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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Density Fuels Downtown Glendale’s Appeal

Glendale is a city that set its eyes on a prize and achieved it. The community northeast of downtown Los Angeles and west of Pasadena wanted to diversify and expand its business community after the Great Recession left vast amounts of empty office space in its downtown. The path to get there, the city realized, was transforming the area so people, retailers, developers, investors and employers would follow. The Downtown Specific Plan in 2014 made that possible. The land use document enabled density to grow through new and improved retail centers, restaurants, museums, entertainment outlets and thousands of new apartments. Residents and employers flocked to the buzz of the Brand Boulevard scene. Tom Lorenz, director of communications and community relations for Glendale, said with 200,000 people across 30 square miles that is mostly residential or recreation/open space, there were few options to have a thriving area where people could live, work and play that runs 18 hours other than the downtown neighborhood. “There’s only a limited amount of area zoned for commercial, retail and industrial,” Lorenz said, “The idea was to contain developments where it belongs and not encroach into those historic residential areas.” The result is nearly 4,000 new apartment units that between 2013 and 2019 had been approved, are now under construction or about to start construction. The Antaeus Theater Co. opened earlier this year, and a complex with Laemmle Theaters, apartments, a Panda Inn restaurant and a gym will debut in upcoming months. Now, Glendale boasts having its own technology hub – 41,000 tech jobs across 1,000-plus companies – according to Lorenz, and they are growing. Startup ServiceTitan is one example, he said, and the developer of management software for home service companies plans to double its employee base in the next year or so, he said. “Glendale provides them and affords them the opportunity to grow here,” Lorenz added. Nearly 12,000 businesses operate in the 3 miles surrounding downtown. That helps when large companies move out, such as Nestle USA, which announced in February it would relocate its North American headquarters to Virginia. The food and beverage giant occupies nearly 380,000 square feet on Brand Boulevard – a vacancy that would devastate smaller markets. But in Glendale’s case, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles – already a tenant in the building – will fill some of Nestle’s former space. Apartments continue to be built but there are signs the surge is slowing. Many new projects are condominiums and in smaller numbers, such as Pacific Lux, a 27-unit condominium complex under construction at 625 S. Pacific Ave. Brokers suspect behind that shift is an apartment market approaching saturation, and concerns of inadequate parking. Glendale also is shifting toward hotels. A newer Hampton Inn sits on South Brand Boulevard while another five hotels are on the horizon – including two under construction and three that recently received approvals. Additionally, a 130-room Hotel Indigo is proposed for 239 N. Maryland Ave. Investors, following employers, retailers, developers and residents, have benefitted from the activity. In August, a 63-unit apartment complex at 1001 Melrose Ave. traded for $20 million, or about $318,000 a unit, delivering a 60 percent gain to the sellers. In July, the 351-room Hilton Los Angeles North in Glendale sold for about $73 million, or about $208,000 a room, providing seller Rockwood Capital a 42 percent profit. And in January, Los Altos investor Interstate Equities Corp. bought the 126-unit Verdugo Village apartments at 1717 N. Verdugo Road for $54.2 million, and plans to increase investment in Glendale, seeing it as a growing market. Lorenz said with growth comes challenges, so to improve mobility, city officials are working with public transit entities. Proposals include adding train stations, possibly a light rail system and maybe even bringing back the Red Car electric trolleys. “Those are all on the table,” Lorenz said.

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