CMCT Converts LA Office Space to Apartments

Creative Media & Community Trust Corp. has completed the conversion of the top two floors of a three-story, 143,000-square-foot office building in Los Angeles’ Brookside neighborhood located at 4750 Wilshire Blvd., into 68 apartment units. Leasing at the property is underway.

The apartments are configured in studio, one- and two-bedroom floor plans, with many residences offering a den that can function as a home office or additional living space. Units have 10-foot ceilings and substantial window lines, which brings in natural light and helps create an open environment, as well as stone counters, wood flooring, and in-unit washers and dryers.

Studios, which total about 522 square feet, are listed at the property’s website for $2,850 to $3,850 a month, though the same page says that “up to” two months’ free rent is available, though not specifically for any unit. A one-bedroom, one bath configuration of one type runs from $3,899 to $4,750 a month, while one type of two-bedroom, two bath unit is $6,799 to $8,749 a month.

Common amenities include a resort-style pool, courtyard with outdoor picnic and seating areas, a resident lounge with movie room and game tables, children’s playroom, fitness and yoga rooms and a co-working space complete with both communal work tables and enclosed offices.

The property is located within the Park Mile Specific Plan of Logs Angeles, which governs land use north and south of Wilshire between Wilton Place and Highland Avenue. The apartments and office space are one mile from the La Brea station of the D Line subway, which is currently under construction, and which will eventually connect downtown to the westside.

The first floor of the structure includes about 30,000 square feet of office space, which is currently fully leased. The office space will retain the address 4750 Wilshire Blvd., while the apartments will take an address from a cross street, 701 S. Hudson Ave.

CMCT is a REIT that owns, operates and develops multifamily and office assets. As of Q2 2024, its portfolio includes 13 office properties totaling about 1.3 million square feet, three multifamily properties totaling 696 units, nine development sites (three of which are being used as parking lots) and one 503-room hotel with a parking garage, according to Business Wire.

The company turned in a net loss of $9.7 million, or $0.43 per share of common stock, for the three months ended June 30, 2024. That is an improvement compared to a net loss of $23.8 million, or $1.05 per share, for the same period in 2023. The company’s stock, however, hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic highs, and is down about 87.7 percent compared with five years ago.

Conversion Numbers Small But Growing

In comparison, some 455,500 new apartment units in projects of five units or more were started nationwide in 2023 alone, according to Census Bureau data. Even so, office-to-apartment conversions now represent 38 percent of the 147,000 apartments in future adaptive reuse projects, RentCafe notes.

Last year, the trend was most pronounced in Washington, D.C. (5,820 units), followed by New York (5,215 units) and Dallas (3,163 units), according to RentCafe.