Climb the grand spiral staircase at the century-old Pan American Building at 3rd Street and Broadway and you enter offices left vacant since the 1960s that workers are busily converting to luxury lofts.
The buzz of their drills and pounding of their hammers mix with the sounds of traffic, a familiar melody these days along the streets of downtown Los Angeles, where long-neglected structures are springing back to life as homes for downtown's new urban dwellers.
But the boom in residential development -- which has been at the heart of downtown Los Angeles' recent revival -- is reaching a critical crossroads. Of the 50 historic buildings preservationists and developers identified five years ago as candidates for housing, 44 either have been converted or are near completion.
Downtown lofts -- A June 20 Section A article about the conversion of downtown Los Angeles buildings into residential lofts said the Eastern Columbia Building had been mostly vacant since the 1950s. According to Alan Sieroty, a member of the family that owned the building, it was mostly occupied until it was sold in the late 1980s.
This has city officials and developers mapping out the next phase of downtown's renewal. They are considering more modern office towers, from the 1960s, '70s and even '80s, as potential condos and lofts. At the same time, they are looking at downtown's wealth of parking lots as potential spots for new construction while eyeing prewar buildings south and east of the traditional downtown historic core for renovations.
The shift also is prompting a debate about how far the residential boom will go. The number of residents downtown has grown in the last few years from 18,000 to 24,000, and most of the new lofts have long waiting lists that suggest the demand for housing remains strong.
But some developers acknowledge that downtown still has drawbacks that could cool the market. Among them: The area lacks the kind of shopping found in more suburban areas, a deficiency that officials vow to address in the coming year.
Residents who like the urban feeling of downtown nonetheless complain about having to drive into Pasadena or the Miracle Mile area for gourmet supermarkets and to suburban malls to shop for clothing and gifts.
Crime remains a problem, with more than 10% of the city's drug arrests occurring in downtown, more than any other area counted by the Los Angeles Police Department. With many of the new lofts rising in and around skid row, builders worry that panhandling and overnight encampments -- if not addressed by the city -- will eventually turn off residents.
The very success of downtown is also proving its own challenge. The initial round of conversions early in the decade produced mostly rentals, attracting people with modest incomes and a sense of adventure.
- Bradley Moves Quickly to Stifle Opposition to His Housing Proposal Mar 17, 1988
- CRA Plan Would Provide $7.1 Million for Housing Feb 13, 1990
- Welcome New Housing Guidelines Oct 13, 1989
