Downtown Los Angeles finally has a home sporting team—but it isn't from the NFL. Los Angeles Football Club, a new MLS soccer team, has come to the city, and unlike the other sporting teams to land in Los Angeles in recent years, it is planting roots in Downtown Los Angeles. In April, the team's new stadium, the Banc of California stadium, opened its doors, and now, LAFC has signed a headquarters office lease in Downtown Los Angeles. The team is new and building a fan base, but this could be the start of a larger impact on the commercial real estate market in Downtown Los Angeles.
The team signed a 25,000-square-foot lease at 818 W. 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. “It was important for LAFC to have a presence in Downtown Los Angeles close to their practice arena and their sports arena for synergy,” Chris Caras, SVP at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. “If you are going to have your team in Downtown Los Angeles, you should office downtown. A lot of other sports teams haven't done that, so this is unique. I think that it is something help legitimize downtown as a home base for this team.” Caras represented the landlord in the office lease deal, along with Phillip Sample, Brad Chelf, Brandon Bank and Taylor Watson.
The team is expecting to grow, and worked potential expansions into their lease deal. “They have some ability to grow within the building, and we have the space for them to do that,” explains Caras. “That was attractive to them. The building has been renovated multiple times, and it has great historical charm to it.”
LAFC's decision to stay in Downtown Los Angeles is a notably different move than other teams have made. The Rams—which is playing at the Coliseum, next door to the new Banc of California stadium, until its Inglewood stadium at Hollywood Park is complete—chose to office in the valley rather than the downtown market. “The NFL is the biggest sporting market. The difference here is that the Rams are playing in Downtown Los Angeles temporarily, and they are officed in the valley,” says Caras. “They are just using the Coliseum until their new stadium is done in Inglewood. I don't think that the team is really going to have an impact on what is happening in Downtown L.A. Certainly, the team is great for the city. This new soccer team really adds a new attraction to L.A., but specifically to Downtown L.A.”
There has also been some talk about the team's impact on other aspects of commercial real estate market, like for example new retail and restaurant leases near the stadium or office leases from ancillary companies. Caras, however, is less optimistic about any major changes in the near future. “I am sure that it will have some impact. It is all so fresh, so it is hard to say. It will have an impact, but it is hard to say when or how big the impact will be,” he says. “There is a lot of residential there, so there are a lot of areas that won't get touched. I am sure there will be some developments that spin off directly because of the stadium.”
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Kelsi Maree Borland
