By Bobak Kalhor, President, K2 Investment Inc. — September 2026
Downtown Los Angeles sellers are asking a median of $313 per square foot. Buyers are paying $196.
That 60% gap is the most important number in this market. It explains why the median building takes 382 days to sell, and why a third of everything listed today has been sitting for more than a year.
We went through every commercial building for sale in Downtown as of September 11, 2026 — 95 of them — and every arms-length commercial sale that closed in the last twelve months: 47 trades, $654 million. Here is what it shows.
Asking prices don't tell you much right now
| Asking | Sold | |
|---|---|---|
| Median per SF | $313 | $196 |
| Median price | $2,325,000 | $2,738,000 |
| Median days on market | 267 | 382 |
Sellers are pricing off their own basis and 2019–2022 comparables. Buyers are pricing off today's debt cost — the median new loan on these sales carried a 6.26% rate.
If you are buying, the list price tells you what the seller hopes for, not what the building is worth. A quarter of current offerings don't publish a price at all. If you are selling, a building priced at your district's asking median is priced roughly 60% above where the market has actually been clearing.
This is a small-building market
Two-thirds of everything that traded closed below $5 million. Take out the four trades above $20 million — three office towers and one South Park apartment portfolio — and the typical Downtown sale is a $2.35 million building at $199 per square foot.
Those four trades are 73% of the dollar volume, which is why national brokerage commentary about Downtown sounds the way it does. It is describing a different market than the one most owners here are actually in.
The towers did reset hard. 523 W 6th Street (PacMutual) sold in September 2025 for $48.5 million — $108 per square foot. The seller paid $200 million for it in 2015. 333 S Hope Street (Bank of America Plaza) sold in July 2026 for $210 million in a receivership sale after a $400 million loan default. The five Financial District office trades closed at a median of $104 per square foot, well under replacement cost.
More than half of sellers took a loss
This is the finding most owners are not expecting.
We traced the prior recorded sale for every building that closed. Among the 28 buildings where both prices are on record:
- Median holding period: 12.6 years
- Median sale price: 0.85× what the owner paid
- 16 of 28 (57%) sold for less than their purchase price — before costs, carry and Measure ULA
The split is not random:
| Bought | Sold | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 245 S Broadway | $4,900,000 (2017) | $576,500 (Dec 2025) | −88% |
| 400 S Main Street | $37,460,000 (2016) | $11,000,000 (Dec 2025) | −71% |
| 118 E 12th Street | $10,250,000 (2019) | $3,500,000 (Aug 2026) | −66% |
| 1025 Towne Avenue | $1,800,000 (1997) | $5,200,000 (Feb 2026) | +189% |
| 1115 E 12th Street | $217,000 (1996) | $750,000 (Jan 2026) | +246% |
| 734 S Main Street | $600,000 (2000) | $2,250,000 (Jan 2026) | +275% |
Small, functional, cheap-per-foot industrial and wholesale buildings held a long time made money. Large office and speculative land bought in the last cycle lost it.
There is real distress behind these numbers, too: 8 of the 47 sales had a foreclosure trustee, lender or REO entity as the seller — 17% of the market. Two more used seller financing because conventional debt wouldn't clear the price.
Downtown is not one market
Eight working districts, different tenants, different buildings, different pricing.
Downtown's trade districts have no official boundaries. These are the working boundaries used throughout this report — the saturated areas are the eight districts K2 brokers.
| District | For sale | Median ask/SF | Sold, 12mo | Median sold/SF | Median days to sell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warehouse / Wholesale (13th–16th) | 25 | $285 | 11 | $205 | 284 |
| Fashion District (garment core) | 21 | $273 | 7 | $171 | 1,181 |
| Historic Core | 14 | $283 | 5 | $120 | 904 |
| South Park | 8 | $260 | 6 | $280 | 294 |
| Fabric District | 7 | $537 | 3 | $366 | 366 |
| Toy District / Central City East | 6 | $370 | 2 | $174 | — |
| Produce District | 5 | $400 | 3 | $256 | 156 |
| Arts District | 3 | $820 | 0 | — | — |
| Little Tokyo / Civic Center | 3 | $437 | 3 | $98 | — |
| Flower District | 1 | $319 | 2 | $179 | 1,423 |
| Jewelry District | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Financial District / Bunker Hill | 1 | — | 5 | $104 | 354 |
Warehouse / Wholesale (13th–16th Streets) is the most liquid market in Downtown — the largest inventory, the most closings, and the narrowest gap between asking and achieved price. Small warehouses with roll-up doors and yard, mostly 4,000–20,000 SF. Worth knowing: the average industrial sale across Los Angeles County was $283.59 per square foot in Q2 2026. Downtown cleared at $205 — about 28% below county average, while Downtown sellers ask almost exactly county average.
Fashion District (garment core) has the deepest inventory and one of the widest gaps: sellers asking 59% above where the district actually closed. The median sale took 1,181 days. If you're an owner-user with real operations, this is where you have the most leverage in Downtown — there are 21 sellers, most of whom have been waiting a long time.
Historic Core is the hardest place to sell right now. Sellers want 2.35× what buyers are paying, and the median sale took 904 days. Broadway's buildings carry obsolete office layouts and seismic retrofit obligations that transfer to the buyer — buyers price that in at $84 to $125 a foot. Most sellers still don't.
South Park is the one district where buildings closed above the asking median. It is the only part of Downtown where the residential development thesis is still being underwritten.
Produce District moves fastest — a median of 156 days. Small functional industrial east of San Pedro, bought by food and logistics operators who need space now and can't wait out a market.
