Loft apartments have had a major role in the effort to revitalize downtown areas. As cities look to reverse the effects of urban sprawl and deteriorating neighborhoods, encouraging residences in those areas becomes a priority. Loft apartments are the perfect solution.

Strictly speaking, a loft apartment is a spacious area with few interior walls. Common features include bare brick exterior walls, high ceilings and exposed ducts and pipes. A couple of decades ago, these loft apartments were shunned in favor of more modern buildings. Today, a loft apartment is considered trendy and many young professionals are looking at loft apartments as a good option for several reasons. One of the most important is location.

Commercial buildings are very suitable for loft apartments and some commercial property owners are seeing the benefits of turning vacant buildings that are seldom in demand by the industrial community into apartments.

One of the draws of the downtown loft apartment is – simply – location. These buildings are often at the heart of the downtown area, near other professional buildings and business locations. Just as importantly, they’re often near popular nightlife destinations. Where many people once went out of their way to separate the places they worked and lived, the current trend is to bring the two closer together. That makes a downtown loft apartment perfect for many.

But what is it that’s prompted cities to promote downtown loft apartments and other downtown residences? It’s the understanding that people tend to take pride in their own neighborhoods. Just as people tended to separate where they lived from where they worked, cities also encouraged that distinction. Zoning restrictions prohibited residences in many downtown areas. The idea was that giving people a reason to be in business areas at night was tantamount to encouraging crime.

The cities have seen the error of their ways and zoning laws in many cities are reflecting that fact. When people have downtown loft apartments they have legitimate reasons to be downtown, and that increased traffic actually discourages crime. People also tend to take pride in where they live, and downtown loft apartments encourage that pride, which results in less crime and more desirable places to live and work.

You’ll find plenty of areas that encourage the intermingling of residential and business districts, and loft apartments are a natural derivative of that. A search for Pittsburgh loft apartments, NYC loft apartments, Boston loft apartments or Detroit loft apartments garners a wide array of results.

The demand for the loft apartments are sometimes fierce, and a wise investor would be well advised to consider the popularity of loft apartments as a guide to whether he should make that step. The cost of renovations is usually significant, but if you have property in a prime location and the young professionals and artistic community are seeking out these properties, you could have a tremendous return for your investment.