Downtown L.A. to Draw More Residents, Major Grocery Store
Residential units available in the heart of downtown Los Angeles (which covers roughly 65 blocks) are expected to rise by 55 percent, increasing to almost 18,400 units by the year 2004, according to data compiled by the Downtown Center Business Improvement District (BID), a coalition of more than 250 downtown property owners. Current occupancy rates for loft apartments located along Main and Spring Streets are at 90 percent, according to the BID, which recently counted 16 businesses currently shopping for more than 600,000 square feet of office and retail space in new downtown locations. According to downtown sources, one of those businesses is a major grocery chain—if it finds a suitable site, the chain would open the first grocery store to be located in the central business district in half a century. —Louis Chunovic
