Jamison and Kennedy Wilson said on Monday they plan to create 4,000 affordable housing units in Los Angeles, starting with a $200 million conversion of the L.A. World Trade Center into 512 apartments. The 400,000-square-foot office complex at Figueroa and Fourth streets will reopen in early 2028 under a new name: Sky Castle.
The first phase gives the plan its weight. Rents at Sky Castle are expected to start at $937 for a one-bedroom unit, $1,100 for a two-bedroom and $1,300 for a three-bedroom, with a fitness center, resident lounge and co-working space added to a building that already has six tennis courts on the roof. For a city where affordable housing is usually tied to limited sites and heavy financing, the proposal turns a long-vacant-style office block into a large residential project in downtown Los Angeles.
Garrett Lee said the makeover will be Jamison’s 15th conversion of an office building to housing, and that the company has built more than 8,000 market-rate apartments in the past. He said the goal is to use the construction methods Jamison learned on those projects to build higher-quality affordable housing now. The World Trade Center, a 10-story building built in the mid-1970s, was originally meant for international companies and services before office demand there faded.
The financing is where the plan leaves the private sector and enters public policy. Nicholas Bridges said building affordable, workforce housing in almost all cases requires public subsidies, and Kennedy Wilson’s Vintage Housing arm typically relies on tax credits and other state and federal financing. That means the $200 million conversion is not simply a private makeover; it depends on subsidy-backed capital to move from announcement to construction.
The building has already been cleared of remaining office tenants, and work is expected to begin in August. What remains unanswered is how much of the 4,000-unit promise will come from this first conversion and how much will come from later projects, but the opening move is clear enough: Jamison and Kennedy Wilson are betting that one of downtown Los Angeles’ biggest office buildings can be turned into housing people can actually rent.
