South Park

South Park is the southwest quadrant of Downtown Los Angeles and the part of it that has changed most in the last twenty-five years. Its northern edge begins at 9th Street and the 110 Freeway and follows Flower Street, Olympic Boulevard, and Hill and Broadway. From there the eastern boundary runs south through 12th, Pico, 14th and 15th Streets, across Venice Boulevard, to the centerline of 17th Street. The southern edge follows 17th Street and the Santa Monica (10) Freeway west past Broadway, Hill, Olive, Grand, Hope and Flower to Figueroa and behind the Convention Center along Convention Center Drive. The western boundary runs north along L.A. Live Way past Pico Boulevard, 12th Street and Chick Hearn Court, back to 9th Street and the 110.

Unlike the Historic Core a few blocks north, South Park is overwhelmingly new. Where the Core is converted pre-war office buildings, South Park is purpose-built residential towers and mid-rises from the 2000s onward, with ground-floor retail and restaurants built in. The anchors are the Los Angeles Convention Center, Crypto.com Arena and the L.A. Live entertainment complex, which together make this the one part of Downtown with a genuine event-night economy.

South Park is where you look in Downtown LA if you want a modern building rather than a conversion. The inventory is mostly post-2000 condominium and apartment high-rises along Grand, Hope, Flower and Olive south of 9th, plus a smaller group of earlier soft-loft conversions and mid-rises. Expect full-service amenities — pools, gyms, concierge desks, subterranean parking — which is the clearest practical difference from the Historic Core, where parking is often off-site and amenities are limited to what fits in a 1920s building.

Buildings in the district include Luma Lofts on S Hope, Evo, Ten50 and Grand Lofts on S Grand, Flower Street Lofts and Concerto on S Flower, Market Lofts on W 9th, and the Ritz-Carlton Residences at Olympic and L.A. Live.

Two things to weigh. First, event traffic: being walkable to Crypto.com Arena and L.A. Live is the district's main draw and also its main nuisance, and how much a particular unit is affected depends heavily on which way it faces and how high it sits. Second, newer towers carry amenity-heavy HOA dues, so compare dues against what the building actually provides rather than against the Historic Core, where dues buy a different thing entirely.