LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[citywatch]

businesstraveler.com

The 28-storey, 305-room hotel opened in July 2022, housed in the multi-use The Grand LA building in downtown Los Angeles, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. This marked the debut of the Conrad Hotels & Resorts brand in California, and is part of the Hilton group.

During my visit in September the complex did not yet have retail areas on Level 4, with plans for shops and restaurants to move in over the course of the next year....On the local side, I was struck by the poverty in downtown LA during my visit and reached out to the hotel to find out if it was working with any local charities or community outreach programmes.

Gehry’s contemporary tetris-like exterior, with a uniform geometric facade, is in keeping with the modern buildings in the vicinity but gives no hint of the warm, California-meets-Mediterranean interiors by Tara Bernerd & Partners.
Suffice to say I am a big fan of the interiors, which are equally comfortable and inviting, with various seating areas – from comfy sofas to patterned stools and armchairs – populated with people on their laptops or enjoying a drink with friends or fellow guests.

My room provided jaw-dropping and perfectly framed views of the concert hall. As night fell, I watched as the sun set behind the curves and corners of the concert hall, before it disappeared behind the San Gabriel mountains beyond.

I was very impressed with this venue. Hotels often label their F&B venues “destination restaurants” but this one lives up to this notion, and is well worth visiting regardless of whether you’re staying at the hotel.

The restaurant has a similar warm design to the rest of the property, with glass doors opening onto a terrace overlooking the Walt Disney concert hall, and there’s a lovely buzz in the evening....Conrad Los Angeles is a great addition to Downtown LA, offering a warm Mediterranean design matched by excellent service and impressive dining destinations.

Attitude

Nearly six months after the Moxy & AC Hotel opened in Downtown Los Angeles, its Level 8 dining destination is ready for guests. The 30,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor dining, drinking and entertainment space is the work of hospitality magnates Mark and Jonnie Houston of Houston Hospitality, in collaboration with Mitchell Hochberg of Lightstone. Level 8 features a maze of eight concepts, with a piano bar and jazz lounge, five restaurants, a nightclub and a pool deck cocktail bar.

"What we have learned in our 20-plus years of opening restaurants and bars around L.A. is that people want more than just dinner or drinks out,” Mark Houston said in a statement. “They want to discover something new and come away with a sense that they've done something memorable, something different. Level 8 is all about creating opportunities for that kind of immersive discovery. It's a culmination of our experiences that pays homage to Downtown Los Angeles' rich heritage and history.”

"Whether you're coming from out of town or down the street, you can have a very different experience every time you visit," Lightstone’s Hochberg said in a statement. "Anticipation is a very powerful emotion: People are passionate about encountering something they've never seen, tasted or experienced before. It's the same urge that sent Alice down the rabbit hole. Together, Level 8 and Moxy & AC Hotel Downtown L.A. promise a multitude of new discoveries.”

The Moxy & AC Hotels, located directly across the street from Crypto.com Arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center at 1254 S Figueroa St., opened in April as part of Lightstone’s 850,000-square-foot Fig + Pico hotel project...which includes...the largest 3D digital sign in the U.S. outside of New York and Las Vegas, around 10,000 square feet of retail space, and 12 bars, restaurants and clubs.

“There’s nothing like it in Los Angeles, let alone downtown,” Hochberg told L.A. Business First in March, regarding the overall project. “I think when people see it, people from all over the city are going to gravitate toward it. It’s a very unique aesthetic and experience in both hotels that’s unlike anything else in the city right now.”

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[Charmy2]

Anybody know what's going on with some of the DTLA towers in development? I don't think I've heard a peep about the Olympic Towers or the Angels Landing towers. Also I heard somewhere that the tower at 333 South Figueroa is cancelled? Is this true?

[Radio5]

Originally Posted by Charmy2

Anybody know what's going on with some of the DTLA towers in development? I don't think I've heard a peep about the Olympic Towers or the Angels Landing towers. Also I heard somewhere that the tower at 333 South Figueroa is cancelled? Is this true?

Yeah, they ain't happening...

333 fig was cancelled a while ago. I'm sure in the next couple years when the olympics is on the horizon, these will get brought back to life in some other form.

