LOS ANGELES—The Downtown Los Angeles renaissance is heading to Chinatown. The neighborhood has been nearly untouched by the development boom, until now. Developer Forest City Realty Trust is building Blossom Plaza, a $100 million mixed-use complex with 237 apartment units and 19,000 square feet of retail. To handle the retail leasing, Forest City has tapped JLL VP Lorena Tomb and associate Danielle Cornwell, and Tomb talks to us exclusively about the burgeoning retail market.

“Chinatown is witnessing a major revitalization with an influx of new F&B operators and art galleries,” Tomb tells GlobeSt.com. “These changes are in line with the initial transformation we saw happening in the Arts District just a few years ago. Chinatown, relative to other submarkets of Downtown Los Angeles, is still at the earlier stages of its gentrification but has shown very promising signs with an increased number of acquisitions, new residential developments like Blossom Plaza and the Jia Apartments, and the restoration of older buildings into creative offices along North Main and North Spring street.”

The brokerage team is focusing on food and beverage tenants to lease the 19,000 square feet of retail space, and they have already had a lot of interest from potential tenants who have seen the recent activity in the market. “We are already in negotiations with a number of Chefs and bar operators for the project,” says Tomb. “There is definitely a lot of buzz around Chinatown lately. New F&B operators are interested in joining young Chefs who have entered that market like Marcus Christiana Beniger with Little Jewel of New Orleans, Andy Ricker with Pok Pok, Alvin Cailan with Ramen Champ and the Guerrero brothers with Burgerlords. We are already in negotiations on multiple spaces and expect to lease up in the coming months.”

The project is located at the intersection of Broadway and College Street on a two-acre parcel. The site is adjacent to the Metro Gold Line, and the project includes an entrance to the station. “I think Chinatown is the next best thing. It has architectural charm, culture and history,” adds Tomb about the future of the market. “It juxtaposes the old with the new and it's quite honestly one of the cleanest and safest areas of DTLA. There are so many exciting things happening in the area that the demand for retail and development will inevitably continue to grow to match what we have seen in little Tokyo and the Arts District.”

LOS ANGELES—The Downtown Los Angeles renaissance is heading to Chinatown. The neighborhood has been nearly untouched by the development boom, until now. Developer Forest City Realty Trust is building Blossom Plaza, a $100 million mixed-use complex with 237 apartment units and 19,000 square feet of retail. To handle the retail leasing, Forest City has tapped JLL VP Lorena Tomb and associate Danielle Cornwell, and Tomb talks to us exclusively about the burgeoning retail market.

“Chinatown is witnessing a major revitalization with an influx of new F&B operators and art galleries,” Tomb tells GlobeSt.com. “These changes are in line with the initial transformation we saw happening in the Arts District just a few years ago. Chinatown, relative to other submarkets of Downtown Los Angeles, is still at the earlier stages of its gentrification but has shown very promising signs with an increased number of acquisitions, new residential developments like Blossom Plaza and the Jia Apartments, and the restoration of older buildings into creative offices along North Main and North Spring street.”

The brokerage team is focusing on food and beverage tenants to lease the 19,000 square feet of retail space, and they have already had a lot of interest from potential tenants who have seen the recent activity in the market. “We are already in negotiations with a number of Chefs and bar operators for the project,” says Tomb. “There is definitely a lot of buzz around Chinatown lately. New F&B operators are interested in joining young Chefs who have entered that market like Marcus Christiana Beniger with Little Jewel of New Orleans, Andy Ricker with Pok Pok, Alvin Cailan with Ramen Champ and the Guerrero brothers with Burgerlords. We are already in negotiations on multiple spaces and expect to lease up in the coming months.”

The project is located at the intersection of Broadway and College Street on a two-acre parcel. The site is adjacent to the Metro Gold Line, and the project includes an entrance to the station. “I think Chinatown is the next best thing. It has architectural charm, culture and history,” adds Tomb about the future of the market. “It juxtaposes the old with the new and it's quite honestly one of the cleanest and safest areas of DTLA. There are so many exciting things happening in the area that the demand for retail and development will inevitably continue to grow to match what we have seen in little Tokyo and the Arts District.”