Los Angeles County is Moving Closer to Acquiring DTLA's Gas Company Tower

On October 8, the County Board of Supervisors agreed to spend up to $200 million for the 1.5-million-square-foot office tower located at 555 W. 5th Street, along with airspace parcels containing 1,184 parking spaces at the nearby World Trade Center complex. A staff report notes that a final vote to approve the purchase is scheduled for November 6, 2024, following a legally mandated public notification period.

Originally built in 1991, the 50-plus-story tower has faced significant tenant losses since the global pandemic began in 2020. When L.A. County's potential acquisition was first reported in August, the building's occupancy was down to 50 percent. Since then, its anchor tenant, Southern California Gas Company, announced plans to move into a 200,000-square-foot space at the nearby 2Cal office tower.

Before this, the City of Los Angeles had planned to lease roughly 300,000 square feet in the troubled building for its departments.

This acquisition also reignites the debate about the future of the County's 33 office buildings, which require seismic retrofitting. Among these is the County's headquarters—the Hall of Administration on Temple Street and Grand Avenue, a mid-century structure. The cost of these retrofits is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

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