[headcheckjj]

333 S Fig has been converted into one of the main temporary housing centers for Inside Safe, plus, the proposed development was revealed as a beneficiary of Councilmember Huizar's corruption scandal. So, those two things together, I can't imagine it become a billion-dollar tower any time soon.

Originally Posted by Radio5

Yeah, they ain't happening...

333 fig was cancelled a while ago. I'm sure in the next couple years when the olympics is on the horizon, these will get brought back to life in some other form.

[38 Geary]

[Zapatan]

333 S Fig has been converted into one of the main temporary housing centers for Inside Safe, plus, the proposed development was revealed as a beneficiary of Councilmember Huizar's corruption scandal. So, those two things together, I can't imagine it become a billion-dollar tower any time soon.

That's nice and honestly LA needs this but I hope sometime in the near future someone buys this site or another prime lot downtown and tops Library Tower or Wilshire.

California is one of the world's largest economies on its own and has been really struggling to build skyscrapers lately.

[Charmy2]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

That's nice and honestly LA needs this but I hope sometime in the near future someone buys this site or another prime lot downtown and tops Library Tower or Wilshire.

California is one of the world's largest economies on its own and has been really struggling to build skyscrapers lately.

Yeah, in the Bay Area all of our skyscraper developments that are actually in the works are on hold and most others I haven't heard a word about since last year. I really wish we as a state would build more towers, especially being the most populated state in the nation and like you said with the size of our economy.

[LAsam]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

California is one of the world's largest economies on its own and has been really struggling to build skyscrapers lately.

This isn't really an issue for just California, right? It's more of widespread issue due to lack of capital being available as well as the downtown office markets generally collapsing. We certainly don't help ourselves with things like the "anti-mansionization" tax in LA... but I don't think CA is far behind most other states in terms of current highrise construction.

[headcheckjj]

Amazing that people keep targeting Measure ULA as the culprit of evil and the root of our woes. The millionaires and billionaires will be just fine. I promise you. Taxing the rich is actually a good thing for society.

Originally Posted by LAsam

This isn't really an issue for just California, right? It's more of widespread issue due to lack of capital being available as well as the downtown office markets generally collapsing. We certainly don't help ourselves with things like the "anti-mansionization" tax in LA... but I don't think CA is far behind most other states in terms of current highrise construction.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Charmy2

Yeah, in the Bay Area all of our skyscraper developments that are actually in the works are on hold

dtla has been down this same road before, starting over 60 yrs ago....

https://youtu.be/hX96pdevHvU?si=2KRC9w0pS3tm4lrH

DTSF has long had a lot of curb appeal, dtla not as much. A person told me yrs ago that LA's downtown would have been better if it were near the ocean, like Samo. But she ignored the fact that pasadena, even further from the coast than dtla is, has done very well. Its own dt, which went into decline around the 1960s, 1970s, became gentrified over 30 yrs ago. Or not much before the time dtsf was becoming more engergized.

Ppl in dtla could have only dreamed about seeing a major upscale dept store open a new branch in their area. Now 30 yrs later, dtsf is mimicking some of the trends that ppl in dtla started witnessing around the 1950s, 1980s, 1990s. What's unnerving is that dtsf has more advantages than dtla, so if dtsf can suffer from a downturn, dtla is even more vulnerable. I don't know if ppl managing the city really realize that.

Sompo International, a global insurance brokerage, is moving from its current office in the Financial District with a 10-year, 20,582-square-foot lease occupying the 51st floor. Akerman, a global law firm, signed a multiyear, 13,306-square-foot lease, and will move from the nearby CalEdison building to occupy the entire 64th floor. And Continental Casualty Company (CNA), a commercial property and casualty insurer, signed a 10-year, 6,084-square-foot lease, and will move from 100 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica.

“The consistent interest we are seeing in the building is a testament not only to the enduring appeal of Downtown L.A., but our commitment to investing in hospitality-driven modern office space with all the perks of a great hotel,” Harlan Strader III, vice president of leasing at Silverstein Properties, said in a statement.

Ten companies have signed leases at the 1,000-foot-tall U.S. Bank Tower in the past 12 months for a combined 185,000 square feet. The new signings come after Silverstein completed a $60 million upgrade and renovation of more than 35,000 square feet of shared spaces, including a redesigned main front entrance and lobby, a juice and cocktail bar, and a grab-and-go market.

