8th+Hope: Honoring the Year’s Best Projects

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – It may be a cliché, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true: It would have been impossible a decade ago to predict the kinds of projects that are coming online today in Downtown Los Angeles.

That’s what the editorial staff of Los Angeles Downtown News realized as we were considering candidates for this year’s Downtowners of Distinction awards. The community is full of housing, entertainment, retail and restaurant projects that might have seemed unfathomable in 2005. Back then who could have guessed that the Central City would be the hippest nightlife destination in Los Angeles, or that it would be the community of choice for young chefs changing the way L.A. eats? Who could have known that 2014 would be the year when Downtown gains a top-notch concert hall, a destination hotel and a huge batch of housing complexes?

In the following pages, Los Angeles Downtown News runs down the winners of the 14th annual Downtowners of Distinction awards. The prizes were created to recognize the individuals, groups and companies that created projects that not only turned a profit, but also made their community and the whole of the Central City a better place.

This year’s Downtowners of Distinction includes a new twist: the inclusion in eight categories of other Notable Projects. Picking 2014 winners was harder than ever due to the unprecedented number of high-quality endeavors that benefit their community. We only give one Distinction award in each district, but we wanted to recognize some of those who took great risks to create new projects.