An outdated office building that has served as a symbol for California’s famous citrus industry has ripened into something new: a mixed-use complex with luxury apartments, renovated workspace and a trendy supermarket as developers seek to invest in live-work-play hubs.
IMT Residential has completed a modern revamp of the former Sunkist Growers campus in Sherman Oaks into Citrus Commons, a mixed-use property with 249 luxury apartments, ground-floor retail and a reimagined office centerpiece. Rather than convert the existing 1970s Brutalist structure to housing — a costlier and more complex undertaking — IMT renovated the office building and added two apartment buildings with ground-floor retail, including a Trader Joes, on surrounding land.
“It’s more than a place to live, it’s a symbol of the future of urban living, grounded in local history,” said a statement from Joseph Elhabr, vice president at IMT Residential, a Sherman Oaks-based national apartment developer with 17,000 units across 50 luxury communities.
Developers are increasingly looking to convert underutilized space — from parking lots to offices and malls — into mixed-use centers that tap into live-work-play trends. Consumer demand has trended toward walkable communities that boast national retailers and experiential dining as well groceries and convenient services.
IMT Residential is applying this strategy in its backyard of Sherman Oaks, a neighborhood in Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley that was once covered in citrus groves that fueled Southern California’s agricultural boom. With Citrus Commons, the firm aims to recapture the sense of vitality the campus had during Sunkist’s Sherman Oaks heyday.
Citrus Commons' residential space opened at 14150 Riverside Dr this month, with studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments and upscale amenities such as a Peloton studio, pet spa and a lush pool deck. Ministry of Coffee café and Trader Joe’s anchor the ground floors of two new mid-rise buildings designed to complement the original midcentury aesthetic of the Sunkist campus.
Live-work-play
At the heart of the 8.3-acre site is the 143,000-square-foot former Sunkist headquarters; the citrus collective decamped for Valencia in 2014, leaving the property vacant. The building’s recessed windows and concrete structure form an inverted pyramid reminiscent of a citrus crate.
IMT is transforming the 126,000 square feet of usable office space into a creative environment, surrounded by gardens, outdoor lounges and the building’s redesigned central atrium.
Office conversions and demolitions are now projected to outpace new office construction in the U.S. for the first time in over two decades, according to CBRE.
About 76% of office properties undergoing conversion this year are being turned into apartments, as developers target high-vacancy buildings in supply-constrained housing markets.
However, office conversions are often a costly and lengthy real estate challenge for developers. And not all office space is obsolete. Newer, well-located properties filled with amenities have attracted an outsized share of overall leasing activity as a number of companies have sought to use more attractive work spaces as one method to entice employees back to the office.
The office renovation proved to make more financial sense for IMT when compared to a conversion. Rather than gut the existing structure, the developer preserved and upgraded it while building two mixed-use buildings flanking Riverside Drive. A new parking deck and underground garage serve both residents and visitors, with landscaping and street-level improvements enhancing pedestrian access to the adjacent Los Angeles River parkway.
IMT hopes its revamp of the Sunkist office — complete with high-end homes and retail — will help attract tenants to the property.
Squeezing in
IMT acquired the property from Sunkist in 2013 for $36 million and completed a short-term leaseback before the company relocated. After securing entitlements, the firm broke ground on the redevelopment in 2023.
Citrus Commons is part of a wave of new housing in the area, with IMT’s 325-unit Via Avanti development at 4815-4827 Sepulveda Blvd also slated to open later this year. Together, the projects make Sherman Oaks one of the most active development nodes in Greater Los Angeles, according to CoStar data.
Asking rents at Citrus Commons average $4,500 — nearly double the Los Angeles countywide average of $2,300, according to Apartments.com. Leasing is underway, with strong interest across floor plans and many larger units already spoken for.
Citrus Commons also generated national media buzz for an unusual retail twist: two Trader Joe’s stores operating within a block of each other. The new location opened on-site while the long-running 1970s-era store across the street at 14119 Riverside Dr remains open, sparking headlines about the “Trader Joe’s face-off.”
Company officials said both stores will continue operating, with the older location offering a compact layout and limited surface parking, while the new store provides broader product selection and a large underground garage to accommodate growing customer demand.