^ only one of those tenants isn't coming at the expense of other bldgs in dtla. So it's like shuffling from the same deck. Work from home & a new form of burbanization in 2023 is putting commercial real estate through the grinder.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

Amazing that people keep targeting Measure ULA as the culprit of evil and the root of our woes. The millionaires and billionaires will be just fine. I promise you. Taxing the rich is actually a good thing for society.

That's overly dramatic. I voted against it but I'm hopeful that it will work out. Still in the end, passing laws that make it harder to build in a place already known to be hard to build is a fair criticism.

[LAisthePlace]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

Amazing that people keep targeting Measure ULA as the culprit of evil and the root of our woes. The millionaires and billionaires will be just fine. I promise you. Taxing the rich is actually a good thing for society.

IMHO this is an unfair and un nuanced take.


I bet the people on this board, the same ones who are criticizing (imho rightly so) ULA, are 100% supportive of...half of it.

It was sold to the public as a mansion tax and if it was simply a tax on single family home sales over $5M I think you'd have most everyone here enthusiastically supporting it.

A realistic way to get around the wreckage of artificially low taxes on residences due to Prop 13.

However, the fact that the tax also applies to commercial properties - multi family apartments and offices - is one of the dumbest things we as a city could have done if we are wanting to see a. more housing being built b. a thriving local economy and keeping good jobs from leaving the region.

I will never fully get how insidiously it was marketed as a "mansion tax" and how short sighted it was as to our city have it apply to apartments and offices.

Yet another reason why we shouldn't be having policy on some of the most important issues facing the our city and state be shaped by a simple majority vote.

We elect people for a reason.

To create thoughtful laws so we aren't left with something that sounds good, but is incredibly flawed like ULA.

[LAsam]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

Amazing that people keep targeting Measure ULA as the culprit of evil and the root of our woes. The millionaires and billionaires will be just fine. I promise you. Taxing the rich is actually a good thing for society.

If you think real estate developers don't factor taxes like ULA into their underwriting to see if a deal will pencil out, you're flat out wrong about that. Two things can be true at once... ULA is a headwind against new real estate investment in Los Angeles AND millionaires and billionaires will be just fine. Regardless, I never said ULA is the #1 reason why tower development is slow in LA right now... you're arguing with a strawman.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

Amazing that people keep targeting Measure ULA as the culprit of evil and the root of our woes. The millionaires and billionaires will be just fine. I promise you. Taxing the rich is actually a good thing for society.

ULA is a piece of shit tax that has nothing to do with millionaires and billionaires. If you like mom and pop landlords getting screwed, less housing development and higher rents / purchase costs, by all means support ULA

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by LAisthePlace

IMHO this is an unfair and un nuanced take.


I bet the people on this board, the same ones who are criticizing (imho rightly so) ULA, are 100% supportive of...half of it.

It was sold to the public as a mansion tax and if it was simply a tax on single family home sales over $5M I think you'd have most everyone here enthusiastically supporting it.

A realistic way to get around the wreckage of artificially low taxes on residences due to Prop 13.

However, the fact that the tax also applies to commercial properties - multi family apartments and offices - is one of the dumbest things we as a city could have done if we are wanting to see a. more housing being built b. a thriving local economy and keeping good jobs from leaving the region.

I will never fully get how insidiously it was marketed as a "mansion tax" and how short sighted it was as to our city have it apply to apartments and offices.

Yet another reason why we shouldn't be having policy on some of the most important issues facing the our city and state be shaped by a simple majority vote.

We elect people for a reason.

To create thoughtful laws so we aren't left with something that sounds good, but is incredibly flawed like ULA.

Exactly right.

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

Amazing that people keep targeting Measure ULA as the culprit of evil and the root of our woes. The millionaires and billionaires will be just fine. I promise you. Taxing the rich is actually a good thing for society.

I promise you you're wrong. Talk to anyone in the business who understands this and they'll tell you the same thing. This isn't "taxing millionaires and billionaires", it's taxing new development. Contrary to common belief, margins are thin in development. And the tax is a giant portion of that margin. So investment firms (which by the way are most often pension funds, and therefore the money of every day people) will simply invest in other things instead of development. People think money HAS to go into development but it doesn't, those investment firms can and do shift allocations away from real estate to other asset classes (or other locations) when returns drop. Taxing actual mansions would be a good way to tax the rich, taxing new development is a great way to make housing unaffordable and ruin the city.

