Survey finds a sizable share of older residents in downtown L.A.
Six months ago, Steve and Ronna Banks were in a rut. The couple, both in their late 50s, had lived in their five-bedroom home in Santa Clarita for 15 years. They’d raised two daughters, who are now in their 30s. And they felt as if their life had become far too routine and far too mundane.
“I was growing old, and I didn’t like it,” said Steve Banks. “Not that you can change it, but I wanted to wake up in the morning and not worry about a plumbing problem or a gardening problem or a painting problem.”
So two months ago, the couple leased out their home and moved to downtown L.A., to a 14th-floor apartment in the 717 Olympic building.
“If you had said five years ago I was going to live downtown, I would have said, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ ” Steve said.
A new survey released by the Downtown Center Business Improvement District suggests that the Bankses are not alone.
The group conducted an informal survey of downtown dwellers. Of those who responded, 30% said they were older than 45. Even downtown boosters acknowledge that the survey is not scientific, but there is a growing feeling that a “graying effect” is occurring.
In large part, it’s by design. The boom in downtown residential development began a decade ago with mostly younger professionals and artists building communities in places like the Old Bank district and arts district. That first wave of downtown’s revitalization took place in older office buildings and warehouses transformed into lofts and apartments.
The second wave came in the South Park area near Staples Center, where a cluster of new luxury towers has risen. Developers of these properties have targeted older customers, in part because they are more likely to afford the higher rents and mortgages of the high-end units.
“South Park is really the Westside does downtown,” said Russell Brown, head of the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District. “It’s made it a much safer, cleaner, high-rise neighborhood for a lot of people who were maybe put off by the funkiness, the grittiness of loft living. It mainstreamed it more.”
Real estate agent Bill Cooper, who specializes in downtown properties, said empty nesters have been making up more and more of his clientele. He said his clients come from all over the region and are lured by “the promise of what’s going to happen.”
That’s why Hutton Cobb chose to move downtown after 20 years in Glendale. Cobb, 52, bought a studio apartment in Evo, one of the new buildings in South Park. He said that the down real estate market made it possible for him to buy a unit after years of being a renter. “My chief objective, though, was to cut down on my commute” -- to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he works.
Cobb said downtown still seems like a young person’s neighborhood, especially at the grocery store. “I still feel when I go to Ralphs that I am 20 years older than everyone else,” he said. “But I kind of like that.”
Of course, downtown still lacks many suburban comforts, particularly high-end chain stores. And even with the improvements, the residential neighborhoods don’t have the pedestrian traffic and vibrant retail scene of upscale urban districts in, say, New York and Chicago.
Some residents have tested downtown -- only to find they are unwilling to make the sacrifices of living there.
Still, the apparent increase in older residents is also occurring in other parts of downtown. Brown attributes part of that to the fact that some people who came to the area -- which saw its first new lofts open nearly 10 years ago -- in their 30s and 40s have stayed. But beyond that, he said, the area has added more amenities, such as restaurants and shops, that are attractive to people of all ages, and has begun to shed its gritty image.
As for Steve and Ronna Banks, they say that moving to downtown has made an even greater difference than they expected in their life.
They still commute to the company they own in San Fernando. But they find that they make far better use of their time when they are home.
“It’s literally changing my opinion on everything,” said Steve Banks. “I find myself not thinking about how bad things are. All I care about is us waking up, looking outside, seeing a beautiful skyline and thinking about how grateful we are that we are able to do this.”
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