By: RentCafe
In the national backdrop of a conversion slowdown, Los Angeles bucks the trend and hits the gas on conversion projects with a 10-year-high of transformed apartments, an all time-high in office conversions, as well as an all time-high in hotel conversions.
The prospects also look bright as LA outranks any other U.S. city in future adaptive reuse projects.
Here are some interesting findings from RentCafe’s annual Adaptive Reuse Report:
- In 2022, Los Angeles became the leading city for apartment conversions, commanding a whopping 13% of all adaptive reuse projects across the country. 1,292 fresh apartments are breathing new life into formerly diverse buildings, mostly in the downtown area.
- Half of these new apartments emerged from former office buildings, solidifying LA’s leading role in office-to-residential conversions. With 692 completed apartments from offices alone, most apartments emerged on Wilshire Blvd and South Spring Street.
- Hotel conversions made a robust showing in 2022: a total of 600 units from former hotels were converted, closely trailing the number from office conversions. This parallels the national scene, where the hotel niche is revving up, nearly matching office conversions for the first time.
- As we look to the future, LA remains at the forefront of adaptive reuse, with an impressive 4,566 apartments projected to result from conversions. While NYC and Chicago follow behind, they can’t quite match LA’s pace. Future adaptive reuse projects belong to retail stores (1137 apartments), office buildings (1118 apartments) and hotels (728 apartments).
Dive into the full data in our full report, rich with more graphics and interactive charts for past, present, and future conversions across the largest U.S. cities here.
