LOS ANGELES—Urbanization and densification will go down in the history books as the central themes of this cycle. Los Angeles has certainly embraced the trends, most notably in markets like Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown Glendale and Downtown Long Beach, all of which have been inundated by development across product types. Some of this effect has spilled into adjacent markets—like Koreatown, which has also experienced phenomenal growth—but urban proximate communities in more single-family centric markets have shown resistance to this trend.

Bixby Knolls, a submarket of Long Beach, is a great example to the resistance of the urbanization movement. “Bixby Knolls' Downtown area is along Atlantic Avenue, and it is a continuation of smaller street front properties,” Bill Bauman, EVP at Savills Studley, tells GlobeSt.com. “I don't think the community wants the feeling of that area or the orientation of those retailers to change, so I don't think there is going to be much redevelopment there. I also think that because this is more of a single-family home neighborhood, there is probably going to be some resistance to more urban projects.”

Bauman recently brokered the sale of a redeveloped Trader Joe's-anchored center in the Bixby Knolls market. While there are plenty of shopping centers that could benefit from renovation and upgrades, this was one of the first projects to be revitalized in the last 10 to 15 years, according to Bauman. “That really tells you the scarcity of these opportunities and why they are coveted and go at such a premium when they happen,” he says. “In that area, there are some nice grocery-anchored centers that certainly are showing their age and could benefit from revitalization. In fact, there were a couple of failed redevelopment attempts on this property before it was sold as a retail property because the developers couldn't get traction with the city and the community.

Communities in markets like Bixby Knolls tend to be more resistant to urbanization because they can't accommodate density as easily as an urban core. Other submarkets in Long Beach are experiencing similar resistance as well as markets in Los Angeles, like Pasadena. “There are certain neighborhoods in Long Beach that I would expect to be more resistant to the more urban densification,” adds Bauman. “That is perfect downtown, which is much more of an urban environment, and submarkets like Bixby Knolls, are dense but are also more rural environments of single-family homes with no townhomes or apartments. There are a lot of areas where there is community resistance to urbanization.”

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