LOS ANGELES—City Market South has begun construction on a multi-million dollar renovation project in the fashion district. The project is the first phase of City Market Los Angeles, a larger 10-acre mixed-use development that will serve to revitalize the downtown fashion district. Opening in the summer of 2015, City Market South will offer creative office, dining and retail space.

Kevin Napoli and Mark Levy of LENA Group Inc. are developing the two-acre property, which was originally wholesale produce market, in collaboration with the City Market of Los Angeles' Peter Fleming. Although the site will include office space, the design is aimed at being what developers call the “antithesis” of an office park. They plan to incorporate high-quality and local food outlets, common outdoor spaces and walk-up creative office to create an original urban environment.

With industrial architecture and the bones of the original space, this development will modernize the area while paying homage to the history of the area. HansonLA and the Elizabeth Peterson Group Inc. are leading the design efforts of the project.

In addition to revitalizing the downtown fashion district, the project also has some substantial economic benefits, bringing more than 250 jobs to the downtown market and supplying much-needed creative office space.

The fashion district is one of the final areas of the downtown market to join the ongoing downtown renaissance. South Park, of course, is home to many new developments, while the arts district has been the most recent neighborhood to blossom with the nearly complete One Santa Fe mixed-use project, the recent opening of the Barker Block lofts and the recent sale of the Coca-Cola industrial building, which will soon be transformed into a creative office destination. The new development has led to an increase in the prices of condominiums, a rare find in the downtown market. According to the Mark Co., downtown condo prices increased by 8% year-over-year in April 2014.