'Block-Killing Blight' Remains a Stubborn Presence in Downtown L.A.

Updating a list of the “10 Worst Eyesores in Downtown” that the Los Angeles Downtown News compiled nearly three years ago, Vaillancourt identifies the sites with the most room for improvement. "Even as a number of older dilapidated buildings have been turned into housing, a host of properties, including several that would seem to be natural candidates for renovation, sit derelict."

Among the properties he identifies are a pair of buildings ravaged by fire five years ago, a vacant art deco icon, a city-designated Historic-Cultural Monument, and a vacant century-old fire station that's on the National Register of Historic Places. For a developer with an appreciation for the benefits of adaptive reuse, it would seem that opportunities to jump into the downtown renaissance abound.

Vaillancourt also makes note of properties that seem to be heading in the right direction and success stories since the publication of the last list.