Downtown parking lot titan prepares to build up.

There are those who stand to profit from downtown's revitalization--and then there's Joe Lumer.

Unlike some of the flashy developers who have stolen much of the spotlight, Lumer--one of the largest owners of surface parking lots downtown--has flown mostly under the radar.

His family founded Joe's Parking and has a near-majority stake in Five Star Parking, the two biggest surface parking lot owners downtown.

Between the two operations, Lumer estimates the companies have about 10,1300 parking spaces, which would give him control of roughly 10 percent of all downtown's parking spots--both public and private.

"I would say we own considerable land," Lumer said. "'My family has been in the parking business since the early 1950s.'"

With some developers willing to pay $300 a foot for undeveloped land to build soaring condominium towers downtown, Lumer has begun slowly selling off properties his family spent decades cobbling together.

Last year, Lumer sold a roughly 120,000-square-foot parking lot in downtown's Old Bank District at the corner of Fourth and Main streets to Saeed Far Kandapour, who is planning two 21-story condominium towers with shops on the ground floor.

turner also sold Trammell Crow Residential a 100,000-square-foot surface lot in Little Tokyo at First and Alameda streets. The company is nearing completion on the 300-unit, $66 million first phase of the Alexan Savoy--a three-phase project with 500 total units and with rents starting at $1,400 a month.

"Those are the two major ones," Lumer said. "But we have probably sold more land than anyone downtown."

Many more future developments, both housing and commercial, will likely take place on surface parking lots. Already in Little Tokyo, residents have formed a parking task force to look into how to replace the parking consumed by development.

A larger debate is taking place citywide about whether the city needs to intervene by constructing public garages or by requiring developers of surface lots to replace those spaces--in addition to creating enough parking for residents and retailers in their projects.

Lumer argues that public intervention isn't necessary, but he is concerned about the pace of development downtown and the potential of a real estate bubble.

"We saw the Japanese come in the late 1980s and we all know what happened with that," he said. "We are very conservative and careful people. We are hoping this push for residential development continues but maybe not at the breakneck speed it's at right now."

Driving development

Lumer could be the single largest parking operator downtown, but it's hard to tell. A complete inventory of downtown's parking has never been tabulated.

Bill Hurrell, a consultant working on a downtown parking study being conducted by the Community Redevelopment Agency, estimated there were close to 100,000 spaces both on the street and in private and public garages.

Anecdotally, Duane H. Cameron, president of System Parking Development Co.--an operator of garages mostly in the Historic Core--said when it comes to parking operators Lumer is the largest. "Joe is the main operator downtown," Cameron said. "I believe he is the largest in the downtown area."

Like many parking operators, Lumer's family began buying up empty or vacant parcels downtown after World War II, when many residents and tenants moved to the San Fernando Valley and the Westside.

As the properties became available, Lumer's family would pave them over and stripe them for parking, which gives downtown more parking space in terms of land area than most other cities.

"Downtown is an unusually easy place to park because of them," said Jeff Carpenter, a city planner with the CRA. "Downtown is off the map when it comes to surface area dedicated to parking--more than just about any city in the world."

While developers are paying higher prices for land, parking rates have been stagnant for several years, Lumer said. He said downtown has an overall oversupply of parking, which has kept rates low because of competition.

Get used to it

"I don't see surface lots that are full lately," he said. "A lot of this speculation that we're going to run out of parking is misguided."

He said that in L.A. people are accustomed to being able to park underneath or next to where they live and work. Instead, Lumer said people will have to adapt to the idea of parking a couple of blocks away and walking.

"The concept of neighborhood garages is what we have to be looking at," he said. "It's much more efficient and it makes more sense but people will have to park in one place and walk to their apartment or condo. And for L.A., that may take some getting used to."

Still, Lumer concedes there are areas of downtown where more parking is needed. While most of the residential developments are taking place on the periphery of downtown's central business district, parking in Bunker Hill and Civic Center has become more difficult, he said.

On the lots the company owns in those areas, Lumer said there are plans to develop parking garages to pick up the slack.

"We plan to do some development ourselves," he said. "We'll be building parking spaces in garages to replace lost spaces. We have a number of significant surface lots that are good candidates and we'll work with CRA and the city to determine where the highest need is."