Commercial Real Estate for Lease

Like many creative office buildings in Downtown LA, this building was once used for sewing manufacturing. Being an industrial style building it is no wonder it was once industrial. Well, in 2012 a developer purchased the building and converted into creative office space. I've leased to around thirteen sets of tenants in this building, and it's no wonder why. It sells itself. It's located in the best location of Downtown LA, well, a block from it, on Spring Street between 7th and 8th. 6th/Spring I consider the best location. This is where DTLA Artwalk occurs on Spring between 4th and 8th Streets. Anyway, the spaces are wonderful. Polished cement flooring, some have large white polished tile. Every unit has central HVAC with its own private thermostat. The building has 24/7 access and there's a security guard onsite Monday through Friday. The units are reasonably priced per square foot. There's currently three available! Visit the main page to check them out. As always, thanks for visiting and making us your first resource for creative office space Los Angeles. We also can provide LA property management services in Los Angeles, Los Angeles homes for sale, and we can help you buy condos for sale in Downtown LA. Give us a call now!

Really excited about this new restaurant lease listing in Chinatown. I've been trying to get this listing for 2-3 years now for the office space upstairs! All of the sudden I get a text out of the blue that pretty much says "Hey we'd like to you to lease the building for us now." Wow... after all that time! Needless to say I'm grateful. So apparently the restaurant tenant recently retired and left this awesome gem, well a diamond in the rough you might say since it needs a remodel. Fortunately, this space has existing restaurant permits (which is huge for Downtown LA! It's in such high demand, space like this for restaurants with permits. Otherwise, if you were to start from scratch, you'd be looking at at least $200k and 9 months time for building out vent, hood, and getting all the inspections, and so on and so forth. There's more photos on our home page but basically this space is very reasonably listed at $5500 monthly and it's approx 1700sf. There's up to 10 parking spaces available. Give us a call for details and touring information. It's appointment only. Also, we still offer commercial property management in Los Angeles!

Michael J. Connell was born in Ireland in 1854. He immigrated to the USA as a young man and became successful in several different ventures. At the turn of the twentieth century, he moved to Los Angeles and built the first garment and textile manufacturing buildings, effectively starting the Fashion District. Connell build his first garment and textile buildings in 1911. He continued to build throughout the decade and in 1916 he hired architect Frank Stiff to design several properties, including the building that is now Cornell Lofts. In 1958, the building was upgraded. In 2001, because of their rich history, the Cornell Lofts building along with its neighbors the Eckardt building and the Santee Court building were designated Los Angeles historic monuments. At some point in the mid twentieth century, the Cornell building and its neighbors were bought by businessman Arthur Gerry. He in turn sold the buildings to MJW Investments in 1998. MJW had also acquired four other buildings in the area and all the buildings were converted to lofts. The first lofts began selling in 2004. In 2008, MJW defaulted on a construction loan and the Cornell, Eckhardt and Santee Court buildings ended up in the hands of the Bank of America. In 2010, the investment team of Kennedy Wilson and RECP/Urban Partners bought the unsold units, finished the work that needed to be done, and put the units back on market. If you would like to find out more about these amazing lofts please contact DLTA Real Estate.com!

 How to start a restaurant in Los Angeles We get calls everyday from people who would love to break into the Downtown Los Angeles restaurant market.Many people think you can go out and find a space, put in your equipment and furniture, have the health department sign off, and then start making money. If only it were that simple. Unless you are assuming an existing business and changing nothing you will generally have to go through a change of use through building and safety. You have to have your restaurant fully designed and planned and wait for their review before you get to start renovating. Most full service restaurants need to serve alcohol to hit their profit margins which involves a conditional use permit. Both of these are long and complicated processes which involve going in front of local area councils, LAPD, and the department of building and safety. It's no easy feat. You have to be prepared to pay rent on a space for anywhere from 10 to 12 months before you open your doors. We at dtlarealestate.com understand that for many individual owners this is not possible. As we don't believe that the only people in hospitality in downtown should be large corporate entities or millionaire owners, we like to assist potential owners in negotiating the best deal to mitigate these challenges. We can help negotiate periods of free rent or tenant improvements by the property owners to assist you. We also have close relationships with permitting experts that specialize in downtown. We even have a member of our staff who has a decade of experience in the hospitality field. There is no better brokerage in downtown to help you opening a restaurant in Los Angeles!  Especially leasing a restaurant in Downtown LA! ,How to start a restaurant in Los Angeles How to start a restaurant in Los Angeles OUR COMMERCIAL LEASE LISTINGS OUR COMMERCIAL SALES LISTINGS

