Downtown Los Angeles is attracting educated young people with a median annual income of $99,000, according to the biennial survey from the Downtown Central Business Improvement District. The survey, which is taken every two years, shows that the median age of downtown residents is 38 and 80% of people have a bachelor's degree or higher. The residents in the market also have a vested interest in the success of the neighborhood. For example, 66% of respondents said that they are passionate about DTLA and 62% believe that the market is moving in the right direction. We sat down with Carol Schatz, president and CEO of the DCBID to find out more about why the market is capturing this specific demographic and how the results have changed since the previous survey.
GlobeSt.com: What is attracting educated millennials to DTLA?
Carol Schatz: This is a national trend, so we can't take credit for it. It is more unusual here because our Downtown had pretty much become extinct until the late 1990s. It was a vertical office park. The demographic shifts all over the country reflect a population that has in many ways rejected the suburban lifestyle. These young people are very interested in living their politics. Those politics are a greener existence, a more transit oriented existence, a walking existence. I think you would find the same trend in every major market across the country, but obviously we want to capitalize on that.
GlobeSt.com: Has the DCBID been targeting the millennial demographic specifically?
Schatz: Yes. We began doing these demographic surveys in 2006, and through our website and general marketing, we have been focusing on this population. The interesting thing for us is that we began the housing boom around the same time that other urban markets began seeing this influx of younger, well-educated populations with very strong earning power. We have capitalized on this with our newest campaign called Make It Yours, which had a soft launch in the middle of last year. We have targeted this younger population as potential residents of downtown and potential office tenants, and the developers are focusing on this market as well; so, we are blending our marketing with the marketing that these individuals projects are doing. Last year, we also re-introduced our downtown open house concept. In July of last year, we featured five projects that were completed in our BID and the South Park BID.
GlobeSt.com: Millennials are clearly the focus demographic for many developers, but Gen-Z is starting to graduate from college and enter the workforce. Do you have plans to target this demographic?
Schatz: Our goal is to bring as many residents to Downtown as we can. We think that the Gen-Z demographic will be attracted by the same qualities that the millennial generation is attracted to: an urban lifestyle, sense of community, transit options. We think that continues into subsequent generations. The other demographic that we think is very important is the baby boomers and empty nesters. My experience in talking to colleagues that are running downtown associations is that this is a big percentage of their resident populations. I think we have some big catching up to do. That is something that we want to work on because it is a natural for an urban area, and that is growth that we would like to see.
GlobeSt.com: How have the demographics shifted since you last conducted this survey in 2015?
Schatz: From the 2015 survey, the breakdown is about the same. In 2015, 16% of the population were ages 45 to 54, and about 10% were ages 55 to 64, and 6% of residents were over 65. We would like to see that grow. I think that it is interesting that the average age of those living downtown is slightly older than the millennial age range of ages 25 to 35. I think that it is a healthier community when you have each of these generations living there.
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Kelsi Maree Borland
