Jamison Gets Praise From Bass for Office Conversion

The World Trade Center in Downtown Los Angeles is in the spotlight as Mayor Karen Bass touts the city’s recently approved adaptive reuse ordinance.

Bass stopped at the office complex at 350 South Figueroa Street as part of her reelection campaign as Jamison Services moves forward with turning the offices into housing, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It’s a partial realization of past plans from Jamison; before the pandemic, the firm looked to clear a portion of the World Trade Center site to build a 41-story apartment tower.

The property spans nearly 400,000 square feet across a full city block bounded by Flower Street, Fourth Street, Third Street and Figueroa Street. Jamison, headquartered in Koreatown, is in the process of converting the interior of the World Trade Center into 512 apartments, all of which would be deed-restricted affordable housing.

The conversion at the World Trade Center is part of a wider effort to “break away from the status quo that has stunted L.A.’s housing production and driven up rents for decades,” Bass said in a statement.

“Work from home and other shifts mean there is a large supply of office space that we can use for housing, but for too long, outdated city regulations stood in the way,” she added. “We’re now unlocking tens of thousands of housing units to conversion, which can be much faster and cost-effective than new construction.”

Los Angeles first adopted its adaptive reuse ordinance in 1999 and has been credited with breathing new life into downtown Los Angeles in the early 2000s. Yet, in more recent years, other markets such as Orange County have outpaced the city in conversion projects.

Late last year, Bass expanded the adaptive reuse ordinance by growing the pool of potential buildings to be converted, allowing properties at least 15 years old to be turned into housing. The ordinance, which went into effect in February, could lead to the creation of more than 43,000 new residences, according to planning officials cited by Urbanize.

Jamison Services — which recently named a new CEO — has been leading the way in adaptive reuse projects across Los Angeles. Over the past decade, the firm has transformed more than 10 buildings in Koreatown and downtown into housing. Earlier this year, Jamison began work on a similar project downtown that will transform a 33-story office tower at 1055 West Seventh Street into 686 apartments.

— Chris Malone Méndez