L.A.'s World Trade Center to become affordable housing in new development campaign

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Set us as preferred An aging downtown office complex will be converted into apartments as part of an ambitious plan by local real estate companies to create 4,000 affordable housing units in Los Angeles.The first project will be a $200-million makeover of the L.A.

World Trade Center, a sprawling white elephant of an office complex on Figueroa Street built in the 1970s that will be turned into 512 apartments in one of the largest affordable housing conversions to date downtown.Future projects being planned in the central city for delivery over the next five years will include other office-to-apartment conversions and new housing built from the ground up.

Behind the building campaign unveiled Monday are two of the region’s largest real estate companies, Jamison and Kennedy Wilson.Jamison is the city’s most prolific converter of offices to market-rate apartments and currently has a major makeover of a downtown office skyscraper underway for tenants who can pay top rents.

Kennedy Wilson, a real estate investment company based in Beverly Hills, owns nonprofit Vintage Housing, which builds and operates affordable housing using tax credits and other state and federal financing to help fund it.Vintage Housing and Jamison’s new affordable housing division, Arden Residential, will take on the campaign to build the housing where qualified tenants will pay rents below market rates.Rents in the World Trade Center — which will be renamed Sky Castle when it opens in early 2028 — are expected to start at $937 for a one-bedroom unit.Some two- and three-bedroom units would rent for $1,100 and $1,300 per month, respectively, developers said.

Sky Castle will have shared amenities found in more expensive modern apartments, the developers said, such as a fitness center, resident lounge and co-working space.It already has six tennis co...