Lincoln Property To Redevelop Suburban Los Angeles Office Into Apartments

Lincoln Property Company Hopes to Convert Building into 309 Apartment Units

The two-story, roughly 30,000-square-foot office building at 5700 Hannum Ave. in Culver City, California, may become apartments. (CoStar)

By Jack Witthaus

CoStar News

September 1, 2023 | 1:18 P.M.

A Dallas developer wants to turn a suburban Los Angeles office into apartments in another example of converting workspaces that have fallen out of favor into other uses.

Lincoln Property aims to build a 309-unit, six-story apartment building at 5700 Hannum Ave. in Culver City, California, according to city documents. The development would replace an existing two-story, roughly 30,000-square-foot office building that opened in 1979, according to CoStar data. The project also calls for 5,600 square feet of retail space.

The development comes as 330 million square feet of excess U.S. office space could become available by the end of the decade as working from home remains popular, according to Cushman & Wakefield. That may prompt office owners to convert properties into residential space as the nation grapples with a housing shortage that is estimated to be as large as 6 million units.

The apartment plans also arrive as residential demand grows in Culver City, which sits roughly 10 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. The affluent city, which has long catered to media and entertainment companies, is where Cupertino-based Apple is building a more than 500,000-square-foot campus. Meanwhile, Seattle-based e-commerce giant, Amazon, has grown its entertainment arm Amazon Studios, in recent years in Culver City, where it also opened a movie theater in December. The city also counts Sony Pictures and TV giant HBO as major office tenants.

The city's job expansion has yet to mirror its residential growth. Culver City has seen its population grow 0.7% since 2000, and the "essentially built-out community" has had few opportunities to add residential space outside of redevelopment and urban infill in recent years, according to city documents. The city's jobs-to-housing imbalance is larger than Los Angeles County's average and is expected to grow over the next 25 years, further generating demand for housing, according to city documents.

That said, the greater Culver City apartment market, which includes areas outside of the city, has roughly 1,215 units under construction, which is about 5.5% of the greater Los Angeles average, according to CoStar data.

The greater Culver City multifamily market has a 5.4% vacancy rate, above the greater L.A. average of 4.8%, according to CoStar data. The market's average monthly asking rent is $2,822, above the greater L.A. average of $2,235.

A representative for Lincoln Property didn't respond to an emailed request to comment from CoStar News.