Downtown Los Angeles enjoys real estate ‘renaissance’

About 7,000 residential units have been rehabilitated or built from scratch in the Los Angeles downtown area since 1999, according to a report prepared by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., with thousands more on the way. "The Downtown Los Angeles Renaissance" report also states that about 26,500 residential housing units in the downtown area will be constructed by 2015. About 100 residential and commercial projects are under construction or at the permitting or planning stages, the report states. "As the projects currently in the pipeline are completed, the downtown skyline will be dramatically transformed." About 62 downtown development projects were completed between 1999 and 2005, another 59 projects currently under construction or in permitting and expected to finish up in the next two years, and 33 planned projects have estimated completion dates of 2008 or later. "The estimated construction cost of all projects involved in the downtown renaissance is $12.2 billi...