Kathi's office is at 388 South Lake Avenue, in the heart of one of the four San Gabriel Valley markets she serves with equal depth. South Lake, Old Town, the Playhouse District, the East Colorado corridor, and the broader Pasadena commercial footprint.
Kathi was born and raised in Pasadena, attended USC's Annenberg School for Communications, and built a twenty-plus-year career at some of the country's most prestigious law firms — including local engagements that put her in Pasadena conference rooms for years before she ever held a real estate license. Her commercial real estate office is at 388 South Lake Avenue, in the heart of the South Lake commercial corridor.
The result is the kind of deep, accumulated local context that's difficult to manufacture: relationships with Pasadena property owners going back decades, an understanding of the city's permitting and entitlement realities, and a working knowledge of every commercial submarket from Old Town to East Colorado. When a client is weighing a Pasadena lease, sale, or investment, Kathi isn't reading the market off a report — she's the market.
Notable Pasadena clients include the Langham Huntington Hotel, the Pasadena Museum of California Art Building, Innova Medical Group, Urth Caffé, and a long roster of family-held and founder-led businesses navigating Pasadena commercial decisions.
Pasadena's commercial market is not one market — it's five distinct submarkets, each with its own tenant mix, pricing logic, and competitive dynamics. Kathi works all of them.
Pasadena's premier commercial corridor — Class A office, high-end retail, and professional services from Walnut to California. Where Kathi's office is located, and where many of her tenant-rep and landlord-rep engagements take place.
The 22-block National Register historic district along Colorado Boulevard. Restored late-19th and early-20th-century buildings home to a curated mix of restaurants, retailers, boutiques, and creative-office tenants. A retail-leasing specialty.
Centered around the Pasadena Playhouse on El Molino — a walkable mix of creative office, hospitality, and ground-floor retail. Strong residential demand drivers nearby make this a sustained tenant market.
Extending east from Old Town toward the 210, a mix of auto-oriented retail, professional offices, light industrial, and emerging mixed-use. Strong fit for owner-users and value-add investors.
The corridor along Colorado west of Fair Oaks and around the Caltech campus. Skews professional-services and tech-adjacent — heavily influenced by Caltech, JPL spinouts, and the medical district near Huntington Hospital.
Pockets of industrial and flex space scattered through Pasadena and the immediate northeast — increasingly competitive as owner-users and last-mile operators look for SGV alternatives to East LA and Vernon.
Whether you're an owner, an investor, a tenant, or a buyer — Kathi handles the full range of commercial real estate engagements across Pasadena and the surrounding markets.
A working profile of the Pasadena commercial market — the kinds of facts that shape leasing, sale, and investment decisions. Updated when context changes meaningfully.
Pasadena is a city of roughly 133,000 residents in the western San Gabriel Valley, ten miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Incorporated in 1886, it's the largest city in the SGV and one of the most economically diverse in Greater LA — anchored by world-class education, science, healthcare, and a tourism economy built on the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl.
Pasadena is unusually balanced for an LA-area submarket — a healthy supply of Class A and B office, a thriving street retail ecosystem in Old Town and along South Lake, medical office clusters near Huntington and along Lake/Walnut, and pockets of industrial and flex space in the northeast and east of the city. Mixed-use is increasingly the dominant new-construction product.
Pasadena commercial property trades unlike anywhere else in LA. The market is small enough that nearly every significant deal flows through a tight network of brokers, owners, and family offices — which means relationships and reputation matter disproportionately. It's also unusually protected from speculation: strict design review, an active historic-preservation regime, and engaged residents keep new construction measured and ensure existing properties hold value.
Lease rates and recent transaction comps vary materially by submarket, building class, and timing — and they're moving. For accurate Pasadena pricing, recent comps, or a market-rate analysis tailored to your situation, reach out to Kathi directly. She'll respond personally with what she's actually seeing in the market this week.
Common questions Kathi gets about the Pasadena commercial market. For anything specific to your situation — pricing, comps, available properties, timing — the answer is always: just call.
Pasadena has one of the most balanced and resilient commercial markets in Greater Los Angeles. The city supports five distinct commercial corridors — South Lake, Old Town, Playhouse District, East Colorado, and West Pasadena/Caltech — each with its own tenant mix and pricing logic. Office, retail, medical, and industrial all have active sub-markets here.
What sets Pasadena apart from neighboring LA submarkets is the depth of its anchor institutions (Caltech, JPL, Huntington Hospital, ArtCenter), the strict design and historic-preservation regime that protects existing properties, and a relationship-driven broker market in which reputation and trust meaningfully affect deal outcomes.
Five primary corridors carry most of Pasadena's commercial activity:
South Lake Avenue is the premier Class A office and high-end retail corridor. Old Pasadena (the 22-block historic district along Colorado Boulevard) anchors retail, restaurants, and creative office in restored historic buildings. The Playhouse District centers on El Molino and the Pasadena Playhouse, with creative office and ground-floor retail. The East Colorado corridor extends from Old Town toward the 210, mixing auto-oriented retail, professional offices, and emerging mixed-use. West Pasadena wraps the corridor west of Fair Oaks around Caltech and the medical district near Huntington Hospital.
Lease rates vary substantially by submarket, building class, and use. South Lake Class A office commands a premium over East Colorado professional space; Old Town historic retail prices differently than a modern Playhouse District build-out; and medical office near Huntington Hospital has its own pricing dynamic entirely.
Rates also move with the market — quarter to quarter, sometimes month to month. Rather than publish a number that will be stale before you read it, the best path is to email Kathi or call 626.898.2308 with the specifics of what you're looking for. She'll send you current comps for the exact corridor and use you're considering.
For investors with a long time horizon, Pasadena is one of the strongest commercial markets in Southern California. The combination of anchor institutions (Caltech, JPL, Huntington Hospital), an affluent and stable resident base, strict supply controls via design review and preservation, and consistent tourist demand creates a market where well-located commercial property tends to hold value through cycles.
The right strategy depends on what you're trying to do — owner-user purchase, NNN income, value-add, mixed-use development, 1031 exchange. Kathi works all of these and is happy to walk through how Pasadena would fit your specific investment thesis.
The Pasadena commercial market spans every major property type: Class A and B office (heavy on South Lake and the western corridor), street retail and restaurant space (Old Town, South Lake, Playhouse District), medical office (clustered around Huntington Hospital and along Lake/Walnut), mixed-use (an increasingly dominant new-construction product), and pockets of industrial and flex space in the northeast and east.
Team Ukropina is one of the most decorated commercial real estate teams on the West Coast, based in Pasadena at Coldwell Banker Commercial. The team is led by Bill Ukropina, who has been one of Pasadena's leading brokers for decades. Kathi joined the team as Bill's protégé and was named Coldwell Banker Commercial's Protégé of the Year in 2023.
When you work with Kathi in Pasadena, you get her direct attention on every deal — and you also get the institutional depth of Team Ukropina and the global resources of Coldwell Banker Commercial (2,800+ professionals across the network) behind every transaction. One principal, fully resourced.
Pasadena is one of four primary markets Kathi serves with equal depth.
Whether you're a few months from a lease decision, a year from a sale, or actively acquiring — fifteen minutes with Kathi will tell you whether she's the right partner for your Pasadena transaction. She answers her own phone.