Despite High Office Vacancy, Jobs Drive DTLA

LOS ANGELES—Many of the multifamily developers putting shovel to dirt in Downtown Los Angeles have cited ample jobs as one of the main drivers of the burgeoning market. However, Downtown Los Angeles, according to the latest report from the DCBID, has a high 18.4% office vacancy rate with large blocks of available space. While this number is an improvement from the historical 20% vacancy rate in the office sector, it begs the question, how is this office market driving development? The answer: even with a high office vacancy, the jobs-to-homes ratio is still higher than most other major cities.

“Downtown is increasingly desirable as a place to live, regardless of whether you work here,” Carol Schatz, president of the DCBID, tells GlobeSt.com. “That said, with a weekday population of almost 500,000 and a residential population of around 60,000 we still have a jobs-to-residents ratio of 8 or 9 to 1, which is significantly higher than other major cities, even boomtowns like San Francisco and Seattle, so there is a lot of room for growth as an increasing proportion of those downtown workers decide to make downtown home as well.”