Los Angeles Restaurant Space for Lease Unique Opportunity DTLA Real Estate.com is proud to present an incredible new opportunity to lease large restaurant or retail space on Spring Street. This space used to house an annex of the LA Times Office, but the recent layoffs at the Times have opened this space up to the public. The site sits directly across the street for the future location of the Metro Regional Connector so foot traffic will not be a problem here. The false facade of smooth plaster of this building will be removed and the original historic architecture will be restored and refurbished, separating it from the Southland Credit Building. The space has a stunning stylish industrial look that is extremely popular now, with soaring ceilings and fantastic skylights these spaces are definitely jaw-droppers, making them an ideal space for any company wishing to juxtapose themselves with a cool/hip image. The space is steps away from The Edison and and is within walking distance of Grand Central Market, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the brand new Broad Museum. A restaurant tenant will be in company of venues such as Redbird, Otium, and Badmaash. The building can be rented together or divided evenly into two and rented separately. The building can be a net lease of the entire space or it can be subdivided into spaces of 2886sf, 7153sf, and 1489sf! Space features incredible raw wood and raw brick materials. If you would like to set up a tour of this space please contact Donegan at 213-304-4727. Also please view our other listings on our website at dtlarealestate.com BRE Lic #01753250 OUR COMMERCIAL LEASE LISTINGS OUR COMMERCIAL SALES LISTINGS

Vintage Clothing is something that has become synonymous with up and coming trendy neighborhoods. When I worked in the East Village of New York City in 2004 there were at least two or three on every block. However not all vintage stores are created equal. While some offer timeless throwbacks to past decades others are little more than a garage sale. Today Racked LA listed the top 24 vintage stores in Los Angeles and House of Vintage placed number 6 and the highest in Downtown Los Angeles. Owner Felicity Rathbone has cultivated a collection including names like DVF, Oscar De La Renta, and Versace that spans the 1920's to the 1990's. Her success has caused her to outgrow her current location so there is now an opportunity to take over the existing location as House of Vintage relocates. The location is being marketed for sale by Ms. Rathbone including all existing furniture and fixtures. The name and inventory are not included but it offers a chance for a turnkey ready to open operation in Downtown's Historic Core. If you would like more information please visit DTLARealEstate.com.

If you walk through any neighborhood in Los Angeles you're likely to come across one of nearly 1500 concrete buildings that were constructed before 1976. Full concrete buildings became popular throughout Los Angeles around the turn of the Century due to their durability. In 1976 the city determined that while sturdy these building were very vulnerable to the side to side motions of earthquakes. Over the next twenty five years the city began the process of having these retrofitted with steel beams. Today these buildings are perfectly safe and are a testament to an architectural rage of the past. People might guess that the first concrete structure was built in Downtown Los Angeles but it actually sits in the MacArthur Park area at 601 S Rampart Blvd. It was constructed in 1910 and today exists as the Rampart Arms Apartments. Recently multiple retail spaces have opened up in the building and offer an exciting opportunity to launch a business in a rapidly emerging area. It is the feeling of many stakeholders that MacArthur Park/Westlake will soon become a de facto suburb of downtown. If you are interested in this exciting opportunity you can find more details on our main page.

  Before John Steinbeck became the literary household name he is today he worked throughout Southern California on sugar beet ranches owned by the Spreckels brothers, who at one time were the sugar barons of the Western United States. The Spreckels brothers needed a warehouse with easy access to the train depots in Central Los Angeles to take their sugar so they constructed the building that is the Lofts at 940 E 2nd St today. When the artist in residence ordinance was passed in 1981 it gave new life to what became know as The Arts District. 940 E 2nd played a major part and now consists of 38 live work lofts in the heart of one of Downtown's most historic neighborhoods. All of the units in the building feature two bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms over three floors. Parking for each space is located directly outside of the front door of each unit. Each space combines modern exteriors with finishes respecting the historic nature of the building such as exposed brick, steel beams, and high vaulted ceilings. If you would like to learn more about the building and available units contact dtlarealestate.com at 213-304-4727. Unless otherwise noted we do not represent any ownership interests or management related to this building.

