The Silver Lake neighborhood is located
northwest of downtown Los Angeles
around the city reservoir for which it is
named. Silver Lake is bordered by Los Feliz
to the northwest, Atwater Village and
Elysian Valley to the northeast, Echo Park
on the southeast, and East Hollywood to
the west. Tom Mix and Walt Disney both
built movie studios here in the 1920s and
1930s. Encouraged by city planners,
residential development took center stage
by the mid-1930s. Thanks to many now
world-renowned architects (Lautner,
Neutra, Wright, etc.) active in Silver Lake in
the 1930s, the neighborhood is esteemed
for its inventory of architecturally
significant homes (largely in the Spanish
Mediterranean style). By the late 1970s,
Silver Lake became the center of Los
Angeles’ gay leather subculture. Over the
past two decades, the young Hollywood
set has increasingly embraced Silver Lake,
with such notable actors as Rachel
McAdams and Ryan Gosling taking up
residences here at various times.
While the retail districts in most of the
Cool Street report are literally focused on
one actual cool street corridor, Silver Lake
actually has a number of major
thoroughfares of note. Significant retail
corridors exist on Glendale, Santa Monica
and Silver Lake Boulevards, Hyperion
Avenue and a few other streets. Whole
Foods chose a location on Glendale
Boulevard for the rollout of its very first
Whole Foods 365 store in May 2016.
However, Sunset Boulevard is arguably the
dominant retail corridor when it comes to
boutique and restaurant hot spots. Chic
French boutique A.P.C. recently opened
there, and the street is also home to some
of the most acclaimed eateries in the area
(Night + Market Song, Cliff’s Edge, El
Cochinito, among others).
Silver Lake is a mature trade area with little
undeveloped land remaining. We estimate
current overall retail vacancy in the area at
just under 5.0%. Our survey found a wide
range of current asking rents ($30 to $80
per sf); however, what little modern space
does exist has typically leased quickly at
the highest end of that range, if not beyond.
That being said, the older retail product
that lines Silver Lake’s many retail corridors
is prime for redevelopment activity.
26.6%
Millennial Population
$80,375
Average
Household Income
Silver Lake:
Where Hollywood and Hip Collide