Condo development activity is picking up in the Southwest markets. Polaris Pacific, a condominium sales and marketing firm, announced this week that it is opening an office in Los Angeles and has opened an office in the Biltmore area of Phoenix to better service increasing client demand in these Southwest markets. The firm, which is headquartered in San Francisco, says that its existing clients are looking at development opportunities in San Diego, Orange County, Arizona as well as Hawaii, where demand for condo product is growing.

“We have clients asking us to take a look at projects in Orange County, San Diego and even Hawaii. This is where the development money is going to go, in addition to San Francisco,” Mike Akerly, VP and regional manager, tells GlobeSt.com.

Condo demand has certainly increased in Southern California. In Downtown Los Angeles—which has been wrought with apartment projects—new condo projects like Oceanwide Plaza, 504 units, and 913 Figueroa, 200 units, are seeing strong interest. Likewise, pioneering projects, like Ten50, which Polaris worked on, and Metropolis, have already opened to healthy sales. Currently, there are nearly 1,000 new condo units in the pipeline in Downtown Los Angeles.

While the firm is hoping to expand its client roster with these new offices, the impetus for the expansion was really to follow its existing clients into these new markets. “We already have an extremely robust client list because we are already working in so many markets,” says Akerly. “When we start hearing from our clients that they love working with us, but they need us in another market, we start to think that we need to have boots on the ground in these locations to properly service our clients. Our goal is to provide a higher level of service.”

The increase demand for condo project isn't limited to Northern California developers, where condos have been popular, but local and foreign investors are also looking for development opportunities in the Southwest. “There are developers that are in smaller markets and that are local that we can service as well,” says Akerly. “We have been hired recently by Australian companies and Chinese companies, and having a flagpole in an area where they are looking to build adds a lot of legitimacy up front.”