LOS ANGELES-Downtown Los Angeles momentum is accelerating, according to the 60 real estate power players who gathered for the debut Downtown Los Angeles Roundtable event hosted by Allen Matkins and CBRE, GlobeSt.com reports in this exclusive story. The esteemed guest list included the top real estate brokers, investment firms, development firms and city planners invested in the emerging downtown market.

“There is tremendous momentum in Downtown L.A.,” Lew Horne, CBRE executive managing director, tells GlobeSt.com. “If you look at all of the different neighborhoods and really break the city down, it's incredibly eclectic and dynamic. People are excited to go exploring here.”

Wayne Ratkovich, the Ratkovich Co. president and CEO, kicked off the event with a 100-year history of downtown before leaders engaged in an open exchange about the current downtown market. Topics ping-ponged between creative office, development, transportation, sports arenas and downtown demographics and income. Overall, the group, which included Phil Belling of LBA Realty, Rob Jernigan of Gensler, Carol Schatz of CCA of Los Angeles, John Barganski of Brookfield Office Properties, Billy Chun of City of Los Angeles and Ted Tanner of AEW Capital Management, offered a positive outlook on the downtown market.