Long Beach Revamp Extends Beyond DT

Robert Stepp is a principal at Stepp Commercial.

LOS ANGELES—The Long Beach market has gotten a lot of attention lately from investors and developers, and is one of the prime emerging L.A. markets. While the headlines have focused on Downtown Long Beach, which is seeing loads of development, adaptive reuse projects and office migration, the revamp expands into other surrounding submarkets. One recent transaction in the Traffic Circle submarket, which is near the University of California State University, Long Beach, saw an investor trading out 10 properties in his portfolio to get one property in the market.

“We are certainly seeing Long Beach becoming more progressive, and we are seeing that mainly in the retail outlets and restaurants,” Robert Stepp, a principal at Stepp Commercial, tells GlobeSt.com. “A lot of investors that are in rent controlled markets like West Hollywood are coming to Long Beach and renovating apartment product to appeal to a higher end asset that we haven’t seen previously, and that is attracting a higher end renter, which is translating into new development and restaurants and retail.”