Find your next site in Pasadena, CA.

Off-market deals are properties bought without a public listing, so you find them by screening parcels rather than listings. In Pasadena, the screen starts from the 9,053 lots of 2,000 sq ft or more where zoning allows at least one of six project types: retail, restaurant, office, industrial, multifamily or mixed use. The usual off-market leads are lots the owner is not using to their zoning: 455 of these parcels have no building on them, and 553 have a building covering less than 20% of the lot. Narrow them by permission, lot size and road traffic, then contact the owner of record directly.

Look for parcels with no building on them, which is how the Vacancy filter in ArchiWise defines vacant, rather than relying on county records alone, because records lag behind construction. In Pasadena, 455 parcels where zoning allows development have no building in the LA County LARIAC7 building outlines (updated through 2023) or in the Los Angeles County Assessor roll. This includes surface parking lots and unbuilt public land, so check the current use on each result. A vacant lot is not necessarily for sale.

Describe the project, then screen every parcel against it: whether zoning permits the use by right or with a conditional use permit, lot size and road traffic, then check the hazard and historic flags on each result. In Pasadena, 9,053 lots of 2,000 sq ft or more allow at least one of the six project types. For redevelopment, look at underutilized lots: 553 have a building footprint under 20% of the lot, and each result shows its built floor area ratio (FAR) next to the maximum where the zoning code sets one.

Screen for parcels in districts that permit multifamily housing, then look for lots that are empty or barely used. In Pasadena, multifamily is permitted by right in districts covering 3,281 acres of the zoning map. Of the parcels there, 324 have no building on them and 420 have a building covering less than 20% of the lot. Of the candidate parcels, 3,509 sit in an SB 79 transit tier, where state law allows more homes near major transit stops; the law measures from the nearest edge of the parcel, so a lot partly inside a tier counts. Single-family districts are left out even where state law allows lot splits or accessory units. Around Pasadena's Metro A Line stations, parcels fall inside SB 79 transit tiers, which can bring state allowances for more height and density on qualifying housing projects. Eligibility and local implementation still need to be confirmed for a specific project.

Start where zoning permits the use, then rank by road traffic and lot size. In Pasadena, 941 parcels permit retail and front a road carrying at least 20,000 vehicles a day, and 447 permit a restaurant on a lot of 8,000 sq ft or more next to at least 25,000 vehicles a day. Traffic is the 2024 count reported to FHWA (HPMS) for the streets within 75 feet of the lot, added together as the ArchiWise Traffic Volume filter adds them. The screen does not show whether space is available for lease. Pasadena's main commercial corridors are Colorado Boulevard from Old Pasadena through East Pasadena, Lake Avenue, Fair Oaks Avenue, and Foothill and Rosemead Boulevards on the east side. What each parcel allows is set by its zoning district or specific plan district, so read the permission on the result card rather than the use you see today. In most commercial districts, new non-residential construction over 25,000 sq ft needs a conditional use permit even where the use is permitted.

Ownership is public record: the Los Angeles County Assessor keeps the owner of record for each parcel, and recorded deeds show transfers. Looking parcels up one at a time is slow when you are screening a whole city. ArchiWise shows the owner of record next to zoning and lot details for each parcel, so a screen can go straight to outreach. Owners are not shown on this public page.

It depends on the parcel's zoning district: its use table says which uses are permitted by right or with a conditional use permit, and its development standards set height, floor area ratio and setbacks. Use permissions are set for all 198 zone codes on Pasadena's zoning map, from the use tables of the Pasadena Municipal Code, Title 17 (Zoning Code), read against the code text and specific plans where they were checked. The ArchiWise zoning map for Pasadena shows the district of every parcel, and ArchiWise analyzes a specific address for zoning and feasibility.

AI site selection screens every parcel in a market against a project brief, instead of browsing listings one at a time. You describe the project in plain words, such as use, lot size and traffic, and the screen checks each of the 30,195 parcels in Pasadena for zoning permission, lot size, road traffic, building coverage and hazards, then maps the matches. It finds sites that fit; whether a site is for sale, and at what price, still has to be confirmed with the owner.

Parcels and recorded uses come from the Los Angeles County Assessor roll (2026), building footprints from the LA County LARIAC7 building outlines (updated through 2023), traffic from FHWA HPMS (2024) and zoning from the Pasadena Municipal Code, Title 17 (Zoning Code). This page previews about 30% of matching parcels; the counts cover every parcel, and the full list is in ArchiWise.