Los Angeles’ Next Neighborhood Renaissance

The Current is one of the first new luxury apartment buildings to deliver in the Long Beach market.

LOS ANGELES—Long Beach is expected to be the next market to see a huge transformation in Los Angeles. Over the past several years, the L.A. market has seen several neighborhood renaissances. The most prevalent is Downtown Los Angeles, which has had tens of thousands of new multifamily units and well as condo projects and retail and office activity. Hollywood and Glendale have also seen an abundance of new development, and new demand to warrant it. Now, Long Beach is popping up as the next resurgent market, and it could compete with the Arts District.

“We have seen this play out in other places,” Brett Betzler, director at Moran & Co., tells GlobeSt.com. “Most recently, we saw the emergence of the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles. Ten years ago, people had no idea what the Arts District was. They would drive around, and in many cases they would not want to get out of their cars. It was really a tough sell. Fast-forward to today, and now it is so obvious. Now, all of the institutional capital wants to be there and they are killing themselves to get at opportunities. Once you hit a tipping point, everything changes very rapidly. Not only does the market change, but investor attitude toward the market also changes very quickly.”