How Does Urbanization Affect Adjacent Markets?

Bill Bauman is an EVP at Savills Studley.

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.”