If you're interested in real estate development but have never heard of the Seafood District, there's a good reason for that.  The neighborhood - sandwiched between Skid Row and the Arts District - consists almost exclusively of businesses specializing in the wholesale distribution of fish.

However, one property owner may be looking to change that.

Earlier this week, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles to convert a pair of industrial-zoned buildings at 719 and 823 East 5th Street into mixed-use complexes.  The buildings - built in 1906 and 1912 respectively - would feature residential units and ground-floor commercial space.  However, the exact number of dwelling units proposed has not been specified.

Historic records indicate that the buildings have gone through a number of uses over the years.  The seven-story structure at 823 5th Street most recently housed operations for the Salvation Army.  The three-story edifice at 719 5th Street served as slum housing in the mid-1980s, with living conditions so deplorable that its former owner was jailed for two months.

The subsequent adaptive reuse project, whose developer is listed in city records as Daryoush Dayan, would be located in an area that is currently devoid of the high-density commercial developments seen in other areas of Downtown Los Angeles.  The Seafood District, like other adjacent neighborhoods, possesses a large homeless population.

A timeline and a budget for the project are both unclear at this point in time.