^ Good call, Steve. BlogDowntown weighs in on exactly the same thought...


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Park Fifth Announces New Money, But Is It Real?
By ERIC RICHARDSON
Published: Friday, January 29, 2010

One of Downtown's mega-projects seemingly rose from the dead yesterday, as developer David Houk told the Downtown News that his $1.3 billion plan to build two towers across the street from Pershing Square was on the verge of receiving new financing. The Park Fifth project would include both 76-story and 44-story towers, nearly 800 condos and a high-end hotel.

But is the project's new investor real? Real estate professionals that blogdowntown spoke to on Friday had mixed opinions on whether the leaked deal was legitimate and were skeptical of potential new investor Gabriel Hertzberg and his Triangle Investment Oil Company.

Hertzberg's quotes to the Downtown News aroused suspicion.

“We own oil in the Middle East and have the funding to get this project,” Hertzberg told the paper. “I will probably be the owner of the whole thing.”

He told the paper that he was currently transferring funds to U.S. accounts, and that the deal would be finalized in the next few weeks.

The oil company that Hertzberg runs was registered as a California LLC in January of last year. The address on record with the state points to a warehouse next to the Van Nuys airport, where either Hertzberg or a relative by the same name runs a company called Mobile Cardiac Imaging. The other contact address listed in state records is Hertzberg's home, located in the southern part of Beverly Hills.

Both the oil company and Hertzberg are almost non-existent online. The only mention of Triangle is on Petrofinder, a site that offers free profile listings. Neither Hertzberg nor the company show up in a search of Proquest's newspaper databases.

Even if Hertzberg does not have the money to fund the project himself, it is possible that he could be acting as a front for other investors. One source blogdowntown spoke to thought that unlikely, instead believing that Houk was trying to drum up interest in the parcel.

As for Houk, he declined to comment to blogdowntown on the potential deal, saying that it was "in the works," but "it's not real yet."

The project's last major news came in June of 2008, when it announced that it had completed entitlement and received a construction loan commitment from Beijing Construction Engineering Group. Just a few months later, though, news reports surfaced that major partner Namco Capital Group Inc. and its founder Ezri Namvar owed investors approximately $400 million. Namvar was accused of running a ponzi scheme as part of his investment business.

Even that wasn't the first time the project was dogged by funding questions. In November of 2007 the project denied reports that it had lost its main investor, and said that things remained on track.

While news of the project's restart would be welcomed in such a tough economic climate, Thursday's announcement serves to raise more questions than answers.

LOL, I was bound to have an accurate post eventually. Here's hoping the guy is legit but I'm not holding my breath.

:cheers:

Anybody should be skeptical about this, but coming a few days after talk of putting the Broad gallery about 3 blocks away in the Grand Ave. Project (which was equally dead) makes me think this is some kind of PR play to see what kind of interest there might be in the property. No deal and no money and no timeline at this point.

He's a first time land developer land and he goes with a very upscale residential high-rise in a marginal area? I know you get rich by taking chances but this seems odd.

Maybe Broad slipped Park Fifth a penny? Hm?

At least there is still hope, however small it may be.:)

I hope this true, but maybe there is room for a slight revision in the plans.

I would like to see entrance vehicle entrance to the parking structure under Pershing Square integrated into the Park 5th project. Down the line, if feasible with the Metro tunnel, a second vehicle entrance could even be incorporated into the development on Hill next to the Metro entrance.

This would allow a remodel of Pershing Square without the ramps. The park would then be much more accessible and could be reoriented and perhaps include a cafe and pavilion for a rotating art exhibit connected to one of the local museums (maybe an small exhibition space for the Broad Gallery?) The key to all of this though, is getting rid of those ramps because they totally cut off the square from the urban fabric of the neighborhood.

It's amazing how small the Title Guarantee Building looks in that model.
It used to be one of the tallest in L.A.


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ucla archive

I REALLY hope this gets built! I'm not a big fan of the design though, however I feel like it might grow on me once it's built. I think it'll give a smooth transition from bunker hill to the historic core.

^ I really like your avatar!

I hope this is a case of any kind of publicity being good publicity for this project. This, more so than the Grand Ave project, would re-energize the entire hood. But yeah...I don't put much faith in a single guy out of nowhere coming in to finance this thing.

All it takes is one guy with a billion dollar line of credit. Who are we to judge?:)

Thanx! I try n keep it G...lol. Plus I got a lot of love for my city...213 for life!

soo uhhhhh yeaaa....poor proposal never had a chance:(

And here I thought someone had actual news on this thing.