The long-vacant World Trade Center in Downtown L.A. finally has a real path forward. Developers Kennedy Wilson and Jamison announced plans to convert the 33-story former office complex into 512 affordable apartments. The building will be rebranded “Sky Castle”, and for the first time, the project has a concrete timeline.
The 400,000-square-foot complex has sat as an underused office tower for years. Like many Downtown L.A. buildings, it saw rising vacancy as work patterns shifted. Now, developers plan to turn it into a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. Each unit will include new kitchens, bathrooms, and an operable window. The building will also offer shared spaces. These include a co-working area, a resident lounge, community rooms for events, on-site storage, and laundry facilities throughout the property.
The project timeline
According to Kennedy Wilson’s press release, Phase I starts in August 2026. It focuses on the building’s concourse levels and will deliver 241 affordable units. Those units go to residents earning between 30% and 80% of the area’s median income (AMI).
Phase II comes next. It converts the tower structure above into another 271 units. That brings the total to 512 apartments once both phases wrap up. Developers haven’t announced an end date for Phase II yet, however, the full project is expected to open in 2028.
The LA Times reports that rents for those units will start at $937 for a one-bedroom, with two- and three-bedroom units expected to rent for $1,100 and $1,300 per month, respectively, according to developers.
As stated by Kennedy Wilson, Sky Castle is just the first project under a bigger plan. The same development partnership wants to deliver roughly 4,000 affordable housing units across Los Angeles. They’ll do this through adaptive reuse conversions — like this one — and ground-up construction near transit.
