(Save the date: RealShare L.A.comes to the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA on March 27, 2013)

LOS ANGELES-Rich with amenities and iconic sites, Downtown Los Angeles is Southern California's epicenter of business, culture, retail, residential, education, entertainment, nightlife, and sports. With a workforce population of more than 500,000 people and an annual tourist population in excess of 15 million, generating millions of dollars in tax revenue, every year Angelenos ask: “Will this be the year for Downtown Los Angeles' big expansion?” … Why not?

Downtown is home to L.A. LIVE, an entertainment mega-complex in the South Park District, hosting such events as the American Music Awards. We have the world famous STAPLES Center, home to The Los Angeles Clippers, Lakers, Sparks, and Kings, attracting millions of people annually to the campus, including the world famous Grammys and Grammy Museum.  Downtown is also the home to such iconic venues as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Music Center, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Grand Park and the soon to be completed Broad Contemporary Museum.

In 1999, the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance passed in Downtown L.A., streamlining the conversion of defunct commercial spaces into residential units. Since then, 19,000 new residential units have been constructed for a total of 30,000 units today in over 180 properties. Downtown has experienced a 162% population increase since the passage of the ARO and stands at 49,000 residents today. Additionally, thousands of additional units are currently in the pipeline.

Downtown boasts an office market base of 27.3 million square feet across the CBD.  In recent years, more than 700,000 square feet of tenants moved into or opened second offices in Downtown L.A.

While Downtown L.A.'s transformation into a fully rounded 24-hour urban center is far from complete, the process was well underway. Until, that is, the Great Recession of 2007, which devastated much of Southern California and the nation.  It seemed that most of our private sector's $16 billion investment into Downtown over the past decade was all for not; with many projects being put on hold, including the much anticipated multi-billion dollar Grand Avenue mixed-use development. 

But there is a new energy in the air for 2013. A lot of institutional money is betting on the Farmers Field NFL Stadium. If you look at the sales prices of property closing or under contract, it suggests we are going to see an explosion of development in that corridor based around hospitality, including the Korean Air $1 billion hotel and mixed-use project, as well as two Marriott hotels and many other boutique hotels. With over 20 hotels, 15 museums, 50 bus routes, 5 metro lines, 3,000 places to shop, and hundreds of restaurants, Downtown L.A. has become one of the most dynamic urban cores in the world.

So, will this be the year for Downtown Los Angeles? Will Downtown be the recipient of that “silver bullet” once thought to be the Staples Center, then L.A. LIVE and now possibly the stadium? 

As we shake off a rather prolonged recession, a fiscal cliff stay of execution, and general uncertainty in the markets, one thing is for sure; this is a very likely year for Downtown Los Angeles and we are ready!

Christopher Cooper is the principal and managing director at Avison Young in the Los Angeles office. The views expressed in this column are the author's own.