The Lure of the City

Doug Collins, an avid bicyclist who grew up in Florida near orange groves and horse pastures, always wanted to live in the city. So, after 19 years in an apartment on the Miracle Mile, Collins has moved to a surprisingly trendy urban environment: downtown Los Angeles.

Last August, Collins moved into the San Fernando Building, at the corner of 4th and Main streets, one of four Old Bank District buildings in downtown’s historic core being converted into upscale lofts.

“I love the sense of history and the architectural integrity of the buildings downtown,” said Collins, 43, a television development executive who works six miles away in Hollywood.

“It’s great being close to Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street and MOCA, and on weekends I can bike from one end of the city to another,” he said.

Collins is part of a growing group of urban pioneers convinced that downtown L.A. is a desirable place to live.

“L.A. is experiencing the trend that every other great downtown has--a move back from suburbia,” said Carol Schatz, president and chief executive of the Central City Assn., a downtown advocacy organization. “People are tired of the commute.

“L.A. is still not a 24-hour downtown,” added Schatz, “but thanks to Staples Center, the Music Center, MOCA and great restaurants, it’s no longer a 9-to-5 town, either. It’s a 9-to-11 town.”

Downtown living is not for families in search of green lawns and neighborhood parks. But the area is attracting downtown workers, young professionals, artists, empty-nesters, students and people who enjoy the urban experience.

Other than luxury developments on Bunker Hill, downtown is not known for its upscale housing. The majority of available apartments are “affordable” (geared toward low-income tenants), said Schatz, but that will change over the next few years to include more “market-rate” units for middle- and high-income tenants.

The rapid leasing rate at one new luxury development, the Medici apartment complex west of the Harbor Freeway at 7th and Bixel streets, suggests that upscale housing is in demand downtown. The Mediterranean-style Medici developed by G.H. Palmer & Associates, which opened last year, appeals to high-income tenants (many of them downtown executives), featuring such amenities as a rooftop swimming pool, a putting green and a private park. Seventy-five percent of the 658 apartments already have been leased.

According to a survey released in December by the Los Angeles Downtown Center Business Improvement District, 12,571 apartments and condos now exist in downtown L.A. (8,235 affordable, 4,336 market-rate). By January 2004, the survey forecasts 18,399 housing units will be available. Of those, 8,501 will be affordable, and 9,898 market-rate.

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Many of the new units will be located in renovated historical buildings. A survey released last July by Killefer Flammang Purtill Architects, the Los Angeles Conservancy and Degenkolb Engineers found 50 buildings suitable for conversion to housing in downtown’s historic core (bounded by 3rd Street on the north, 9th Street on the south, Main Street on the east and Broadway on the west).

Among the first historical structures to be converted in this long-neglected area are developer Tom Gilmore’s Old Bank District buildings along 4th, 5th, Main and Spring streets.

Gilmore’s San Fernando Building, which opened last August, is 93% occupied; and the Hellman Building, which opened in January, is 60% full. The Continental Building will open this spring, and the Rowan Building (a mix of market-rate and affordable housing) will open in 2002.

The buildings all contain lofts--large, open spaces with high ceilings and no walls except those separating the bathroom--ranging from $790 to $6,000 (for a penthouse) per month.

According to architect Wade Killefer, designer of the Old Bank District buildings, “What lends these buildings to residential use is lots of windows and high ceilings, offering wonderful light.”

Because all of the units have polished concrete floors, residents are allowed to have dogs and cats.

Gilmore, a transplanted New Yorker, is determined to transform this area a block away from Skid Row into a vibrant community by adding restaurants, coffeehouses, art galleries and other retail establishments on the ground floors of his properties.

“I was intrigued by what Gilmore is doing--restoration and reuse of historical buildings,” said San Fernando Building resident Collins, who rents a 700-square-foot loft for $1,000 per month.

“I really believe in a few years this will be a self-contained community,” he said.

Living in the area offers many advantages, said Collins, including easy freeway access, great public transportation and more than 50 restaurants nearby.

Like other downtown residents, Collins wishes the area had a chain grocery store. Ralphs Grocery Co. is looking for a site to build a supermarket downtown. Until then, residents shop at Grand Central Market for fruits and vegetables, at ethnic markets, at grocery stores in Los Feliz or near their workplace, or order for home delivery from Webvan.com (formerly HomeGrocer.com) on the Internet.

Collins admitted that living by Skid Row “is difficult sometimes. I don’t have a problem with homeless people--it’s just sad to see so many of them.” Collins also said that new tenants do not intend to displace the people already living downtown.

“We’re here to assimilate,” he said. “It’s about becoming part of an existing neighborhood.”

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To the north of the Old Bank District on the eastern edge of Los Angeles lies the Downtown Arts District, bordered by Alameda Street on the west, Santa Fe Avenue on the east, 1st Street on the north and 6th Street on the south.

Most of the residents in this industrial neighborhood are artists living in warehouse buildings that have been converted to lofts.

