These Two Markets Are Behind All of L.A.’s Office Growth

Max Saia is senior research analyst at CBRE.

LOS ANGELES—Playa Vista and Hollywood account for the majority of L.A.’s new office construction. According to new research from CBRE, the two markets account for 67.1% of all office construction over the last decade. Playa Vista has had 1.58 million square feet of office construction between 2006 and 2016, a total of 45% of the office construction, and Hollywood has had 758,566 square feet of new office construction, accounting for 21.7% of L.A.’s construction.

“Playa Vista was the last piece of undeveloped land on the Westside. Large tenants that could not find space in Santa Monica were drawn to Playa, and for a while office space leased at a discount to Santa Monica,” Max Saia, senior research analyst at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. “Hollywood has been under transformation for years. Office construction did not take hold until mid-2014 because the “work” in live/work/play is usually the last domino to fall. Now these areas have become more attractive to top employers after the millennial workforce companies are seeking has moved there.”