LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[BrandonJXN]

Taco Bell Cantina. So they serve gourmet chalupas and deconstructed Meximelts?

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by citywatch

certainly better than the many vacant store spaces...post covid...common in lots of downtowns throughout the US....

Its also in prime downtown areas of the u.s. its actually a good thing.

[citywatch]

^ Back in 2019...even before Covid....I read that quite a few storefronts in manhattan were vacant. That doesn't seem as obvious because NYC's sidewalks always have lots of ppl wandering around, so they sort of distract from the deadness. On the West coast, lots of vacancies in certain prime sections of SF now exist. Same is true of Shanghai in China. But a city like tokyo in 2024 has managed to avoid a lot of the same problem.

Broadway in dtla for over 30 yrs has been caught between having both too many swapment stores & vacant spaces. I recall several yrs ago thinking that empty storefronts were better than swapmeets.

la.eater.com

According to Cantina director Isaiah Ritchie, the development process for the new location took about a year. DRG partnered with Taco Bell to design the interior, which includes homages to Los Angeles’s music scene.

In addition to beers on tap, the Downtown LA Cantina offers the option to spike its freezes with the choice of liquors like tequila, rum, vodka, and whiskey — once alcohol is added, the drink becomes “twisted.”

DRG chose the location for the new Cantina because of its central location to the rest of the city, and the first few days have been focused on introducing it to the neighborhood.

“We’re hoping to provide an awesome experience for the community,” Ritchie says. “We’ve seen day in and day out that everybody who lives around here has been coming in and thanking us, and are excited that we’re here and to be a part of it.” He notes that the early response has been “phenomenal” with the community and other local business owners who have welcomed the Cantina to the neighborhood.


la.eater.com

[citywatch]

• Video Link

^ that vid shows the parking lots on Fig east of the BMO stadium finally being developed...


gensler.com


EDIT: knowing what's going on elsewhere helps in determining just how much the city of LA...dtla....needs to step things up. Whoa, omg:

https://youtube.com/shorts/44Hhtthevzs?si=yYKBEgaJjm8Vb79d

[kittyhawk28]

Snagged two shots of DTLA on my flight back few days ago:



Interesting to compare the growth in the 2nd pic to an identical shot over downtown 11 years ago:

[scania]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing!!!

[kittyhawk28]

heres a combined side-by-side comparison: 2013 (top) vs. 2024 (bottom)

[LAsam]

^Nice! The high-rise development of South Park has been transformative on our skyline, for sure. Well, that and the Korean Air tower!

[craigs]

Great comparison--the downtown skyline has grown quite a bit in the last decade.

[scania]

Just spoke to a worker and he said they’ve 2 more floors to go and that it’ll be 56 stories. Which was odd because it looks like the top floor was complete…but you could still see the elevator shaft still rising. He confirmed that the 54th floor was complete and there are an additional two more floors to go. I can’t find the latest rendering. I wonder is there an updated rendering.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by scania

Just spoke to a worker and he said they’ve 2 more floors to go and that it’ll be 56 stories. Which was odd because it looks like the top floor was complete…but you could still see the elevator shaft still rising. He confirmed that the 54th floor was complete and there are an additional two more floors to go. I can’t find the latest rendering. I wonder is there an updated rendering.

Perhaps he is talking about mechanical floors? In San Francisco, the mechanical floors (and any unoccupied crown area) of new buildings are usually excluded from the official floor count in filed documents. Maybe here as well?

[scania]

Originally Posted by craigs

Perhaps he is talking about mechanical floors? In San Francisco, the mechanical floors (and any unoccupied crown area) of new buildings are usually excluded from the official floor count in filed documents. Maybe here as well?

Yeah…it’s not like the rendering as I remembered. I will try and post pic…just have to figure it out again.

[badrunner]

The next ten years will see South Park development pushing east towards the Fashion District and a new skyline rising in the Arts District. However the change won't be as dramatic as in the last decade.

Originally Posted by kittyhawk28

heres a combined side-by-side comparison: 2013 (top) vs. 2024 (bottom)

[citywatch]

• Video Link

[dax_gray]

imagine if all that rail was underground with a park on top that opened up to a revitalized river.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by dax_gray

imagine if all that rail was underground with a park on top that opened up to a revitalized river.

Some of that railyard and ROW will carry the aerial through-tracks for CAHSR's eventual route between Union Station and Anaheim. I think I remember that there will also be aerial through-tracks for Metrolink as well.

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by dax_gray

imagine if all that rail was underground with a park on top that opened up to a revitalized river.

Would have been cool if it was covered with a Park/Sports complex in time for the Olympics, with a revitalized river as the back drop. Call it The Hanging Gardens.

[craigs]

Reports: L.A. County offers $215M to buy Gas Company Tower


The 1.4-million square foot building would be converted to county offices

Steven Sharp
Urbanize LA
August 1, 2024



Los Angeles County is poised to take ownership of one of the city's tallest office towers, according to multiple published reports.

The County has offered to pay $215 million for the Gas Company Tower, a 52-story building located at 555 W. 5th Street. According to the Los Angeles Times, that would allow the workers to move out of existing county building - including the landmark Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration.

Located across the street from Pershing Square, the 52-story tower was completed in 1991 and features roughly 1.4 million square feet of offices. The building, like other trophy towers in the neighborhood, has struggled to retain tenants in the wake of the global pandemic, seeing its occupancy sink to roughly 50 percent, with remaining tenants including the namesake Southern California Gas Co., Deloitte, and Latham & Watkins.

Consequently, the Times reports that the proposed $215 million purchase price is well below the $632 million valuation Gas Company Tower was appraised at in 2020. Commercial Observer reports that the County would pay that reduced price in cash.
. . . .

[BrandonJXN]

Hell of a reduction. Not a bad deal to be honest.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

Hell of a reduction. Not a bad deal to be honest.

It's a great deal, and will allow the County to either retrofit or tear down their seismically noncompliant buildings and perhaps redevelop the Civic Center.