Financial District

The Financial District: Downtown LA’s high-rise core between the Harbor Freeway and Hill Street, from 4th Street to Olympic. Office towers with restaurants, rooftop bars and hotels around their bases. Verified listings with the date each was last checked.

DTLA Business Guide editorial neighborhood boundary. This is our own definition, not an official government boundary. How we draw these.

The Financial District is the towered core of Downtown Los Angeles, roughly between the Harbor Freeway and Hill Street from 4th Street down to Olympic. It is where Downtown's office high-rises stand, and around their bases sit a growing number of restaurants, bars, hotels and shops that stay busy well after the workday ends.

The short version

  • Downtown's high-rise core, roughly Harbor Freeway to Hill Street, 4th Street to Olympic.
  • Office towers by day; restaurants, rooftop bars and hotels in the evening.
  • The best-connected part of Downtown for transit, anchored by 7th Street/Metro Center.
  • Parking is garage based and plentiful, cheapest in the evenings and at weekends.
  • Bunker Hill sits directly north; South Park is directly south.

What the neighborhood is

This is the part of Downtown that looks like a city centre: bank towers, corporate lobbies and the wide one-way streets that carry commuters in and out. For decades it emptied at five o'clock, but that has changed. The ground floors and rooftops now hold restaurants, cocktail bars and hotels that draw people back in the evening, and the district around 7th Street in particular stays lively late.

It borders Bunker Hill and its cultural institutions to the north, the Historic Core and Jewelry District to the east across Hill Street, and South Park and the arena district to the south. Because it is compact and flat, moving between these on foot is easy.

How we define the boundary

These lines are ours, not an official government boundary. No City or County dataset defines the Financial District as a polygon, so we built one from the recognized definition and named streets: the Harbor Freeway on the west, 4th Street on the north (which keeps Bunker Hill, with The Broad and MOCA, separate), Hill Street on the east, and 9th Street and Olympic Boulevard on the south. The full sources and reasoning are on our neighborhood methodology page. A couple of businesses sit right on the Hill Street or Olympic edge; where the call is genuinely close, we say so on the listing. If you think a line is wrong, tell us.

Parking

The Financial District is the easiest part of Downtown to park a car. It is built around large commercial garages that empty out in the evening, so the same space that costs a fortune at 10 in the morning is often a flat evening rate after 5 or 6pm and cheaper still at weekends.

  • Commercial garages sit under and beside most of the office towers, along Figueroa, Flower, Hope, Grand and Olive. Evening and weekend flat rates are common and posted at the entrance.
  • FIGat7th and the larger buildings run their own structures with validation for tenants and, sometimes, for diners.
  • App-based booking through the usual parking apps almost always beats the drive-up rate here, because the garages compete for evening business.
  • Street parking exists but is metered and time-limited on the commercial blocks; the garages are usually the better bet.

We do not publish specific garage prices, because they vary by operator and time of day. Check the posted board or a parking app before you commit.

Public transportation

This is the best-connected neighborhood in Downtown. If you are coming to Downtown without a car, you very likely arrive here.

  • 7th Street/Metro Center is the hub, served by the Metro A, B, D and E lines. It sits under 7th and Figueroa, directly connected to FIGat7th, and puts most of the district within a few minutes' walk.
  • Pershing Square station on the B and D lines covers the eastern edge near Hill Street and Pershing Square.
  • Metro bus routes run along most of the main streets, and DASH shuttles loop through the district on short headways during the day.
  • On foot the whole neighborhood is flat and walkable, and it connects directly to Bunker Hill, the Historic Core and South Park.

Check Metro's own service information for current times, especially in the evenings and at weekends when frequencies change.

Businesses in the Financial District

Every business below has been verified against its own website, with the date we last checked it. A business marked as being near another neighborhood sits close to a boundary; our reasoning is on its own page.

  • Bottega Louie

    A large restaurant, patisserie and cafe on the corner of Seventh and Grand, occupying a white-tiled ground floor with very high ceilings and a retail counter of macarons and pastries at the front. It serves from breakfast through dinner every day and takes walk-ins, though the room fills at weekend brunch. The counter operates separately…

  • Perch

    A French-leaning rooftop restaurant and bar on the upper floors of the Pershing Square Building, with two outdoor levels looking over the park and the Historic Core. It runs late most nights and opens earlier on Fridays and at weekends for brunch. Service times differ between the dining room, the bar and the rooftop levels,…

  • Los Angeles Athletic Club

    A private social and athletic club founded in 1880, housed in a Beaux-Arts building on Seventh Street, which also operates a small hotel open to guests. Facilities include a gym, an indoor pool, courts, dining rooms and event space. The athletic and social side is membership-only and requires an application, so this is not a…