Fabric District shows the highest price per foot in Downtown at $537 asking, $366 achieved — but that figure will mislead you. These are small showroom condominium units, not buildings. Small units always trade high per foot. Comparing a Fabric District condo to a Fashion District building is comparing two unrelated things.
Jewelry District, Arts District and Flower District: almost nothing traded. Zero building sales in the Jewelry District over twelve months. Zero in the Arts District. Two in the Flower District, one of which sat on the market for seven years. We are not going to manufacture a trend from that. If you own in these districts, valuation has to come from your rent roll and income, because a usable comp set does not exist right now.
Vernon sits outside Downtown but competes for the same tenants. Central LA industrial ran 6.2% vacancy at $1.34 NNN in Q2 2026, with Vernon posting some of the weakest absorption in the submarket. Space is available and landlords aren't winning — which is exactly why buy-versus-lease math needs current numbers.
If you're buying
- Underwrite to achieved prices, not asking prices. The table above is your starting point.
- Use days-on-market. A third of listings are over a year old. An owner 900 days in is a very different negotiation than one 60 days in.
- Stay under $5.4 million if you can. Seventy-two percent of last year's sales did. Above that line, Measure ULA's 4% transfer tax narrows the buyer pool and complicates every price conversation.
- Price the seismic retrofit before you bid. On older concrete and masonry buildings the obligation runs with the property.
If you're selling
- Get a valuation built on closings, not on your basis. Fifty-seven percent of last year's sellers sold for less than they paid. Test that assumption before you list.
- Overpricing costs about a year. Carry, taxes and insurance for 382 days usually exceed the premium you were holding out for.
- Know where you sit relative to $5,400,000. ULA is 4% of the entire gross value at that threshold, 5.5% at $10,900,000 — not marginal, and it includes assumed debt. There are narrow bands just above each line where a higher price nets you less.
- Small industrial in the Warehouse or Produce districts is the best position in Downtown right now. Shortest marketing times, tightest spreads. This is a reasonable market to sell into.
Common questions
What does commercial property cost per square foot in Downtown LA?
The median of 47 sales closed between September 2025 and August 2026 was $196 per square foot. Excluding the four trades over $20 million, $199 per square foot on a median $2.35 million building. Asking prices sit near $313.
How long does it take to sell a building here?
A median of 382 days, ranging from 156 days in the Produce District to 1,181 in the Fashion District garment core.
Why are Downtown office buildings so cheap?
Office availability was 32.7% as of Q3 2025, and new debt is running above 6%. Buyers can't underwrite prior-cycle values. Five Financial District office trades closed at a median $104 per square foot.
Do I pay Measure ULA when I sell?
At $5,400,000 or more, yes — 4% of the entire gross value, rising to 5.5% at $10,900,000, on top of 0.45% city and 0.11% county transfer tax. Thresholds adjust each July 1. Confirm your numbers with the LA Office of Finance and your CPA.
Run these numbers on your building
We have brokered Downtown Los Angeles commercial real estate since 1995 — Fashion, Fabric, Flower, Jewelry, Produce, Arts and Historic Core, and Vernon. Downtown is our proof, not our perimeter; we transact throughout California.
If you own a Downtown building, we'll run this analysis on your specific property: what comparable buildings in your district actually closed at, where you sit relative to Measure ULA, your retrofit exposure, and a realistic marketing timeline. No listing agreement required to have the conversation.
If you're paying rent in Downtown and wondering whether you should own instead, we'll run the lease-versus-buy math on your actual square footage.
K2 Investment Inc. · 530 E. 8th Street, Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90014
Bobak Kalhor, President · DRE #01198998 · Corp. DRE #01201662
Current offerings: 1048 S Los Angeles Street · 1114 S Los Angeles Street
Related: Rent or Own in the Fashion District: The Math on 10,000 Square Feet
How we compiled this
Active offerings: every commercial property listed for sale in Downtown Los Angeles as of September 11, 2026, after removing duplicate listings of the same asset and three records outside the market area. 95 offerings; 62 with a published price and usable square footage.
Closed sales: all 47 arms-length commercial transactions recorded between September 15, 2025 and August 21, 2026. We excluded twelve residential condominium resales and one intra-family transfer that recorded at $7.59 per square foot. Per-square-foot medians use the 46 with usable building area.
Districts are assigned by street and block, not ZIP code — Downtown ZIP codes cut across district lines in ways that make ZIP-level statistics useless.
Sample sizes. Some districts are thin. Where a district had fewer than three transactions we report the count and draw no conclusion. Asking-price medians rest on the following counts: Warehouse 21, Fashion 15, Historic Core 7, Toy District 5, South Park 5, Fabric 4, Little Tokyo 2, Flower 1, Produce 1, Arts 1. The Produce and Arts asking figures are single listings and should be read as indicative only.
Prior sale prices, lender detail and interest rates come from recorded documents. Where sources contradicted each other we excluded the property from named examples rather than pick a number — one Central Avenue sale carries both a $4,550,000 and a $5,800,000 price for the same December 2025 closing date, so it isn't cited here. One large office trade recorded at $150,000,000 while trade press reported roughly $180,000,000; it's included in totals at the recorded figure and not cited individually.
Outside sources: Avison Young (DTLA office availability, Q3 2025), Kidder Mathews (Los Angeles industrial, Q2 2026), Los Angeles Office of Finance (Measure ULA thresholds effective after June 30, 2026).
Published September 11, 2026. Figures reflect data available as of that date; market conditions and Measure ULA thresholds change. This is general market information from a licensed California real estate broker, not tax, legal or investment advice. Confirm transfer tax with the LA Office of Finance, retrofit obligations with LADBS, and tax consequences with your CPA or counsel.