By many measures, downtown Los Angeles’ newest apartment tower is over the top with such gilded flourishes as stone tiles from Spain lining the elevator cabs and hand-troweled Italian plaster on interior walls. Hummingbirds have somehow found the fruit-laden trees decorating the outdoor lounge on the 41st floor.

For Stuart Morkun, the developer who oversaw construction of the recently completed Figueroa Eight skyscraper, it was the porte cochere, where residents leave their cars with valets, that really stood out. The travertine used to build it was mined from the same quarry outside of Rome that supplied stone for the Colosseum, New York City’s Lincoln Center and the Getty Museum.

“That’s when I knew we were crazy,” he said.

The decision by Mitsui Fudosan America, the Japanese real estate company that owns Figueroa Eight, to spend as much as $350 million to build an ultra high-end residential tower in downtown L.A. might at first seem to be a risky gamble.

After all, L.A’.s homelessness crisis is on stark display on many downtown streets, and glitzy office towers looming nearby are dealing with low occupancy and falling values as law firms, financial service companies and other businesses that filled them before the pandemic have reduced space or departed altogether.

In fact, the decision to go big on Figueroa Eight, which opened last month, reflects an unusual disconnect playing out in the neighborhood: While downtown as a place to work still struggles to find its footing post-lockdown, downtown as a residential center is thriving. It boasts a large stock of housing in fancy new high-rises and converted historic buildings at rents that are well below those on the popular Westside.

The developers of Figueroa Eight declined to say how many of its 438 units they’ve rented out so far, but said leases are on track with projections and that the tower is attracting strong interest.

Downtown’s urban feel drew attorney Leslie A. Ridings, an L.A. native who enjoyed living in New York while he attended college.

“Downtown Los Angeles is kind of the only game in town, right?” said Ridings, who lives in a high-rise at 8th and Olive streets. “It’s the only ‘city’ in the city. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got.”

Downtown has about 90,000 residents, a slightly higher population than Santa Monica or Santa Barbara, said Jessica Lall, head of real estate brokerage CBRE’s downtown office. They live in 47,000 residential units, most of which are apartments rented at market rates.

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