DTLA, once hardly a shopping or dining destination, has become a place that Angelenos are now flocking to with a growing number choosing to live there.

Since more residents are considering DTLA to be a viable neighborhood, Polaris Pacific director Rhonda Slavik said there is a lot more growth expected over the long term.

"We feel downtown LA is still in its toddler stage," Slavik said.

Mack Urban vice president T.J. Lehman said they believe there will be 100,000 people in DTLA by 2020.

At Trumark Urban's Ten50, a luxury 25-story condo tower at 1050 South Grand that was also the site of last week's Bisnow Future of South Park event, more than 70% of the buyers work in DTLA, according to Trumark Urban managing director Arden Hearing.

He said many are attracted to South Park because it is a lifestyle-friendly area and walking distance from neighboring attractions.

Another thing DTLA has going for it is that all transit roads lead to it, Kennedy Wilson brokerage vice president Justin Weiss said.

Of the roughly 10,000 units under construction in DTLA, 7,000 are within five blocks of South Park, he said.

"Imagine that density," he said. "That's why retail is so strong in South Park right now."

Slavik said she thinks South Park eventually will become its own real center as development crosses the 10 Freeway South and the 110 West into Pico-Union.

"This is going to become an epicenter for all of those areas in terms of retail and entertainment and restaurants and dining and really anchor this end of downtown in a much bigger way," Slavik said.

South Park has even more on the horizon, including the planned $470M expansion of the LA Convention Center and new hotels being proposed with the two-tower Fig + Pico Hotel and the roughly $80M Cambria Hotel being developed by Pacific Property Partners near LA Live.