  What do Oreos have in common with the Arts District? The answer lies at 1850 Industrial Street. The Biscuit Company Lofts sit here occupying 7 floors and 187,000 square feet at the intersection of Industrial and Mateo. It was constructed in 1925 as the west coast headquarters of the National Biscuit Company, better known as Nabisco. Nabisco has an interesting association with American architecture having opened their first corporate office in the world's first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, in 1898 in Chicago. They looked to make a similar splash in Los Angeles and hired EJ Eckel to construct their California offices. In 2006 the building underwent a $25 million dollar renovation to convert the building into 104 live/work condo units. The 2007 declaration as designated historical monument made the building Mills Act eligible. This prestigious address has attracted former celebrity tenants such as Nicholas Cage, Vincent Gallo, and Justin Lin. The building features amenities such as a 24 hour doorman, a 75 foot pool, and a full size gym. The Arts District itself features some of Los Angeles' best restaurants and the upcoming addition of Soho House. If you would like to learn more about the building and available units contact dtlarealestate.com at 213-304-4727. Unless otherwise noted we do not represent any ownership interests or management related to this building.

As a commercial real estate broker in Downtown LA, I talk to commercial owners and managers of property in Downtown Los Angeles all the time.  When an owner has a vacant space and wants to work with me I see my role as getting their property leased within 90 days.  If I show it to five qualified people and they do not lease, there’s something wrong funky with one of the 5 causes.  As I wrote in a previous blog entry, there’s 5 things that cause space to get leased.  The biggest one of these 5 causes for properties in gentrifying areas of Downtown LA is often not price. Typically, the issue is lack of value which relates to many things including style, safety, and simplicity.  If you own commercial real estate in Downtown LA in a transitioning/gentrifying area and you follow the recommendations in this article, you will make more money from your property than you can imagine.  Your return on investment in this market will be far better by improving value over lowering price. To recap, here’s those 5 causes that cause properties to get leased.  One, marketing exposure.  Two, time.  Three, adding value.  Four, lowering price.  And five, improving sales presentation.  For me, marketing is never the problem.  If it’s in Downtown LA I can market their property more than anyone else can in Downtown LA.  Time?  No one has time.  Sales?  Most of the time spaces lease themselves, but a sales person does make a difference, and I’m not a bad salesman.  These typically have not been an issue.  Price?  Price has not been the problem.  People in Los Angeles can afford very high rents.  The most common problem I see that keeps properties in gentrifying areas of Downtown LA from leasing is lack of value in terms of style, safety, and simplicity for potential tenants.  If you want gentrified tenants for you un-gentrified property, this is what you need to know. Business owners are looking for value!  They educate themselves.  They look around at different spaces and get a gauge on what’s available for what.  They pay attention to details and compare those details.  Also, business owners have minimal standards!  You can have a crappy building for $.25 a square foot, and still no self-respecting business owner is going to want to relocate their business there. So yes, the problem is value! Business owners care about their image just like they care about what kind of clothes they wear.  Does the property have a style that you can argue for aesthetically?  For gentrifying properties, creative companies are the most likely tenants.  Yes, people like shabby warehouses, but if they are the type that’s willing to pay $5000 a month for a creative office space or retail space in Downtown Los Angeles, they are going to need the space to be crisp, clean, and polished.  The key is to make the property stylish, make it cool, make it what business owners would want to align their image with. Safety is also a spin-off of value.  Safety is a big concern, especially for people not familiar with Downtown Los Angeles.  People that live here feel comfortable, but some people are shocked simply by homeless people asking them for money.  Shocked and afraid! People who have not lived in the Historic Core for a while and find themselves among homeless people, the drug addicted, and/or the mentally ill members of Downtown LA, often freak out. I see it all the time.  Just because you might be use to these type of people, most other people are not. Regardless, for everyone, safety is important.  When you add exterior lighting, security cameras, and a security guard the safety concern is a lot less problematic.  If people are concerned about the safety of your property, they’re probably going to drive by it or walk around there at night to ease their concerns.  If it is pitched black around your building, they obviously are not going to feel safe! Also, business owners care about amenities.  Does the space have HVAC?  Is there a conference room in the common areas?  Are the bathrooms and common areas clean?  Does the exterior of the building look well kept?  Does the lobby give a good first impression?  Often times, it doesn’t matter how cheap the space is, a lot of people simply will not rent without certain things. Last but not least, and a spin-off on value, make the move in simple.  The less the tenant has to do to make the space work for them, the better.  If it’s not move in ready, you cannot show them it does indeed work for them.  Make your property safe, don’t tell people you can.  Make it convenient, don’t tell people you can. People are untrusting these days more than ever, especially in real estate. For instance, lots of gentrifying properties don’t have central HVAC.  Well there’s good news, there’s other options for AC.  Best case scenario, buy the portable AC’s or one of the other AC options out there.  Moreover, install it for them or maintenance!  You can charge them a monthly fee, like the Spring Arts Tower does.  Show them it cools the space down. Do not tell them they can buy the AC and it will cool the space down.  They will think, “Where will I buy an AC and how will I install it?  That sounds complicated. Gosh, that’s another thing to do and worry about.  Wait a second… oh shoot I just remembered I need to go pick up my kids from school.  Crap I think I left the curling iron on!”  Show them! People do not have time or patience.  Tenants will make the easy convenient choice because they have a hundred other things on their mind.  The money you’ll save from having the space leased and not vacant will definitely make you more money than doing the opposite. The most common thing I hear from owners of properties in transitioning areas is this: It’s okay, we can do those improvements once we find a tenant. NO! You need to make your property cool, not tell people you can make it cool. Also, creative people are surprisingly uncreative at times, when looking for Downtown LA real estate.  Also, most people want to move within 30 days.  If it’s going to take you three months to get the improvements done, the “I’ll make it cool” response, makes no sense in principle!  These people will have rented somewhere else by the time the owner is done with the improvements.  Also, since these tenants shop around, why would someone lease at your property that you tell them you’ll make it cool when someone down the street has made the property cool already and they could move in now if they wanted to? So to recap Within reason, price is often not the problem Know that your tenants care about            Style: their image Safety: they don’t want to worry about their employees getting robbed      and suing them or something worse People have minimal necessities no matter how low the price is Know that your potential tenants shop around Make the move-in simple for them They have enough to worry about Make the property an easy “no-worries” choice People are not trusting.  And creative people often are not creative. Make the property cool, don’t tell people you’ll make it cool My name is Donegan McCuaig.  If you’re looking to buy, sell, lease, or manage property in Downtown LA give dtlarealestate.com a call now.  Thank you!

