Koreatown Benefits from Obama-Era Funding

Urban markets with expanding transit—like Koreatown and other areas of Los Angeles—may be reaping the benefits of some Obama-era funding for infrastructure. The Obama administration allocated billions of dollars to improve infrastructure and public transit throughout his presidency, allowing many urban markets to build public transit systems. Now that many of those systems have been built or planned, investors and developers are flocking to areas near transit systems. cities are seeing increased development activity near transit lines.

The Obama-era transportation budget has helped fuel that development. “In 2009 and 2010, the Obama Administration put a lot of money into increasing infrastructure and transportation,” Bryan Shaffer, principal and director at George Smith Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. “Cities like L.A. that didn’t have a subway system started developing them. We are seeing now in a lot of different cities that the areas with subways are attracting investors. The benefit is really being felt today, even though that funding was put in place nearly a decade ago.”

In Southern California, markets near transit, like Koreatown and Downtown Los Angeles, have seen a huge influx of development and soaring land prices as a result. “If you look at Southern California, you see huge increases in markets like Downtown Los Angeles, but really everywhere in the city. Buildings are going up really anywhere that you can put a new building,” says Shaffer. “We have noticed a hug jump in Koreatown. We have done four or five projects in the last few months in Koreatown. You have some big hotel and condo projects going up and more multifamily just because of the subway coming to L.A.”