The Brief

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Los Angeles is making a new push to turn empty and underused offices into housing.

One developer is holding a large portfolio of somewhat underutilized or vacant office buildings in Koreatown and Westlake, giving them a chance to respond to the city’s housing crisis.

Jamison, Koreatown’s largest commercial landlord, has owned office buildings along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor for decades and two more of its proposed conversions are near Lafayette Park in Westlake.

At least 15 Jamison office buildings in the two neighborhoods have been converted into housing, are under construction or under proposal for conversion into apartments, according to a review of city records and company documents.

Together, the projects could account for 3,652 apartments, though more than 900 of those units are still only proposals.

The landlord is primed for the moment as the city eased its restrictions earlier this year to convert older offices and other commercial buildings into housing.

The expansion of the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance makes it easier to turn old offices, hotels and other commercial buildings into homes. The ordinance previously only allowed conversions within or near downtown, but now those rules apply across the entire city.

City officials estimate this could open up more than 43,000 new homes across the city. 

“These projects represent the kind of innovation we are applying to break away from the status quo that has stunted LA’s housing production and driven up rents for decades,” Mayor Karen Bass said in April. “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from home and other shifts mean there is a large supply of office space that we can use for housing, but for too long, outdated city regulations stood in the way.”

Jaime Lee, Jamison’s former CEO, said in a March interview with the Los Angeles Times that the firm has stopped pursuing new ground-up construction as financing and other challenges have made it harder to build. 

“We ourselves as a firm have been pencils down on ground-up construction for two years now,” Lee said. “What we’re really, really focused on is how can we make more units out of nothing, which is converting office buildings into multifamily.”

Here’s where those 15 projects stand. A spokesperson for Jamison acknowledged a request for comment, but the company did not immediately provide comment for this story. 

Eight of the projects were completed between 2013 and 2025, and two more recently opened.

Completed projects

Westmore, 3075 Wilshire Blvd.

The Westmore brought 127 apartments and ground-floor retail to a former office building in November 2013.

The nine-story building is on the eastern side of Koreatown, a few blocks east of Vermont Avenue and near the Wilshire/Vermont Metro station.

Westmore is the earliest completed Jamison office conversion identified in Koreatown and Westlake.

Crosby, 3350 Wilshire Blvd.

The 216-unit Crosby occupies a 1957 office tower that once served as Texaco’s West Coast headquarters. Designed by prominent Los Angeles architect Welton Becket, the building sits across from the historic Gaylord Apartments and near Immanuel Presbyterian Church.

The office conversion was completed in 2020 and the developer also built additional apartments on top of the adjoining parking garage, but those are excluded from this count because they weren’t created from office space.

Atlas House, 2500 Wilshire Blvd.

One block west of MacArthur Park, the 13-story Atlas House opened in 2022 with 248 apartments inside what had been a roughly 240,000-square-foot office building. 

About 12,500 square feet of commercial space was kept on the ground floor.

Five other Jamison office conversions are already finished along the Wilshire corridor and total more than 860 apartments. 

Recently opened and in the works

Grayson, 695 S. Vermont Ave.

Grayson is now open and leasing, with 255 apartments inside the former office tower.

The 19-story building dates to 1971 and was originally built as an expansion of Pacific Indemnity Co.’s headquarters, which also occupied the neighboring tower at 3200 Wilshire Blvd.

The conversion kept the existing tower and parking garage.

The building is a short walk from the Wilshire/Vermont Metro station.

Mason, at 3325 Wilshire Blvd. in Koreatown, is now open and leasing. The former 13-story office building was converted into 236 apartments.

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Hanna Kang

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The LA Local

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Mason, 3325 Wilshire Blvd.

Mason is also now open and leasing, with 236 apartments inside a former 13-story office building.

The roughly 233,000-square-foot building is at Wilshire and Berendo, on the same block as Immanuel Presbyterian Church. About 15,000 square feet of retail space is on the ground floor, and the parking garage has 450 spaces.

Work on the conversion began in 2024. Jamison called Mason its 10th adaptive-reuse project, and the project was financed in part with $60 million in taxable multifamily housing revenue bonds, according to Urbanize LA. 

Walker, 3550 Wilshire Blvd.

