More Long Beach Offices Planned for Housing Transformation

Developer Izek Shomof is taking his office-to-residential conversion work from downtown Los Angeles to downtown Long Beach.

Shomof filed an application with the Long Beach Planning Bureau seeking authorization to convert a 24-story office tower at 111 West Ocean Boulevard into housing, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The developer plans to turn the existing building, spanning more than 480,000 square feet, into 391 residential units.

Shomof acquired the property, known as Landmark Square, last fall for $50 million, The Real Deal previously reported. A Manulife Financial Corporation affiliate sold the property at a steep discount, having purchased the offices in 2013 from Brookfield Properties for $135.5 million.

The structure is one of downtown Long Beach’s newer and taller office buildings. Adaptive reuse has made more of an impact in downtown L.A. than downtown Long Beach, but Ocean Boulevard has seen a number of historic buildings converted into new uses in recent years.

Near 111 West Ocean Boulevard at 200 West Ocean Boulevard, a high-rise built in the 1960s reopened as housing in 2023, according to Urbanize. The Breakers Building at 210 East Ocean Boulevard made its debut as the Fremont Breakers Long Beach hotel in 2024. The Ocean Center Building at 110 West Ocean Boulevard, across the street from Shomoff’s latest office-to-residential pursuit, completed its housing transition and opened to tenants in 2023.

More housing adaptive reuse projects are on the way. At 400 Oceangate, a 14-story office building is slated for conversion into housing. The 120-year-old First National Bank Building at 115 Pine Avenue, around the corner from 111 West Ocean Boulevard, is also set for residential units, according to Urbanize.

Shomof’s office purchase in Long Beach is his latest in the Greater Los Angeles area as the developer appears poised for more adaptive reuse endeavors. A year ago, Shomof purchased 101 North Brand Boulevard in Glendale for $58.5 million from Beacon Capital Partners, which bought the property in 2016 for $128.5 million. In 2024, he bought 617 West 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles’ Financial District from Swig Company for $20.5 million — nearly half off from its price over a decade prior.

— Chris Malone Méndez