Ross Stores has signed one of Downtown Los Angeles' biggest office deals in recent memory, committing to roughly 115,000 square feet at ROW DTLA to house its West Coast merchandising hub. The off-price retailer is relocating from Downtown's central business district to the Arts District, another Downtown submarket, moving into a cluster of converted 1920s industrial buildings along Alameda Street.
The lease, later covered by CoStar News, breaks down into 110,000 square feet of creative office space plus 5,000 square feet of exclusive rooftop space, according to Commercial Observer, which first reported the deal. The retailer is departing its central business district location for the sprawling ROW DTLA campus.
The deal also comes with a full cast of commercial real estate brokers. Landlord Atlas Capital Group was represented by Jaclyn Ward, Cassie Trosclair, and Sarah Hancock of JLL, while Ross Stores was represented by John Zanetos and Kelli Snyder of CBRE, per Connect CRE's account of the transaction.
A Fashion Cluster Takes Shape in the Arts District
Ross isn't the only apparel player betting on ROW DTLA. The campus has recently added denim brand Pistola for a 17,900-square-foot creative office lease, while Revolve renewed 48,000 square feet and Fashionphile signed for 32,300 square feet, the same Commercial Observer report notes. Adidas and Wilson are also tenants at the property, rounding out what has become a concentrated hub for retail and fashion brand offices.
ROW DTLA itself is a 32-acre mixed-use campus built from nine converted 1920s industrial buildings that originally made up the Los Angeles Terminal Market. Atlas Capital Group acquired the former produce market complex, which spans 1.3 million to 1.7 million square feet, in 2014 and reopened it in 2017.
The campus is also in the middle of a residential transformation. In February, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved Atlas Capital Group's proposal to build 1,000 housing units across three eight-story buildings on ROW DTLA's surface parking lots along Alameda Street, as Hoodline reported, including 114 affordable units reserved for very-low-income tenants.
A Rare Big Commitment Amid Record Vacancies
Ross's lease stands out precisely because Downtown LA's office market has been struggling. Office vacancy in the central business district hit a historic high of 32.4% in the first quarter of 2026, up from 31% a year earlier, according to a market report by the DTLA Alliance cited by The Business Journals. Regionally, the picture isn't much better: total office leasing volume across Los Angeles County fell to 3.21 million square feet in the third quarter of 2026, a 37.18% drop from the same period in 2025, per Kidder Mathews.
Against that backdrop, corporate tenants appear to be gravitating toward adaptive-reuse, highly amenitized creative campuses like ROW DTLA rather than traditional downtown towers. Ross's commitment to a larger office footprint fits a company on an aggressive growth trajectory. Dublin, California-based Ross Stores reported fiscal 2025 revenues of $22.8 billion and completed its fiscal 2026 store growth target this month by adding 115 new store locations nationwide, according to a PR Newswire release.
The enlarged West Coast merchandising hub is designed to support the company's continued growth. Ross has continued expanding its retail footprint.
It remains unclear whether Ross plans to sublease its former space at the California Market Center, or exactly how Atlas Capital Group's approved 1,000-unit housing development will reshape daily life on the ROW DTLA campus as construction eventually gets underway.