Construction is still underway at Walker, where a 20-story office tower is being turned into 507 apartments, making it the largest Jamison office-to-housing project identified in Koreatown and Westlake.

While the city originally approved 495 apartments, Jamison later added another 12 units on the 20th floor. 

The building is a few blocks east of the Wilshire/Normandie Metro station.

3424 Wilshire Blvd.

Work is underway at 3424 Wilshire Blvd., where the former Los Angeles-area headquarters of IBM is being turned into 260 apartments.

The 13-story building dates to 1958 and has roughly 250,000 square feet of space. IBM originally occupied the property, and it later became the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The conversion will turn the former office floors into apartments while keeping about 13,000 square feet of existing retail space. Plans also include racquetball courts, a fitness center, game and karaoke rooms and an outdoor deck, according to Urbanize LA. 

Proposed projects

Jamison has filed plans for three more office conversions, but none could be confirmed as under construction based on city records.

Wilshire Park Place is one of several buildings in Koreatown that Jamison Properties wants to convert into housing.

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Brian Feinzimer

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The LA Local

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Wilshire Park Place, 3700 Wilshire Blvd.

Plans call for turning the 11-story Wilshire Park Place office tower into 370 apartments. 

The building sits behind the large lawn commonly known as Liberty Park, one of the few green spaces in dense, park-poor Koreatown. Liberty Park is a privately owned green space that has been used for community gatherings, including World Cup watch parties. The park and office building were designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2018 after a neighborhood campaign to preserve the site.

According to the proposal, some space inside the existing parking structure would be converted into amenities for residents.

520 S. La Fayette Park Place

Another proposed conversion sits near Lafayette Park, where a six-story office building could become 141 apartments.

Plans filed in 2023 call for turning the roughly 95,000-square-foot building at 520 S. La Fayette Park Place into a mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. The building sits on top of parking for nearly 200 vehicles.

The former Los Angeles Superior Court office building at 600 S. Commonwealth Ave. in Westlake. Jamison Properties has proposed converting the 19-story building into 428 apartments.

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Hanna Kang

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The LA Local

)

600 S. Commonwealth Ave.

On the other side of Lafayette Park in Westlake, Jamison has proposed a much larger conversion where a 19-story office tower could become 428 apartments.

The nearly 350,000-square-foot building has long housed Los Angeles Superior Court offices. The proposal would turn the office space into 428 apartments, while keeping most of the building’s existing parking and converting some of it into storage and other spaces for residents.

At 428 apartments, it would be Jamison’s second-largest office conversion identified in Koreatown and Westlake, behind the 507-unit Walker project.

Come back here for more updates.

It’s taken over a decade and $1.3 billion, but Hollywood Burbank’s new terminal is finally ready for action. On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the first passengers will be taking off and arriving at the brand-new structure.

Visitors note: The new terminal entrance has moved from Thornton Avenue to the intersection of Winona Avenue and Hollywood Way. There’s also a central security checkpoint and an indoor baggage claim.

The project stemmed from Burbank’s Measure B, passed in 2016.

LAist reporter Cato Hernandez got a sneak peek inside the building last week and reported on the scope and the thinking behind the decor.

William Contreras hit a tying homer in the fifth and singled home the go-ahead run an inning later as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 on Monday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

Four relievers combined to retire the last 15 Dodgers batters in order as the Brewers took a 2-0 lead over the two-time defending World Series champions in this best-of-seven series, which heads to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday.

The Brewers are chasing their second pennant and first in the NL. They made their lone World Series appearance in 1982, when they were in the American League.

Los Angeles is trying to become the first NL team to win three straight World Series. The Dodgers last rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a series in 2020, when they beat the Atlanta Braves in a seven-game NLCS before going on to win the World Series.

The Dodgers will need more punch from their lineup to have a chance at getting back to the Fall Classic. They mustered just three hits Monday and went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position to drop to 2 for 26 in those situations this postseason.

Los Angeles couldn’t even get a boost from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who entered 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA in 11 career playoff appearances. Yamamoto lasted just 2 2/3 innings for his shortest postseason start.

