The Flower District of Downtown Los Angeles is a six block floral marketplace, consisting of nearly 200 wholesale flower dealers, located within the LA Fashion District. [1] What started almost 100 years ago as a small flower mart near Santa Monica, California, has grown into the United States' largest wholesale flower district [2] in its current downtown location. The Market is open very early in the morning, Monday–Saturday, and closes in the early afternoon. Every commercially available cut flower can be purchased there.
In the early 1900s, Los Angeles area flower farmers drove their horse-drawn wagons to the downtown Los Angeles produce market to sell their flowers. In 1905, James Vawter, a prominent Santa Monica grower of carnations, established on Spring Street the first dedicated flower market. By 1910, the local Japanese American farmers (54 Issei, first generation Japanese) had organized a flower market, which they incorporated in January 1912. It became known as the Southern California Flower Market and was located for a time at 421 Wall Street.
Within a few years after, the European immigrants, who could not participate in the Japanese-American flower market, began to come together to offer their locally grown flowers for sale to florists and nursery owners. They organized around 1917 and incorporated in January 1921 as the American Florists' Exchange dba Los Angeles Flower Market. Their first market was on Winston Street between Fourth and Fifth streets.
Eventually, both markets relocated to larger quarters in the 700 block of South Wall Street in Los Angeles, where they operate today as the core of the country's largest flower district. Since those early days, both markets have expanded and modernized and organized together as the Los Angeles Flower District. Several storefront businesses on Wall Street and San Julian Street are also included in the District. The District offers a "badge program" for member florists, event planners and others who qualify to purchase goods at wholesale prices which in 2009 included some 4,500 members.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, dozens of small flower malls and shops came downtown to do business near the renowned, historic Los Angeles Flower District; they consider themselves part of the District. Today, the general public shops throughout the area for its flowers and floral supply products alongside the retail florists and wedding and event planners. The District stretches from San Pedro Street west to Maple Street, from Seventh Street south to Ninth Street. But the two historic, major markets built the strong foundation of trust and quality through tenant-wholesalers who have supplied and shipped fresh flowers to customers across America for almost 100 years.
A prominent area here is the California Flower Mall. [3] Inside are more than 45,000 square feet (4,200 m2) of fresh cut flowers and potted plants. More than 50 vendors provide floral industry professionals and the general public with exotic blooms from all corners of the earth.
The flower district has made plans to renovate and expand in its business. The plan is to build a 15-story building next to the warehouses where the flower markets are held in now. It would be the southern half of the property, where maple street and 7th street lie. The 15-story building would include 323 residential units. That would take up the top 12 stories and the rest would be for office space, retail space, wholesale market space and restaurants. The project is said to finish in 2019.
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a 5.84 sq mi (15.1 km2) area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents, with an estimated daytime population of over 200,000 people prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a business exodus from downtown Los Angeles since the COVID-19 pandemic, the district is evolving as a cultural center with the world's largest showcase of architecture designed by Frank Gehry.
Floristry is the production, commerce, and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design and arrangement, merchandising, production, display and flower delivery. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related supplies to professionals in the trade. Retail florists offer fresh flowers and related products and services to consumers. The first flower shop in the United States opened prior to 1851.
Bunker Hill is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. It is part of Downtown Los Angeles.
The Third Street Promenade is a pedestrian mall esplanade, shopping, dining and entertainment complex in the downtown area of Santa Monica, California which originally opened as the Santa Monica Mall on November 8, 1965. It is considered a premier shopping and dining district on the Westside and draws crowds from all over the Greater Los Angeles area. Due to easy access to Downtown Los Angeles via the Big Blue Bus rapid transit service, E Line's terminus station and the Pacific Coast Highway-Santa Monica Freeway Interstate, the neighborhood's north-south thoroughfares connecting to Muscle Beach, Venice Canal Historic District, Marina del Rey, Ballona Wetlands and Los Angeles International Airport, and its proximity to historic U.S. Route 66, Santa Monica Pier, Palisades Park, Tongva Park, Santa Monica State Beach and the Pacific Ocean coupled with Los Angeles's mild mediterranean climate, it is also a popular tourist destination.
The Paseo is an outdoor mall in Pasadena, California, covering three city blocks with office space, shops, restaurants, a movie theater, and 400 loft-style condominiums above.
The Los Angeles Fashion District, previously known as the Garment District, is a business improvement district (BID) in, and often cited as a sub-neighborhood of, Downtown Los Angeles. The neighborhood caters to wholesale selling and has more than 4,000 overwhelmingly independently owned and operated retail and wholesale businesses selling apparel, footwear, accessories, and fabrics.
The Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. is a major real estate developer in Japan. Mitsui Fudosan is one of the core companies of Mitsui Group.
The Financial District is the central business district of Los Angeles along Olive, Grand, Hope, Flower and Figueroa streets from 4th Street to 8th Street. It is south of the Bunker Hill district, west of the Historic Core, north of South Park and east of the Harbor Freeway and Central City West. Like Bunker Hill, the Financial District is home to corporate office skyscrapers, hotels and related services as well as banks, law firms, and real estate companies. However, unlike Bunker Hill which was razed and now consists of buildings constructed since the 1960s, it contains large buildings from the early 20th century, particularly along Seventh Street, once the city's upscale shopping street; the area also attracts visitors as the 7th and Flower area is at the center of the regional Metro rail system and is replete with restaurants, bars, and shopping at two urban malls.
The floral industry is focused on the production, distribution and sale of flowers for human enjoyment. The floral industry began in the Golden Century of the Netherlands, where flowers were grown on a large scale on vast estates. The industry continues to diversify from the production of cut flowers to the production and sale of plants and flowers in many different forms. The global floral industry market size is estimated to be worth US$ 50040 million in 2022 and is forecast to increase to US$ 58030 million by 2028 with a compound annual growth rate of 2.5% during the review period.
Los Angeles Street, originally known as Calle de los Negros is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Los Angeles, California, dating back to the origins of the city as the Pueblo de Los Ángeles.
The Boston Flower Exchange is a wholesale flower market located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded as a marketplace that local growers could rent cooperatively to sell their products in a space more suited to their needs than Boston's historic Haymarket open-air marketplace, it has been the focal point of the floral trade of New England for over a hundred years. Although originally a local growers' wholesale market, the Flower Exchange now features flowers and foliage from dozens of countries and has expanded to carry potted plants, glassware, pottery and other floral supplies. The Flower Exchange is not open to the public and is limited to members of the trade only.
South Park is a commercial district in southwestern Downtown Los Angeles, California. It is the location of the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Crypto.com Arena, and the "L.A. Live" entertainment complex.
"The Carnation Gold Rush" is a term used by Denver locals, historians and preservationists to represent the period between the 1880s and 1930s when the floriculture industry developed and thrived in Colorado.
The California Mart, also known as California Market Center, are three high-rise buildings in Los Angeles, California, USA.
The Bloc, formerly Macy's Plaza and Broadway Plaza, is an open-air shopping center in downtown Los Angeles at 700 South Flower Street, in the Financial District. Its tenants include the downtown Los Angeles Macy's store, LA Fitness, Nordstrom Local, UNIQLO, and the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles hotel. The shopping center has its own entrance to the 7th Street/Metro Center station of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The Bloc tends to connect the financial, fashion, jewelry, and theater districts and the 7th Street Metro Center Station, meaning where four Downtown Los Angeles lines converge more.
La Mirada Mall was a 72-acre (29 ha) regional shopping mall at the southeast corner of La Mirada Boulevard and Rosecrans Avenue in La Mirada, California, in southeast Los Angeles County, in a region known as the Gateway Cities. It is now the site of the La Mirada Theater Center, a strip mall.
The Citadel Outlets are an outlet mall in the City of Commerce, California, along the Santa Ana Freeway southeast of Downtown Los Angeles, which features the Exotic Revival architecture of a tire factory, whose partial remnants the complex occupies, built in the style of an Assyrian castle of King Sargon II.
Retail in Southern California dates back to its first dry goods store that Jonathan Temple opened in 1827 on Calle Principal, when Los Angeles was still a Mexican village. After the American conquest, as the pueblo grew into a small town surpassing 4,000 population in 1860, dry goods stores continued to open, including the forerunners of what would be local chains. Larger retailers moved progressively further south to the 1880s-1890s Central Business District, which was later razed to become the Civic Center. Starting in the mid-1890s, major stores moved ever southward, first onto Broadway around 3rd, then starting in 1905 to Broadway between 4th and 9th, then starting in 1915 westward onto West Seventh Street up to Figueroa. For half a century Broadway and Seventh streets together formed one of America's largest and busiest downtown shopping districts.
Row DTLA is a commercial district located in Downtown Los Angeles, which is situated at the intersection of Fashion District, Skid Row, and the Arts District. It spans over 30 acres and was repurposed from the historic Alameda Square complex. The mixed-use development comprises 100 retail stores, restaurants, and 1.3 million square feet of commercial workspace.