Connectivity to the rest of the United States has been a crucial part of Los Angeles’ success in attracting investment in recent years. Increasingly the region’s port and airport have become main entry points for the Pacific Rim countries, with international passenger traffic rising 8.7 percent in 2017. Size and economic strength are also critical factors. “With 10 million people living in LA, representing a quarter of California’s population, the market has metropolitan scale and market size to support healthy investment activity,” notes David Doupe, Americas Capital Markets with JLL. “Meanwhile, the LA economy is highly diversified, but also one of the largest in the U.S. in terms of output.” So while Los Angeles was originally slower to recover from the recession than Northern California, its subsequent growth has been built on a broader industry base. “That provides a more sustainable economy, with no real single industry sector risk,” says Tom Bohlinger from JLL’s LA Capital Markets team. In addition, Los Angeles has successfully groomed clusters of specialization, most notably in the tech, media and new media sectors, said Bohlinger noting major new commitments to the city from industry giants.