LOS ANGELES-The hotel market is the latest sector to pop in the ongoing downtown renaissance, which has already experienced a boom in the multifamily and office sectors. Several new boutique hotel projects are currently underway, according to Carol E. Schatz, president and CEO of the Downtown Center Business Improvement District and Central City Association, the organizers behind the upcoming Renaissance of Downtown Los Angeles: Opportunity Knocks conference.

The conference will dig deep into all sectors of the downtown market, which is expanding from every angle. The newly growing hotel sector includes the Wilshire Grand and the proposed Grand Avenue projects, and the highly anticipated opening of the Ace Hotel later this year. Of course, the multifamily realm has the most notable growth. Schatz says there are 5,000 multifamily units currently under construction downtown with new projects being announced frequently, including the Megatoys Warehouse project. Schatz also points out the massive retail renovations of mixed-use assets, including FIGat7th and the Bloc, which “will provide a major boost to [the] downtown retail market.”   

Conference attendees will get a crash course in the downtown renaissance and investment opportunities. “Since 1999, there has been almost $16 billion in real estate investment in Downtown L.A.,” Schatz tells GlobeSt.com. “We know that there are many investors and others who still need to know about our story and how they can benefit from the opportunity to invest, develop or do business in our central city.”

To share the downtown story, Schatz has lined up an impressive list of real estate and investment power players with stakes in the downtown market, who will speak across four panels: hospitality, sports and entertainment panel; residential panel; office panel; and the retail panel. Dan Beckerman, AEG CEO; Bert Dezzutti, Brookfield Office PropertiesSVP, Western Region; Chris Martin, AC Martin Partners Inc. CEO and Martin Project Management CEO and president, Wayne Ratkovich, president and CEO; Bill Witte, Related California president are among the “powerhouse speakers,” as Schatz calls them, to speak on the panel. “We're confident that these panels encompassing four important real estate markets will encourage participants to invest or develop in Downtown L.A,” says Schatz.

To round out the conference, Eli Broad, founder of the Broad Association and Fortune 500 Companies Sun America Inc. and KB Home, will sit down for an intimate interview about the downtown market. The day-long event concludes with a bus tour through downtown to see first hand the real estate and development opportunities available. “We expect this upward momentum to continue, based on the strong interest we are seeing from investors and developers across all the market segments,” Schatz says. The Downtown Renaissance is 15-years-old, but it's still in its infancy with much, much more to come.”