Even as the trendy loft and condo market cools a bit in downtown Los Angeles, the glass-and-steel skyscrapers are filling up and street life is picking up after dark, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Los Angeles architect Peter Devereaux is bringing his 150-employee firm to the heart of the city’s financial district. “We felt that now — and more so going into the future — that it would be to the advantage of our employees to be located downtown,” he said.

“It has all the amenities, like fitness centers, restaurants and entertainment.”

There’s no better indicator of commercial revival than the City National Plaza office complex, which for years stood as a mostly empty symbol of the challenges faced by downtown. Its profile looked impressive, but there were many vacant offices in the shiny towers. Now the complex is mostly full.

Downtown had languished since the early 1990s, when the region suffered a steep recession. Developers anticipating an office boom had built millions of square feet before the crash, and the city’s business district was left with a glut that only now shows signs of abating.

“Imagine every fourth floor was empty,” said broker Carl Muhlstein of Cushman & Wakefield. “We had a 25% vacancy factor.”

Today the numbers that commercial developers watch are encouraging them. Downtown vacancy rates are dropping and rents are heading upward, new statistics show. Landlords say they are bullish unless a swift downturn in the economy is ahead.

Read the full L.A. Times story

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