Unique Services Drive DTLA Office Rents

Tailored services and amenities are clearly the biggest trend in office, but it also might be the best way to drive tenancy in Downtown Los Angeles. The submarket has a high-double digit vacancy rate, floating between 17% and 19% this year. While there has been a push to attract creative tenants to the market, and many are hoping that Warner Music's lease will be a catalyst for more activity—Brookfield Office Properties, the largest office owner in the Downtown market, is forming partnerships and bolstering services, including its new partnership with Convene, to drive tenancy in its properties.

“We think this is going to create a progressive proposition that differentiates our projects from others,” Bert Dezzutti, EVP of the Western Region at Brookfield Office Properties, tells GlobeSt.com. “We believe that will lead to greater lease-up activity. Ultimately, if that translates to rental growth, then that is an added benefit. These spaces are places where you can support the day-to-day events of your tenancy. It is going to be a differentiator in our buildings.”

While Dezzutti can imagine many benefits to supplying these market demands, he says that those benefits aren't the drivers. The company, instead, is focusing on being a leader in office environments. “Our focus is to create environments that are meaningful for people and their employees, and that will attract and retain the best in their industry,” says Dezzutti. “To do that, we need to create spaces that are of great value to them, and we are accomplishing that be providing services that allow them to work in ways that they are requiring. This is all part of the evolution of the office building industry.”

While the firm's partnership with Convene is newest addition, it is part of a series of amenities and services that Brookfield has integrated into its properties in recent years. The combination of these services form the desired workplace environments Brookfield says that tenants are looking for. “This is Brookfield's way of looking at the workplace at a service platform,” says Dezzutti. “When it is combined with all of the other things that we are doing aside from Convene, like Arts Brookfield and our environmental improvements, it is part of creating a full-services office environment. Convene is an element of the progressive environment that people want. There is nothing else like it in Downtown L.A. or in all of L.A. I am sure there will be others coming, but now, I am just excited to offer something that no one else is.”