The San Francisco-based sales and marketing firm Polaris Pacific is setting up a shop in Downtown Los Angeles. The firm—which is best known in the Los Angeles market for leading the sales and marketing efforts are Ten50 in Downtown Los Angeles—has expanded to the market due to increasing growth of the condo pipeline in Downtown Los Angeles and throughout the Southern California region.

“It is all about the development cycle,” Mike Akerly, VP and regional manager of Polaris Pacific, tells GlobeSt.com. “If you look back to 2011 and 2012, there were only a couple-hundred condominium units delivering each year in the Los Angeles market. In 2015 and 2016, we saw that ramp up to 500 or 600 units a year in the Los Angeles market. That grew into a pipeline forecasted in the next couple of years of 700 or 800 units delivered each year in the Los Angeles market. We realized that this is a great place to be, and that we need to have boots on the ground because all of our clients are looking here. Having a footprint in Los Angeles allows us to service other markets.”

For the firm, Downtown Los Angeles was the obvious choice. It is a dense, urban atmosphere with a healthy demand for new condo product, and it is centrally located to access other emerging condo markets in Southern California. “Our first focus is Downtown, because as a company we do high-density urban homes, and there is no better place in Southern California to build that type of product,” says Akerly. “At the same time, once we are located there, we can work with our clients on projects in Orange County, San Diego and the Westside of Los Angeles.”

Enhancing client services is really the impetus for the expansion to the Los Angeles market. “It is one thing to rely on a research team and an occasional visit to have your finger on the pulse,” explains Akerly. “Right now, we have people that are able to go to every new project that opens up, to know every project in the pipeline, that can walk the neighborhood and know the restaurants and bars, and really understand what is happening. Part of our job is not only to help them sell their project but also to design what the market is looking for. In order to do that, you need to have your finger on the pulse.”