If you're a real estate owner or experienced property manager, you already know these in one form or another, here’s my spin on these concepts.  It is useful to refresh these points in your mind.  There are five ways to increase rental activity for your commercial real estate in Downtown LA, and only five ways to increase rental activity in DTLA.  If you have a vacant space, the cause of the vacancy has something to do with one or more of these factors.  Do you have a vacant commercial space in DTLA?  Wouldn’t you like to be collecting the monthly rent on it?  Well, let’s see what we can do by going over these five factors! ADD VALUE · RENOVATIONS: Sometimes, it is hard to realize how your space looks to fresh eyes, someone seeing the space for the first time.  If your space shows poorly during a tour, this will be a factor in getting the space leased.  Also, the physical appearance of your property will affect the quality of the pictures you are able to get of your space.  When it comes to online advertising, your space is only as good as your photos of it. · BRANDING: Are you positioning your property to the tenants who make up the market for the greatest demand of your property?  Did you use to rely on sewing manufacturing tenants when now the greater demand and value is in creative office space?  Is the image of your space is projecting cool? · How dtlarealestate.com can help: I can consult with you to position your property in the best light possible for the greatest demand based on my knowledge and experience of the “gentrified type of tenant” coming into Downtown Los Angles. INCREASE EXPOSURE OF VACANT UNITS · Marketing is everything.  Is your space getting the most visibility it possibly can to the type of tenants that are most interested in your space? · How dtlarealestate.com can help: First of all, I can make your spaces look good with photography and video.  I have over 38,000 fans on Facebook at facebook.com/dtla4ever where I share photography, street art, and real estate in Downtown LA.  My website gets over a thousand visits per month.  You can Google “commercial real estate Downtown LA” and see how I get so many tenants calling me each day.  I honestly believe there is no one in the world that can give your commercial rental units any more marketing visibility than I can.  And personally, I’ve never seen anyone else come close to the photography and video that I do for my clients’ vacant spaces. REDUCE PRICE/RENT RATE · Self-explanatory. · How dtlarealestate.com can help: You don’t need me for this one. IMPROVE SALES SKILLS OF TOURING AGENT · The sales presentation a tenant receives extraordinarily affects whether they rent or not.  The methods employed when demonstrating the space and persuasion involved can mean the difference between making and breaking a deal. INVENT AND USE A TIME MACHINE · Last but not least, eventually, it might take two years, but someone is going to find out about your space, call you, agree to the rent rate, approve of your sales pitch, and rent your space at your asking price.  Hopefully, you don’t raise the rent rate during that two years time, because it might stay vacant forever! · How dtlarealestate.com can help: I’m a smart guy but I can’t build you a time machine.  You’re on your own with this one! The ways I can work with you (as a Downtown LA real estate broker and property manager) to get your vacant commercial spaces leased better than any other broker in the world are by helping you with adding value, increasing quality of your marketing materials, increasing the number of people exposed to your marketing materials, and being your sales representative.  If you’re interested, give us a call and we can talk about filling your building up with happy tenants!