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by LAisthePlace

IMHO this is an unfair and un nuanced take.


I bet the people on this board, the same ones who are criticizing (imho rightly so) ULA, are 100% supportive of...half of it.

It was sold to the public as a mansion tax and if it was simply a tax on single family home sales over $5M I think you'd have most everyone here enthusiastically supporting it.

A realistic way to get around the wreckage of artificially low taxes on residences due to Prop 13.

However, the fact that the tax also applies to commercial properties - multi family apartments and offices - is one of the dumbest things we as a city could have done if we are wanting to see a. more housing being built b. a thriving local economy and keeping good jobs from leaving the region.

I will never fully get how insidiously it was marketed as a "mansion tax" and how short sighted it was as to our city have it apply to apartments and offices.

Yet another reason why we shouldn't be having policy on some of the most important issues facing the our city and state be shaped by a simple majority vote.

We elect people for a reason.

To create thoughtful laws so we aren't left with something that sounds good, but is incredibly flawed like ULA.

Very well said and couldn't agree more. Rule by ballot measure is terrible - people vote based on 30 second sound bites they see on youtube. That's no way to govern.

[citywatch]

• Video Link

Downtown Los Angeles is seeing a major revival. New restaurants and hotels are popping up left, right and center and one of the most exciting openings last month was Level 8, the multi-restaurant concept opened by the Houston brothers on Figueroa Street anchored in the same building as the Moxy and AC Marriott Hotels.

The twin brothers behind the restaurants and bars are LA locals—raised in Koreatown—with decades of background in the nightlife world. One of the most unusual elements in the new restaurants will be a drop-down wresting ring where actual fights will be held. The property as a whole, with its many different dining and drinking destinations—and a built-in customer base staying in 727 rooms—is offering a downtown staycation experience modeled on Las Vegas: ideally no driving and lots of fun.

Mitchell Hochberg, president of real estate developer Lightstone, the company behind the hotels, shares that,“When we thought about the design and positioning of this property, we saw an opportunity to create two distinct hotel experiences under one roof.” Given the unique personalities of the two hotels, “We had the unique challenge of carving out distinct identities for each hotel while creating a cohesive property. Moxy DTLA evokes the iconoclastic romance and adventurous spirit of the California desert, with interiors that are sexy and irreverent. For AC, we wanted something refined and composed.”

Jonnie Houston (J.H.): One of our inspirations is traveling and experiencing nightlife, entertainment and food from around the world. Weekend nights in Paris at Crazy Horse Cabaret and Moulin Rouge with dinner after was unforgettable. We hadn’t ever seen anything like this in LA. We were looking to bring that perfect balance of ambiance, performances, great vibes with unique cocktails to our guests.

L.B.Z.: Do you expect guests will mostly be local or from out of town at Level 8?

J.H.: We’re expecting a good mix of both. We have loyal guests who frequent all of our venues and many are excited to experience Level 8 and see what Mark and I have created. Guests at the hotel will have the opportunity to experience something that is truly LA, a compilation of things we have been doing for years. We also see a lot of visitors from around the world. We’re excited to share this experience with everyone.

L.B.Z.: Why did you decide to take on such an ambitious project?

M.H.: It is something that unites Angelenos and brings our melting pot of culture, culinary inspiration and entertainment together.

M.H.: Being deeply rooted in our hometown of Los Angeles, it’s only natural that we wanted to contribute to the city’s growth and create new experiences that bring people together. We were so excited to be a part of DTLA’s new vision and help drive this new experience that we’ve been working on for years. This journey aligns perfectly with our longstanding desire to create something meaningful within this city, welcoming our friends and community into an often-overlooked area.

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[colemonkee]

^ Opening night crowds look very promising! So crazy that they have a "drop down wrestling ring" in the restaurant. Would like to have been in that brainstorming session...

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by citywatch

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We went last week to Lucky Mizou and Wanderlust and it was awesome. Pretty busy for a wed and the whole concept is incredible. Eight different bars, clubs, restaurants. This will be a massive boost for downtown LA