Long Beach Gets Its First Luxury Apartments

LONG BEACH, CA—Luxury apartment living is coming to Long Beach. Developers Ledcor Properties Inc. and AndersonPacific LLC have joined forces to build the Current, a 17-story, 223-unit mixed-use complex in Downtown Long Beach, and the firm has hired Alliance Residential to handle the leasing efforts. The project has been in the pipeline since 2005, and while the property won't open its doors until spring 2016, developers are already seeing tremendous interest in the project. To find out more about the leasing trends in Downtown Long Beach, if the community is ready for a luxury living complex and about the Current, we sat down with Ryan Altoon, EVP at AndersonPacific LLC and Jason Silver, development project manager at Ledcor Properties Inc. for an exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: Tell me about the demand for luxury apartment living in Long Beach? 

Ryan Altoon: As the only urban high-rise waterfront located between San Diego and San Francisco, Downtown Long Beach offers a myriad of resident amenities, entertainment, culture, and recreational activities, all contributing to a strong and growing demand for luxury apartment living.  

Long Beach offers a tremendous value opportunity for coastal waterfront living, offering residents an urban experience by the beach, while centrally located between Downtown Los Angeles and Orange County. The Current is the first luxury high-rise apartment to be developed in Long Beach since 1966, and its sophisticated modern design, waterfront views, state-of-the-art amenities, and healthy community (LEED) design, is a tremendous draw from the local, Los Angeles and Orange County markets.  

GlobeSt.com: Long Beach was hit particularly hard by the downturn. How and why has that changed, and what is fueling apartment demand now? 

Altoon: Long Beach, like most metropolitan cities in the nation, endured the Great Recession.  However, Long Beach utilized the downturn to revitalize its streetscape, install miles of dedicated bike lanes, and implemented the “Downtown Plan” which updated the zoning plan and included a Program Environmental Impact Report—ensuring design, scale and composition of buildings met the future needs of the city, while offering surety and an abbreviated timeline for developers.

Long Beach is one of the few true urban downtowns directly connected to a waterfront, apart from San Diego and San Francisco. Residential demand is increasing in the city as Long Beach is a viable option for young professionals and empty nesters who are interested in an authentic, unique, highly amenitized, walkable urban downtown—all situated on a vibrant waterfront, and within close proximity to centers of local and regional employment.

GlobeSt.com: What has interest been like in The Current, and do you have a timeline on when you expect to reach full occupancy? 

Jason Silver: There has been and continues to be tremendous interest in The Current, as the project has been anticipated in downtown for over a decade.  The project offers the last unobstructed views of the Ocean in Downtown Long Beach, and sits on the most visible corner in the City, within steps from the beach and within walking distance to many local amenities - the waterfront, East Village Arts District, Pine Avenue Entertainment District, and Aquarium of the Pacific, markets, shops and restaurants.  We anticipate full occupancy between 12 to 18 months from opening.

GlobeSt.com: What rental rates are you looking to get? 

Silver: Due to anticipated strong demand for coastal, urban and high-rise luxury living, coupled with an ever increasing housing supply shortage in the region, we are forecasting rents that will be near or at the leading edge of the overall Long Beach rental market.

GlobeSt.com: Where is the leasing market in Long Beach headed? Should we expect to see more developments like this?  

Silver: Long Beach is poised to be a growing market and future development of this scale, including adaptive reuse projects, are currently being planned in downtown.