Do Office–Commercial Firms Value Access to Service Employment Centers? A Hedonic Value Analysis within Polycentric Los Angeles

This study applies a consistent methodology for identifying large, “main” or “secondary,” centers of service employment within polycentric Los Angeles and employs alternative empirical tests of the extent to which office–commercial firms value access to these centers. These tests involve the analysis of office property values per unit land across sites differing in center access. The empirical results indicate that differential firm access toboththe area's “main”andlarge “secondary” service centers induces non-trivial land market impacts, thereby suggesting that office–commercial firmsdovalue access to service centers. The empirical results across model specifications also suggest that “secondary” centers neither fully substitute for the “main” center nor fully substitute for each other. Taken together, these findings may be highly suggestive of the continuing relevance and complexity of spatial linkages between office–commercial firms and service centers within post-industrial markets.