Century City Leads LA Office Recovery

Century City outperforms Los Angeles’ office market with strong leasing, high commuter retention, and premium tenant demand.

August 11, 2025

Nina Dale

LA office visits remain 46.6% below pre-pandemic levels, with declines in both visitors and visits.
Century City posts visits just 28.1% under 2019, outperforming other LA submarkets.
Premium amenities and proximity to Westfield Century City boost commuter engagement.
Affluent, educated young professionals sustain higher office attendance in the submarket.

Key Takeaways

LA’s RTO Slump VS. SF’s Stabilization

Nationwide, office visits in June 2025 were 30.5% below January 2019 levels, reports The Anchor. Both LA and SF trail that benchmark, but their recovery paths differ. SF has maintained a slow but steady climb from pandemic lows. LA, however, tracked closely with national trends until mid-2022, when it began a sustained decline.

Line chart showing office visit trends from Jan 2019 to June 2025. LA and SF both trail the nationwide index, with similar declines of around 46% below pre-pandemic levels in mid-2025.

Line chart comparing nationwide and Los Angeles office visit changes from Q1 2022 to Q2 2025. Nationwide occupancy improved faster, while LA lagged behind starting in late 2022.

Commuter Patterns Reveal Deeper Issues

Both cities lost significant out-of-market commuters after 2019, but SF has clawed back some share since 2023. LA’s out-of-market commuter base continues to shrink—undercutting both visitor counts and visit frequency.

Bar chart showing out-of-market commuter share for LA and SF from Q2 2019 to Q2 2025. Both cities declined, but SF stabilized near 23.7% while LA dropped to 19.6%.

Why LA’s Visits Keep Falling

In many US cities, hybrid work has resulted in fewer visitors but more frequent visits from those who return. SF fits that pattern, with visits up YoY despite fewer unique visitors. LA does not: both visits and visitors fell in Q2 2025 compared to last year, hinting at workforce retention challenges and weaker in-office engagement.

Two sets of bar charts. First compares Q2 2025 vs. Q2 2024 showing LA down in both visitors (-7.2%) and visits (-3.4%) while SF’s visits rose 7.3%. Second compares Q2 2025 to Q2 2019 showing LA visits down 46.3%, SF down 46.5%, and nationwide down 31.3%.

Century City Defies The Trend

Despite LA’s broader weakness, Century City’s inbound commuter visits were just 24.7% below Q2 2019 and slightly higher than Q2 2024. Its premium Class A and Trophy offices are attracting tenants from weaker submarkets, driving the highest rental rates in West LA.

Leasing Activity: 27% of West LA’s YTD leasing, more than double any other submarket.
Amenity Effect: 45% of Century City weekday commuters also visited adjacent Westfield Century City mall during Q2 2025—suggesting lifestyle integration drives office attendance.

A Demographic Edge

Century City outpaces mid-Wilshire and Downtown LA in median household income. It attracts a high concentration of “Educated Urbanites,” defined as young, affluent professionals. This group is more likely to maintain regular office attendance in hybrid work arrangements. This demographic’s career-focused priorities align with the submarket’s premium, amenity-rich environment.

Two bar charts showing Century City leads LA submarkets in median household income (~$109K) and “Educated Urbanite” share (~30%) in 2019 and 2024.

Polarization Of LA’s Office Market

The performance gap between high-end, amenity-rich submarkets and older, less differentiated office districts is widening. This trend underscores a key CRE takeaway. In hybrid work markets, quality and integration matter more than quantity of space. Century City’s model—targeting affluent, mobile professionals with lifestyle-driven office ecosystems—may be the blueprint for post-pandemic office resilience in Southern California.