A Downtown Diamond in the Rough Very Rough Like many of the best finds in downtown Los Angeles real estate, there is a gem hiding in plain sight. You wouldn't know it from looking at the exterior of the building located at 229-241 East 7th Street, but upstairs there are four amazing spaces that can be combined in a variety of ways. Many hopeful tenants who want to lease in Downtown Los Angeles covet 20-foot ceilings, central HVAC, 24/7 access and an adjacent parking lot; this property has it all! [caption id="attachment_689" align="aligncenter" width="571"] Warehouse space in Downtown Los Angeles[/caption] Situated on a transitional block of 7th street, you can see the grit turn glint. It is across the street from Santee Court, home to over 200 hundred downtown LA residential lofts. There is nothing sweeter to an Angelino than a one-block commute. Standing on the front sidewalk of the building, looking a few blocks West, you can watch the new Korean Air skyscraper making its way to the high point of the LA City skyline. Fortunately, this building will be getting a paint job soon, as it desperately needs it!  Hopefully the colors will be consistent with the creative interiors.  We'd like to do dark gray with a neon green accent, but we will have to see what the owners say!  This building was actually purchased not long ago.  Having sold recently, the building also has a new property management company!  Everyone seems to be on board with upgrading this commercial building in DTLA! [caption id="attachment_688" align="aligncenter" width="599"] Creative DTLA Office Space[/caption] Last but not least, this building also has to ground floor retail spaces for lease!  Being that this building is situated at the border of the Fashion District and the Toy District, and walking distance from the Historic Core, pretty much any type of tenant you can think of could potentially be a good fit!  The building also has a private parking lot situated next to it, and the spaces include parking!  This could be the great deal you are looking for. For questions about this space or any other real estate opportunity, contact Donegan McCuaig at the number above. A Downtown Diamond in the Rough Very Rough A Downtown Diamond in the Rough Very Rough

Property Management in DTLA. Have you ever met a Downtown Los Angeles commercial real estate property owner? It might be a little like spotting a unicorn. The truth is, most Downtown LA real estate is owned by international investors. So what does this mean for those of us who live, work and play in DTLA? It means that some of the gentrification efforts are slowed down due to out-of-touch property owners. Have you ever noticed a great building hidden under an old paint job, in need of some light maintenance, and wondered why this great building has been left unkempt in a rapidly gentrifying area? The answer is property management. With owners being remotely located, the property manager is left responsible for the property management and property maintenance, but not all managers know what’s best for the property and the investment. In fact, managers are often reluctant to ask owners for the funds necessary to update old properties. Ironically, in an attempt to save a few thousand dollars, they end up costing their property owners tens of thousands of dollars! In my experience, some managers are too shortsighted. Take the Fashion District for example. Downtown LA’s Fashion District has become a destination spot for retail shoppers all over the city.  However, most typical retailers prefer more traditional retail locations in other areas of Downtown that are less about wholesale: for instance, the Arts District, South Park, or Bunker Hill.  To lease your commercial space for top-dollar, you need to have the right management company in place, assuring that the value is there for both tenants and property owners. Wholesale District property management and Toy District property management is a great example of this point. Buildings in these districts are being managed the same way they were decades ago, while at the same time trying desperately to lease for top-dollar. The buildings that have signed on with property management firms and who have made reasonable upgrades to their properties have seen the returns on their investment and have added to the gentrification efforts; beautifying the neighborhood, increasing foot-traffic, and attracting top-tier tenants who are willing to pay more for the added value. The lesson here is to outsource your Fashion District, Toy District, or Wholesale district property management to professionals, like those at dtlarealestate.com. Donegan McCuaig knows property management and he knows what it takes to keep your building looking great and attracting the best tenants at the most competitive price. For questions about Downtown Los Angeles property management, or any other real estate opportunity, contact Donegan McCuaig at the number above. Property Management in DTLA. Property Management in DTLA.

Are you looking for a property manager for your commercial or residential building in DTLA's Fashion District?  We'd be happy to help you.  Please contact us now!Property Management Services in Downtown Property Management Services in DowntownProperty Management Services in Downtown All DTLA Condos For Sale DTLA Live/Work Lofts for Sale