Live/Work Housing Will Expand Beyond Economic Downturn, ULI Told
Half of Nation’s Businesses Are Already Based in the Home
Pacific Electric Lofts
Source: Downtown Center Business Improvement District
By: Dick Lewis, President, Lewis & Associates
The house is increasingly becoming the American office, with about half of the nation’s businesses now being run from the home, according to the Census Bureau.
And that figure does not include the home businesses started since the advent of the downturn, an Urban Land Institute seminar was told today (July 9).
“While this market has mainly been in the 24-44 age category, with the advent of the downturn we expect older empty nesters who are still working to become increasingly interested in this mode of living,” said Alex Moradi, managing partner of the ICO Group of Companies and developer of Pacific Electric Lofts in downtown Los Angeles.
The live/work trend will see greater growth in urban rather than suburban areas, Moradi added, for two reasons: access to public transportation and the proximity of entertainment and cultural activities, plus recreation at their doorstep.
Since these folks are tech savvy, they also are attracted to the onsite business facilities that enable them to operate in that context, added Moradi, whose building is 96 % leased.
As for design, there are three basic requisites for live/work projects--open floor plans, flexible use of space and enabling spatial definition for each component of the unit-- stated Karin Liljegren, director of live/work housing for Killefer Flammang Architects, which has designed about 20 % of the new units downtown in the past decade.
“The changing work style of the current generation,” added Liljegren, “calls for great flexibility because increasing numbers of people are involved in several occupational pursuits as opposed to the one-job, one-employer paradigm of the 60s,70s and 80s”
“The ideal design solution at the outset of development is one which can address a wide variety of lifestyles,” added Kiljegren, who has spearheaded the design of more than 2,500 live/work units in such landmarks as the Roosevelt Lofts, The Lofts at Hollywood and Vine and the Old Bank District.
Live/work housing will continue to grow even after the economy recovers, added N. Richard Lewis, president of Lewis & Associates, a public relations/advertising firm that has been involved in the real estate industry for more than 40 years.
“One reason for this assumption is that with each successive downturn it takes longer for jobs to be replaced,” he reported. “In the early 90s it took 19 months to re-create the jobs lost in that recession.”
He also observed that the live/work market is falling into three basic categories—startup businesses, existing small businesses that do not want to grow and late-stage Baby Boomers who’ve been laid off and have decided to sail under their own banner for the remainder of their career.
Noting that the majority of live/work housing downtown has been produced through adaptive reuse (AR) of existing buildings, Hamid Behdad, known as the “czar of adaptive reuse,” stated, “This is just the beginning.”
There are at least 100 other buildings downtown suitable for AR and numerous older office buildings along Century Boulevard near LAX and on mid-Wilshire that also fall into the AR category, added Behdad, president of Central City Development Group.
Sales and marketing consultant Jim White, who heads Ultimate Life Living, emphasized that other incentives of live/work housing include tax benefits, vastly reduced commuting costs and attendant environmental considerations.
“We’re selling a very desirable product that has great utility—not only now but also in the future,” said White, who is also a downtown activist.
Dick Lewis is the president of Lewis & Associates, a public relations and advertising agency that has helped to market some 35,000 merchant-built homes and more than 15 million square feet of commercial/industrial space.
