K2 Investment, Inc. is headquartered at 530 E 8th Street, in the heart of the Fashion District — not nearby, in it. For three decades we have brokered sales, negotiated leases and managed buildings across the district and its neighbouring submarkets: the Fabric District, the Flower District, the Jewelry District, the Produce District, the Arts District and greater Downtown Los Angeles. We do not just list space here. We work out of it every day.
A district built on immigrant entrepreneurship
The Fashion District’s modern identity took shape in the late 1970s, when a handful of jobbers began working the blocks around Santee Alley — buying leftover textiles and remnant fabric, turning them into simple garments, and selling to swap marts and small retailers. Through the 1980s and 1990s that jobber model grew alongside a wave of Korean-American entrepreneurship, as garment-business owners built a tightly networked ecosystem of importers, sewing contractors, manufacturers and wholesalers — many with direct supply lines to South Korea’s textile industry.
That history is still visible today. The LA Fashion District employs an estimated 25,000 Korean and Korean-American workers, roughly 13% of California’s entire fashion-related workforce.
Sources: Metropolitics, on ethnic solidarity in the Los Angeles Korean garment district; The Korea Times, on Korean employment in the LA Fashion District.
K2 works within that ecosystem, not around it. If you are a Korean-American business owner, garment importer or investor with ties to this community, you are talking to a firm that already understands how the district’s ownership and tenancy actually work — relationships that often run across generations. There is a fuller treatment of what is specific to Korean nationals and Korean-American buyers in our Korean investor’s guide.
What is available now
- 1024 Santee Street, Suite 501 — Fashion District. 3,100 SF industrial warehouse and creative space in the Garment District, built 1921. For lease at $6,500 a month.
- 530 East 8th Street, #401 — Flower District. 1,500 SF fourth-floor office at the corner of 8th and San Julian, built 1947. For lease at $3,500 a month.
- 530 E 8th Street, #600 — Penthouse Loft, Flower District. 6,700 SF industrial loft with roof access, refurbished windows and a private office, built 1947.
Full details, photographs and virtual tours for everything currently available are on the For Lease page.
Why investors and owner-users choose this district
- Central location, walkable density. The Fashion District sits inside greater Downtown LA, minutes from the Financial District, the Arts District and the 10/110/101 interchange.
- A working, revenue-generating district. Unlike purely speculative submarkets, the Fashion District has an active daytime economy — wholesale, garment manufacturing, creative and production tenants — that supports real lease demand, not just a bet on land appreciation.
- Adaptive reuse inventory. Much of the building stock, including our own 530 E 8th Street listings, is early-twentieth-century industrial and loft space well suited to creative office, showroom and light-industrial conversion.
Work with a firm headquartered here
K2 Investment, Inc. is a boutique brokerage of three decades, led by Bobak Kalhor (CA DRE #01198998), offering sales, leasing and full-service property management for DTLA commercial buildings. Contact us to talk through a specific building, an investment thesis, or an owner-user purchase in the Fashion District and the submarkets around it.