Glendale Offices Poised to Become Apartments

Izek Shomof is taking his office-to-residential conversion talents from downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach to Glendale.

The developer has filed plans to convert a 19-story office building at 101 North Brand Boulevard into 312 units, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. Shomof paid $58.5 million for the more than 400,000-square-foot building last year.

In order to become a reality, the project will need certain allowances from city management including an exception from parking regulations, per Urbanize. Adaptive reuse efforts in Glendale are less common than in areas like downtown L.A., though some projects have risen in recent years, such as the conversion of 520 North Central Avenue and the Harrower Village property on Broadway into housing. The forthcoming office-to-residential conversion is across the street from Rick Caruso’s Americana at Brand shopping mall.

Shomof’s adaptive reuse endeavors span Los Angeles County.

In October, Shomof purchased a 24-story, 460,000-square-foot property at 111 West Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, The Real Deal previously reported. Earlier this month, Shomof filed an application with the Long Beach Planning Bureau to convert the building into housing. The existing structure, which spans more than 480,000 square feet, would be turned into 391 residential units if approved.

In 2023, Shomof revealed plans to build 200 homes next to the Panorama Tower in the San Fernando Valley. The units are slated to complement the 14-story, 194-unit Panorama Tower that Shomof previously converted from offices to apartments.

Residential adaptive reuse projects from other developers, most notably Jamison Properties, are sprouting across L.A. County. Near 111 West Ocean Boulevard at 200 West Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, a high-rise built in the 1960s reopened as housing in 2023, per 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 Shomof’s 111 West Ocean Boulevard project, completed its transition to housing and opened to tenants in 2023.

— Chris Malone Méndez