In the city of Long Beach, hundreds of slivers of property go unused and sometimes blighted. In Downtown alone, more than 90 properties totaling about 1.25 million square feet sit empty.
In an effort to remedy this, city officials with Long Beach’s Economic Development Department announced Thursday their launch of the Vacancy to Vibrancy Real Estate Map, an online tool that identifies vacant commercial properties for inbound businesses.
The idea is to save everyone some shoe leather. Similar to what’s used in the private sector, like CommercialCafe and Loopnet, the online map details basic information about the vacant property, such as its square footage, monthly cost to rent (per square foot) and ways to contact the property manager.
“The new map tool offers an innovative way to showcase the many great opportunities available for businesses across our vibrant and diverse neighborhood marketplaces,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement.
The platform is updated weekly by the city’s 10 business improvement districts, nonprofit associations that represent shops within their boundary. In a news release, officials made it clear they want to make it easier to connect business owners, entrepreneurs and prospective businesses on a single, streamlined platform.
By chance or design, the map also gives a spatial analysis of the city’s economic health. Of the nearly 400 vacant properties listed, most are retail or office space that, combined, total more than two million square feet.
For instance, the 212,639-square-foot building at 180 East Ocean Blvd., renovated in 2022, had less than a third of its places occupied despite being rented monthly at $1 per square foot, according to a 2023 market survey by DBLA.
But the situation at the Downtown high-rise has improved significantly since then, said Toliver Morris, a broker with William Morris Commercial.
“The building is approximately 75% leased at this point, and I have completed approximately 100,000 (square feet) of new leasing since completion of the renovation,” Morris said, adding that those deals averaged at $2.75 per square foot.
The overall struggles come despite Long Beach consistently being one of the cheapest downtown markets in Los Angeles County, with an average of $2.30 per square foot for office space and $3.08 per square foot for retail space, according to 2023 CoStar statistics.
But like any city in the nation, Long Beach continues to recover and, in many cases, reinvent following four years of a coronavirus pandemic that changed our relationship with offices and retailers. Post-pandemic, the norm — if not to telework — is now to downsize. “And that’s just what’s happening with everyone that’s in an office space,” said Sheva Hosseinzadeh, a principal broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial BLAIR.
And this trend is noticeable Downtown, where large blocks of office space remain empty.
Nearly a quarter of office spaces Downtown are vacant, according to a 2023 snapshot report by the Downtown Long Beach Alliance — a rate that has doubled since 2019. Averages were the worst among class A buildings, including Landmark Square and One World Trade Center, a third of which was found to be vacant.
To reverse the trend, Hosseinzadeh said it will take more than government savvy to change whether office buildings lose or gain tenants. Zoning and building requirements must be relaxed so that added expenses — she gave a $150,000 sprinkler system as an example — don’t price out a would-be tenant.
There’s also the issue of public safety, she said. Homelessness in Downtown “is the worst” she’s ever seen, where even her fellow brokers cannot give a tour without the presence of unhoused people deterring her clients.
“We had a really high-end vintage store that was looking at a property we had on Pine Avenue,” Hosseinzadeh said. “He canceled the tour an hour before, because he drove Downtown by the spot, saw the homelessness and said, ‘No, forget it. I’m going to go to Orange County.’”
She brought up the 33-year-old man who was arrested in June over allegations that he smashed more than a dozen business windows and 20 car windows in Downtown Long Beach. It’s crime like that even has her firm considering a move.
“Well, who’s going to pay for that?” Hosseinzadeh asked. “Is it the city? Is it? Is it the businesses? Is it the landlords? And I’ve had multiple tenants tell me, ‘This is the fifth window I’ve had to replace, and it’s $1,500 every time. And you know, it adds up.’”
But Hosseinzadeh acknowledged that she likes the map.
“It’s actually pretty impressive,” she said. “It’s user-friendly, and I looked up several of my properties which had my contact information noted along with details about the property.”
For more information, visit longbeach.gov/vacancytovibrancy. For businesses that have questions or need assistance with the tool, call 562-570-4BIZ (4249) or email 4Biz@longbeach.gov.
Editor’s note: Updated information about 180 East Ocean Blvd. was added to this story after publication.