Long Beach Office Market Report
Remainder of 2026 & 1H 2027 | Market Outlook & Leasing Trends
LONG BEACH OFFICE MARKET OUTLOOK
Snapshot
Downtown Long Beach has a 35.3% office vacancy rate, with thousands of additional apartments planned or under construction. Meanwhile, the Eastside office market remains relatively healthy, reinforced by new residential development, while Airport/Douglas Park is experiencing rapid aerospace and advanced-manufacturing growth.
Long Beach’s office market weakness is concentrated Downtown—not citywide.
Three Separate Commercial Markets in Long Beach
The central thesis: Downtown is contracting and converting; Douglas Park/Airport is expanding around aerospace and advanced manufacturing; and East Long Beach remains comparatively healthy.
These are three very different commercial economies within one city.
Downtown Office — Over 35% Vacancy
Downtown’s 35.3% commercial office vacancy reflects a fundamental reset in demand. Remote and hybrid work have reduced demand for conventional office space, particularly in large office buildings.
Oceangate captures the magnitude of that reset: assessed value fell from $54.3 million to $24.9 million.
Whatever measures are taken to accommodate and address homelessness in preparation for LA28, we hope the solutions and efforts will be long-term rather than temporary.
Downtown Office to Residential Conversion
Only two completed office-to-residential conversions have yielded 186 apartments so far, but the next wave is considerably larger.
The former Wells Fargo Building/Landmark Square at Pine and Ocean—approximately 460,000 SF—was sold and is slated to become 391 apartments. Plans for 400 Oceangate call for approximately 200 residential units, plus another 75 units on the parking garage, while 115 Pine is planned for approximately 70 units.
The result is a smaller Downtown office inventory and a larger residential population.
Downtown & Arts District Residential
Approximately 3,900 apartments have been added since 2016, with roughly 4,750 additional units in the pipeline.
Downtown is gradually shifting from a district dependent on thousands of daily office workers toward one with a much larger permanent residential population.
The housing market itself has become increasingly divided. Some longtime tenants remain in older apartments at comparatively low rents, while residents of newer developments can pay substantially more. A one-bedroom apartment might range from roughly $1,500 in older properties to $3,800 in newer buildings.
The Douglas Park Area – Strong with Space, Defense and The Billion Dollar Bet
Douglas Park and the Long Beach Airport area tell a very different story.
Anduril & Palmer Lucky plan to occupy an approximately 1.1-million-SF campus consisting of six buildings under a 20-year lease. The project represents roughly $1 billion in investment and is expected to support approximately 5,500 jobs at full buildout. Two new parking structures with approximately 1,500 spaces each further illustrate the scale of the expansion.
Long Beach already supports approximately 6,500 advanced-manufacturing and aerospace jobs, many defense-related. Adding Anduril’s projected 5,500 jobs could expand that employment base toward 12,000 direct jobs, spanning defense, rockets, satellites, aircraft, 3D printing, robotics, and advanced manufacturing.
The company has been hiring at a rapid pace, reinforcing Douglas Park’s emergence as a major aerospace, defense, and advanced-manufacturing employment center.
NNN asking lease rates are approximately $1.80 per square foot per mont
Douglas Park Tenants – SF Occupied
Relativity Space 804K SF — rockets
Amazon Project Kuiper 505K SF — satellites
Divergent 430K SF — 3D and advanced manufacturing
Rocket Lab 144K SF — rockets/spacecraft
Voyager 140K SF — space systems
True Anomaly 91K SF — defense/space
Vast — space stations
JetZero — commercial aircraft
NovaWurks — satellites
ExLabs — space systems
Rebel Space — defense/space
Ampaire — electric aircraft
Nikon / Morf3D — advanced manufacturing
Ford — electric vehicle R&D
East Long Beach — Stable
The Eastside is the counterpoint to Downtown: a relatively high-occupancy, stable office market supported by neighborhood-serving professional and medical users, CSULB, and strong surrounding demographics.
Residential construction is adding another layer of demand. At PCH and 2nd, the former Marketplace site is planned for approximately 390 units, Congressional Place has approximately 281 units, and Onni Marina Shores approximately 600 units.
Together, these projects represent more than 1,100 new residential units under construction.
Additional student-oriented residential development is also planned in the area.
2027 Outlook
The Long Beach office market is increasingly a story of three distinct submarkets.
Downtown: Office contraction, high vacancy, residential conversion, and a growing permanent residential population.
Airport/Douglas Park: Expansion driven by aerospace, defense, advanced manufacturing, and major new employment.
East Long Beach: A comparatively stable office market reinforced by strong demographics, CSULB, medical and professional users, and significant new residential development.
These trends appear likely to continue: Downtown will keep adjusting to reduced traditional office demand, Douglas Park will continue expanding around aerospace and advanced manufacturing, and East Long Beach should remain the city’s comparatively stable office submarket.
