The Developer Supplying K-Town’s Luxury Demand

Feb 24, 2017
Author: GlobeSt.com by Kelsi Maree Borland

LOS ANGELES—Century West Partners tops off Next on Sixth, its second luxury apartment community in the Koreatown market.

The property is the latest luxury development in Koreatown from Century West Partners, which was also behind the luxury 400-unit K2LA complex last year. The developer has been a major player and believer in the Koreatown for decades and says that the market has high demand now for luxury living.

“We have been active in the Koreatown community for quite sometime. Cypress Equity Investments, [my earlier company], was initially involved in making investments in Koreatown since 2001, and in this cycle, we have been very active since 2010 and 2011 through the Century West brand building class-A multifamily throughout Koreatown,” Michael Sorochinsky, co-founder of Century West Partners, tells GlobeSt.co. “We have our K2LA project, which is 470 units. We started on this project a few years ago. Koreatown is such a vibrant neighborhood. It has triple the density of Downtown L.A. It is a perfectly located spot, and there is huge demand for units in Koreatown. For us, it is exciting to be able to deliver the types of units that are in high demand.”

Next on Sixth is an amenity rich mixed-use complex with 22,000 square feet of ground floor retail has been fully leased to Target. The national tenant will occupy the property in November of this year. “What makes this project even more unique is that we were able to bring a national credit tenant, Target, to take the entire bottom retail floor,” adds Sorochinsky. “To be able to bring a Target to Koreatown is incredible, and it really speaks volumes to how far Koreatown has come.”

Koreatown has only recently evolved into a luxury market. While the developer has been a long time player in the market, this cycle, it previously focused on redevelopment projects. Both Next on Sixth and K2LA represent an evolution in the market. “We have always been big believers in this market,” says Sorochinsky. “We bought 2,000 units in the last cycle, and we really saw the evolution of the market. In this cycle when we saw the opportunity to build new product, we really jumped on it. We really had very high expectations of how the market would evolved, and so far, we have met and exceeded those expectations.”

K2LA is already close to 90% leased, exceeding the developer’s initial expectations, according to Sorochinsky. He expects the same success with Next on Sixth, which will begin leasing efforts in the fall.