Commercial Construction – Vertical Shopping Centers in Los Angeles – Will Developers Achieve ROI?

High-density apartments and commercial buildings are being planned on the west side of Los Angeles. Some locals are critical of the density, saying that it will only increase the already crazy traffic causing a total network crash. Still, the developers have the green light now and are moving forward with things. Some opponents of the project are already making signs; “Tear down this mall!”

If you look at the high-rise apartments in Florida, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, and elsewhere, you don’t see rowdy traffic, but rather these units are being built so that everything you need is within walking distance, so I really don’t even need a car at that time.

In Los Angeles, some ambitious and aggressive developers, veteran commercial builders, are opting for a vertical mall. Yes, a shopping center that goes straight up, seven floors. And it’s not that it hasn’t been done before, but for LA it’s something new. The project will be completed around 2011 and has the red line of the metro under it. There will be 100 stores in this mall and a superplex movie theater.

Retail all the way with restaurants and food courts at the top. Many urban planners are carefully watching this development and other similar projects are being unveiled across the country, the question is will this work in Los Angeles? Some say no, others say; why not? It will bring good retail jobs and there are already high-rise apartments nearby, and with the Red Line below, people can walk or take the subway to work.

There is plenty of wealth in Wilshire Corridor, surely enough to support the mall, but will the shoppers come in droves, and if they do, what traffic will that bring to the already congested area? This is going to be very interesting indeed, this is a commercial construction project that everyone will be watching and no matter what the predictions are about its success, only time will tell.