WORKS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The role of the office and our relationship to it underwent dramatic shifts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented experience – and unplanned experiment – brought new perspectives, practices, attitudes, and approaches. Companies, workers, and property owners are now reshaping the future of the office, and major urban centers like Downtown Los Angeles are at the forefront of that process. With over 350,000 jobs, DTLA is the economic heart of the City of LA and the Southern California region. As the great majority of these jobs are held by office workers – commuting from near and far, to companies in every industry, doing business all over the world – the importance of the DTLA office sector extends well beyond the buildings of the central business district. Downtown LA is the region’s largest and most diverse office market, with 37 million SF of traditional and creative space in an unparalleled collection of Class A towers, historic buildings, and industrial conversions. Equally as impressive as these commercial assets is the transformation that Downtown has undergone in recent years, with a rapidly growing residential population and an explosion of arts and culture that has made it an exciting and inspiring place to live as well as work.
The diversity of DTLA’s buildings and the vibrancy of its neighborhoods and lifestyle have attracted an increasingly diverse mix of industries and companies. Once dominated by traditional sectors, growth in recent years has come from the creative and tech industries. That has drawn a broader mix of professional talent which has continued to reshape DTLA as a place of innovation and creativity. The future of work will be shaped by a range of factors at the intersection of people, places, and spaces – how people work, where, and in what kind of environments, and how that all integrates with the rest of their lives. As we consider this evolution, we believe it is less about “back” to work than “forward” to new opportunities for work-life balance and flexibility for individuals, productivity, and collaboration for companies, and dynamic growth for city centers like DTLA. In this report we look at the future of work in the context of Downtown Los Angeles – the spaces, places, and people that define DTLA – the properties, neighborhoods, companies, and workers who make it one of the most diverse and dynamic commercial centers in the nation.
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Downtown Center Business Improvement District
