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Originally Posted by NativeOrange
As a side note, what I am hoping for one day (that's a very big "hope"), is that office vacancy drops, warranting a demand for more space. I can see around a dozen or so plazas or corporate courtyards that should be replaced by separate additions to the current office towers.
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I had thought about that too, but some issues:
First, office space vs residential space seems like a chicken-and-egg problem, or an inhale-exhale one at the very least. You need more people downtown to justify more office space. Also, you need more people working downtown to draw more residents to it. Now, we are seeing residents flock to the neighborhood. This might be followed by an office space boom.
Second, Los Angeles (the second largest city, and economy, in the United States) does not have any Fortune 500 companies headquartered within our city limits (Disney, the only one in the region, is in Burbank). Furthermore, we are not a major hub for any industry besides entertainment. Los Angeles needs to attract more corporate headquarters, and Downtown needs to bring more headquarters to it. Could you imagine if CAA or Paramount or even the Gores Group relocated to DTLA?
Third, the American economy is becoming more automated, less traditionally office-centric, and more "work from anywhere" oriented landscape. Richard Florida's "The Creative Class" does more justice in describing this than I ever could, but how this will effect major office space construction....we'll find out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NativeOrange
But you bring up a good point, and I don't see any other way for developers to feasibly build something on those skinny lots unless there is some sort of zoning change to allow 0 parking. At least not anything significant enough to be posted to the front page. Maybe LA will get it together and finally relieve the parking requirements on developments near transit.
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Not only does LA need to relieve parking requirements, but downtown would benefit tremendously from the street car, and Los Angeles as a whole would benefit from more subway/light-rail lines and TOD projects.