Underutilized downtown LA office to be converted into housing units

Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday visited the World Trade Center in downtown Los Angeles, a site that is being converted into a 512-unit affordable housing apartment complex as a result of a program making it easier to turn existing buildings into housing.

Adopted in 1999, the city’s adaptive reuse ordinance only applied to buildings constructed within or near downtown, allowing existing buildings to be transformed into housing sites. Earlier this year, Bass expanded the ordinance citywide, ensuring that more buildings could be transformed into housing.

The new ordinance established a faster by-right approval process for the conversion of existing buildings that are at least 15 years old to housing, and expanded the adaptive reuse incentive area citywide.

The mayor’s office estimates the new ordinance could result in the creation of more than 43,000 additional units of housing.

“These projects represent the kind of innovation we are applying to break away from the status quo that has stunted L.A.’s housing production and driven up rents for decades,” Bass said in a statement.

“Work from home and other shifts mean there is a large supply of office space that we can use for housing, but for too long, outdated city regulations stood in the way,” Bass added. “We’re now unlocking tens of thousands of housing units to conversion, which can be much faster and cost-effective than new construction.”

Bass was joined by Jamison Properties President Garrett Lee, Central City Association President/CEO Nella McOsker, and Gilmore Associates Managing Partner Tim Gilmore, as well as other housing and business leaders.