Company taking over empty neighbourhood building in LA (5)
I believe the answer is:
condo
'building in la' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'company taking over empty neighbourhood' is the wordplay.
'company' becomes 'coo' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'taking over' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are taken over or captured).
'empty' suggests removing the centre.
'neighbourhood' with its middle removed is 'nd'.
'coo' placed around 'nd' is 'CONDO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for condo that I've seen before include "flat" , "accommodation out west" , "American apartment" , "Apartment in North America" , "apartment block in Toronto" .)