LOS ANGELES—The Foothill Gold Line has attracted billions of dollars in private investment, according to a new report entitled Foothill Gold Line Transit Oriented Development Update, from the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority and complied by Beacon Economics and the Maxima Group. The report shows that since 2003, when the passenger service first opened for service, transit-oriented development projects along the 18-station corridor have resulted in $6.7 billion in private investment and has created more than 70,000 jobs and $50 million in tax revenue.

“The Foothill Gold Line is being built along a historic freight corridor that was originally built to service the citrus industry,” Lisa Levy Buch, director of public affairs, at the Foothill Gold Line Transit Authority, tells GlobeSt.com. “Land uses along the route were therefore industrial in nature. Those industrial uses are shifting to higher and better uses of the land, [including] housing, shopping and office space, because the corridor is transitioning to passenger light rail. We knew we had a tremendous opportunity to accommodate growth along this corridor and this study demonstrates that even during one of the worst economic downturns in our region's history, the corridor saw such a significant amount of investment. It is gratifying to see that already $6.7 billion of private investment has been put into this corridor and now thousands of new homes and hundreds of thousands of square feet of office and institutional space has been created within half a mile of one of the Gold Line stations.”

The development includes 12,500 new housing units, 3.6 million square feet of commercial space and 1,400 hotel rooms that have been built within a half-mile radius of a Gold Line station. The Construction Authority has been encouraging this growth by working with each city along the corridor. “The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority has been working with each of our corridor cities for about a decade to help them envision their station areas and create plans for future growth,” adds Levy Buch. “Because this line is being built along a historic freight corridor, there was a lot of opportunities for each city to accommodate future growth in their cities around the light rail lines and each city has spent time updating their general plans and creating specific plans that would encourage development. We have definitely encouraged every city to think big; even taking officials on trips to other cities to see what has been done and has been successful; and that work is paying off.”

Much of this growth occurred during the Great Recession, illustrating the potential for this market. As a result, the report also forecasts significant growth looking forward, especially as the Gold Line extension is completed. “There is a significant amount of growth potential left along the Foothill Gold Line corridor,” says Levy Buch. “Much of the development that has taken place has been in the cities of Pasadena and Los Angeles. As the Gold Line is extended, recently from Pasadena to Azusa and hopefully soon from Glendora to Montclair, each of those station areas will see similar changes to what has been happening in the earlier segment cities. The TOD study anticipates a potential of another $9 billion in private investment opportunities in the 11 extension cities from Arcadia to Montclair. We see the interest starting to take hold already and we believe that as the economy continues to rebound, this is a corridor ripe for more private investment.”