,150 to $1,500 for two-bedroom apartments.
Such rents don’t pencil out for real estate developers, given the high cost of high-rise construction and downtown land, plus the CRA requirement that a portion of each building be set aside for low-income tenants. The alternative--higher rents for the market rate units--will only mean excessive vacancies.
Therefore, the city must strengthen its efforts to keep rents reasonable for new downtown apartments. One workable approach, which has been used successfully by the CRA, is the subsidy of the land cost. The city buys the development site, and then sells the land at a reduced price to qualified developers who have built quality housing. In return for its subsidy, the city should impose design and planning guidelines, for instance, to create a viable new neighborhood.
Another way of keeping downtown rents reasonable is the relaxation of zoning codes. If the city increases allowable density on a site, the land costs will spread over more apartments. Lower per-unit costs will permit lower apartment rents.
The city should guarantee more developers’ loans or raise additional funds through bond issues, thereby reducing the developers’ interest costs and risks. The savings will be passed on to downtown tenants through lower rents.
Of course, these actions, which have been used by the city in one form or another, require the expenditure of money. But the city should see these dollars as an investment in a downtown whose growth and vitality will contribute far more to municipal coffers in the long run.
With the allocation of these pump-priming dollars, plus the sensitive planning and design of apartment complexes and new neighborhoods, Los Angeles will boast not a ghost town but a vibrant downtown.