Valerie Mitchell, 45, a jewelry artist, and her husband Tim Keating, 50, a television production designer, live and work in a 1,400-square-foot loft in a 1920s building that used to be a bakery.

The two moved there from the Hollywood Hills in 1985.

“I wanted to be part of an urban environment,” said Mitchell. “There’s lots of creativity here, and people making things happen. The lofts are great for artists, who need a lot of space.”

Mitchell said the artists have created a strong community. The Los Angeles River Artists & Business Assn., a neighborhood organization, has improved parking, built bicycle racks and sponsored cleanup projects and an art studio tour.

The area is a popular filming spot, said Mitchell, which creates parking problems. And the homeless often “encamp and trash an area. We accept them, but sometimes boundaries get crossed.”

Mitchell also said she wished downtown would come alive more at night.

“They need to keep DASH [the downtown shuttle-bus system] going after 6:30 p.m.,” she said, “and there’s a lack of pedestrian traffic because people can’t park anywhere on the streets at night.”

What is most appealing about the Downtown Arts District, said Mitchell, is its lack of trendiness.

“We’re not surrounded by upscale stores,” she said. “I shop in Little Tokyo and East L.A. And we really work to keep the neighborhood from becoming gentrified.”

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Some real-estate developers want to see downtown become not necessarily “gentrified,” but at least more appealing to the middle class. Last year, investor-developer Izek Shomof renovated the Premiere Towers on South Spring Street, turning the building into luxury apartments.

The 1920s structure, which used to house the Los Angeles Stock Exchange, has amenities such as a gym and roof garden, with one- and two-bedroom apartments renting for $700 to $1,200 per month.

“It’s an exceptional deal on a nice, big apartment, and cheaper than anything on the Westside,” said Tina Courtney, 25, a Web site producer who moved into the Premiere Towers with her fiance last year. “And I feel really safe because the building has 24-hour security.”

Courtney, who takes the subway to her job in North Hollywood, enjoys the area’s range of ethnic cultures, the night life (“a little-known fact about downtown is that it has great clubs”) and shopping in the garment and jewelry districts.

“We don’t pay sticker price for anything,” she said.

Shomof’s Spring Tower Lofts, also on South Spring Street, opened at the end of February with rents from $1,400 to $2,000 per month.

Shomof said the response from prospective residents has been surprising.

“I haven’t needed to advertise in the paper or anywhere,” he said. “I just put a page on the Internet.” (The page is at https://https://ladowntownnews.com/PremiereTower/Premiere.html.)

Farther north, at the southern foot of Bunker Hill, another property designed to draw middle- and upper-class tenants is planned: the old Subway Terminal Building that used to serve passengers taking the old Red Car trolley.

According to Duane H. Cameron, president and chief executive of System Property Development Co., the building will open in fall 2002. The top floors will be a mixture of lofts, studios, apartments and condos. The ground and subterranean floors will have restaurants, retail stores and a nightclub that accesses the old subway tunnel, which is no longer in use.

Although apartments make up the majority of downtown housing, the area also has five condominium complexes, and more are in the planning stages.

Larry Pfander, general manager of the Promenade Owners Assn. at the Promenade Condos on Bunker Hill, said many of the condo owners work downtown, or want cheaper housing than what they would find on the Westside. The 140 Promenade units, built in 1980, include one- and two-bedroom units ranging from $169,000 to $300,000.

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The South Park area, bordered by 8th Street on the north, the Santa Monica Freeway on the south, the Harbor Freeway on the west and Main Street on the east, is a top spot for new residential and entertainment development because of its proximity to Staples Center.

The area features new buildings with “mixed-income” housing--affordable as well as market-rate apartments and condos.

“We’re dedicated to keeping the area mixed-income, and the tenants are a real cross-section of the community,” said Stan Michota, vice president of Forest City Residential West, which owns the Metropolitan Apartments and Skyline Condominiums in South Park.

The Metropolitan, built in 1989, features one- and two-bedroom apartments and studios for $1,000 to $2,000 per month. The Skyline Condominiums, built in 1983 for first-time home buyers, include one- and two-bedroom units from $120,000 to $200,000. Forest City’s Metropolitan Lofts at Flower and 11th streets, all market-rate units, will open in spring 2003.

One obstacle to attracting residents downtown is the belief that the area is unsafe. But according to Lt. Paul Geggie of the Los Angeles Police Department’s central detective section, “Downtown crime is at a 10-year low.”

Geggie said that Business Improvement Districts downtown have helped to prevent crime. The districts, funded by local property owners, pay for patrols that provide security and maintenance services, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“And the city has really pulled together as a community: people who live, work and play together,” he said.

Residents who are a part of that community believe downtown is finally on its way to developing an identity--or identities.

“Downtown L.A. is different from cities like New York because it’s not so established,” said Mitchell of the Downtown Arts District. “With little pockets scattered everywhere, it’s hard to find the heartbeat of the city. So it will be a city of many centers.”

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Karen Lindell is a Sierra Madre freelance writer.