The Dodgers took the lead on three occasions in the first five innings. Milwaukee responded each time, the last coming when Contreras tied the game with a 436-foot homer to center off Kris Bubic in the fifth.

That turned the game into a battle of the bullpens, where the Brewers again had the edge.

Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined to shut down the Dodgers after Logan Henderson’s early exit.

The score was tied 4-all when Milwaukee’s David Hamilton was hit by a pitch from Brock Stewart to lead off the sixth. Stewart attempted a pickoff throw that went off the glove of first baseman Freddie Freeman and into foul territory for an error, advancing Hamilton to second.

After Jackson Chourio grounded out, the right-handed Stewart walked the left-handed-hitting Brice Turang to face the right-handed Contreras, who had homered in his previous plate appearance.

Contreras singled to left this time to bring home Hamilton with the go-ahead run.

Turang and Jake Bauers added RBI singles in the eighth to extend Milwaukee’s lead.

Neither starter lasts long

The anticipated pitchers’ duel between Yamamoto and Henderson didn’t work out according to plan.

In three previous playoff starts following Dodgers losses, Yamamoto had gone 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA. When he faced the Brewers in last year’s NLCS, he threw the first playoff complete game since Justin Verlander did it in 2017.

This time, Yamamoto couldn’t even make it out of the third inning before leaving with the Dodgers behind 3-2.

Henderson entered Monday having not allowed more than three runs in any of his 24 career starts (including the postseason). That streak ended when he allowed four runs over four innings.

Because Henderson committed two errors — matching his previous career total — only two of the runs were earned.

Milwaukee trailed 2-1 in the third when Bauers capped a 12-pitch plate appearance by taking a 3-2 offering in the dirt to load the bases with a walk. Christian Yelich followed by lining a single up the middle that brought home two runs and knocked Yamamoto out of the game.

Los Angeles bailed out Yamamoto by scoring twice in the fifth.

After Kyle Tucker hit a leadoff double, Tommy Edman sacrificed him to third. Henderson fielded the bunt and made a wild throw to first, enabling Tucker to score and moving Edman to second.

Edman advanced to third when Mookie Betts grounded out, and scored on Freeman’s sacrifice fly.

Henderson also had made a wild throw to first on a pickoff attempt in the third inning that allowed Edman to score from third.

Up next

Robert Gasser (5-5, 3.87 ERA) is expected to start for Milwaukee in Game 3. Gasser allowed one run over five innings when the Brewers won 3-1 at San Diego to clinch their NL Division Series.

The Dodgers hadn’t announced their Game 3 starting pitcher.

Actor and disability rights advocate RJ Mitte, who brought a lifetime of experience with cerebral palsy to fictional family struggles in an essential role on “Breaking Bad,” died Monday at age 34, authorities and his representatives said.

Cameron County Justice of the Peace Cyndi Hinojosa told The Associated Press she declared Mitte dead at about 1:30 p.m. at what she believed was his home in Brownsville, Texas. She said she was unable to provide a cause, but an autopsy will be performed.

Mitte played Walter White Jr., the son of Bryan Cranston’s chemistry teacher-turned-meth dealer Walter White on nearly every episode of the five seasons of the AMC show, which recently ranked as the best of the 21st century in a New York Times poll.

Diagnosed at age 3, Mitte told the AP in 2014 that his disability and the surrounding struggles with physical therapy, family problems and exorbitant medical bills — all key subjects on the show — made him better at his job.“You develop a different mentality and you develop a different look at how the world sees you and how you see the world,” he said. “You’re able to use that. And I think it’s an asset instead of something that would hinder.”

Mitte was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi.

He landed small guest roles on sitcoms after moving to Los Angeles to act in 2006. Like his character, he was in his mid-teens when he began his work on “Breaking Bad,” starting in 2007. The show ran from 2008 to 2013.

“Mitte brought authenticity to the role and built a platform on disability awareness and inclusion,” the actor’s representatives said in a statement announcing his death. The statement said he used “his platform to challenge stereotypes and promote greater representation.”

His later credits included the ABC Family series “Switched at Birth” and the superhero satire series “Guardians of Justice.”

He was also a producer of several independent films.

As an advocate, he served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s. He was also president of his own Mitte Foundation supporting philanthropic and community initiatives around disabilities.