Two Adaptive Reuse Projects Coming to the Skid-Row-Adjacent Seafood District

Could LA's Seafood District (yes, there's a seafood district) be the next trendy neighborhood to attract young residents? A pair of adaptive reuse projects on Fifth Street, spotted by Urbanize LA, could be a harbinger of the demise of fish wholesalers at the hands of loft living and craft cocktails. The neighborhood, right in between Skid Row and the Arts District, is flush with historic buildings. If the developer can contend with the large homeless population and the fact that it's a relative ghost town down there, he might have planted the flag for a new, hip neighborhood.

City planning documents connect real estate developer Daryoush Dayan to the plan to convert a pair of industrial-zoned buildings at 719 and 823 East Fifth Street into mixed-use complexes, featuring residential units and commercial space for lease at street level. The number of residential units has not been revealed, nor has a timeline or budget for the project.

Both the seven-story structure at 823 Fifth Street (built in 1912) and the three-story property at 719 Fifth Street (built in 1906) have recently been used by the Salvation Army. Before that, the latter had a sordid past as cheap housing that resulted in its landlord being jailed for two months because of the awful "slum conditions" inside.

It was only a matter of time before the coolness of the Arts District pushed west. Numerous projects in the area—the conversion of an old brick building on Eighth Street into live/work lofts or the mysterious development that could be a hotel or residential just north of that—are currently popping up south of the traditional Seventh-Street border of the neighborhood.— Jeff Wattenhofer

· Adaptive Reuse Project Proposed for 5th Street [Urbanize LA]
· 53 New Live/Work Units Heading to the Southern Arts District [Curbed LA]
· Fancy SoHo House Already Attracting More Development to Southern Arts District [Curbed LA]