Chinatown sits immediately north of the Civic Center, between Downtown and Lincoln Heights, and it is one of the few places in central Los Angeles where you can live at low density and still walk to work in the Historic Core.
The neighborhood is here because the original one was cleared. Demolition of Old Chinatown for Union Station began in 1933 and the station opened in 1939; a group led by Peter Soo Hoo formed the Los Angeles Chinatown Corporation, bought land a few blocks north, and opened Central Plaza — "New Chinatown" — in 1938. It is the reason the street pattern and the building scale here are nothing like Downtown's.
The housing runs from small older houses and two- and three-unit buildings on the hill streets to newer apartment and condominium buildings on the Broadway and Spring corridors. On an older building the questions are the ones any pre-war structure raises — the foundation, the electrical, whether work was permitted — and Mario will get those answers before you are committed.
Ask Mario about ChinatownWhat to check in Chinatown
- On a pre-war building: the foundation, the electrical service, and whether past work was permitted.
- Whether a small building is a condominium, a co-op or an income property — they finance completely differently.
- Parking, which on these lot sizes is often on the street.
- How close the address really is to the freeway and the rail yards.
Questions about Chinatown
Is Chinatown part of Downtown?
They are neighbors. Chinatown is its own neighborhood immediately north of the Civic Center, and the walk into the Historic Core is a short one. The housing and the scale are quite different from Downtown's.
Why is Chinatown north of Union Station rather than where it started?
The original Chinatown stood where Union Station is. Demolition began in 1933 and the station opened in 1939. A group of Chinese American business people formed the Los Angeles Chinatown Corporation, bought land a few blocks north, and opened Central Plaza in 1938.
Downtown is not one market. It is a few hundred buildings, and the building decides nearly everything — what the dues are, what they actually cover, whether a lender will write a loan in it at all, whether the parking space is yours or the building's, whether the "loft" is a 1920s office floor with twelve-foot windows or a 2008 tower with a pool deck. Two units a block apart with the same square footage and the same price can be completely different purchases. I would rather spend the first conversation on the building than on the tour.
Licensed in California since 1993, in a market that has to be read one building at a time.
Mario Cabello, REALTOR® · CA DRE #01163184
