From
Los Angeles Downtown News:
Richard Meruelo's Water World
The Connected Developer Moves Forward on His $120 Million South Park Condo Tower
by Evan George
Richard Meruelo has begun construction on his 36-story condominium tower. He plans to build at least three more high-rises in the area, breaking ground on a new one every six months. Photo by Gary Leonard.
A 36-story residential skyscraper is growing quickly at 717 W. Ninth St., eclipsing other South Park projects that remain just holes in the ground.
Developer Meruelo Maddux Properties prepared the foundation last week, and a crane began stacking a steel base for the green glass building that architects say will shimmer in three shades, from emerald to sea foam. The intent is to imitate a waterfall.
When it's built, the condominium tower will be the tallest residential project in Downtown Los Angeles and the first in a wave of housing high-rises planned for South Park. But perhaps only Richard Meruelo, who remains the largest landholder in Downtown, could call a $120 million investment "an experiment."
"In our office 717 Ninth was considered a petri dish where we were going to test out a bunch of stuff," Meruelo said.
At least three taller South Park structures will follow, he said.
The unusual building is Meruelo Maddux's first foray into new residential construction in Los Angeles (the company is nearing completion on a $17 million apartment conversion of a former bank building in the Jewelry District). The site at Ninth and Flower streets sits three long blocks from the Financial District skyline. Expected to open in mid-2009, it's a would-be early giant in the move toward higher density around Staples Center and the future L.A. Live complex.
The project's sudden lurch forward, after two years of planning, also comes as Meruelo Maddux is embroiled in legal problems stemming from two incidents.
In March, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed charges against Meruelo for myriad alleged health code violations at the Seventh Street Market, a wholesale produce center the company owns and operates. In April, the city attorney filed 16 criminal charges against Meruelo Maddux related to the firm's allegedly improper demolition of several Downtown buildings in 2005.
Meruelo said the charges would not affect the plans for 717 Ninth, or require any extra precautions.
"Frankly, I don't think there's been any of what I call 'cross-contamination' of any of those other issues with 717. I think we've had unanimous support from elected officials," he said.
'First Domino'
When Meruelo's mother Belinda bought a small dress shop at 323 S. Broadway in 1972, she planted the seed for what would become a politically influential company that now controls more than 5.2 million square feet and 54 properties in and around Downtown. As Richard Meruelo has amassed holdings in Los Angeles and Miami, he has also become a prominent donor, and drew attention when he gave $193,000 in independent expenditures to Antonio Villaraigosa's 2005 mayoral run.
Traditionally, Meruelo's Downtown properties have been industrial sites and wholesale markets, as well as a number of cold storage facilities and vacant lots.
Meruelo, more often referred to in the press as a landowner than a developer, has not been known for building high-rise projects.
He said that is about to change.
When Mereulo purchased the site at 717 W. Ninth St. more than two years ago from the CIM Group, it continued to operate as a parking lot, even as other South Park projects began sprouting around it. Directly across the street sits the nearly completed Market Lofts, which will hold the incoming Ralphs supermarket. On the other side of Ninth Street, developer Sonny Astani has been preparing the Concerto tower. Developer South Group has steamed ahead on three mid-rise condo buildings, the Elleven, Luma and Evo.
"It's kind of strange, you'd think they would have moved ahead more rapidly," said Jack Kyser, senior vice president and chief economist of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. "But maybe delaying it will prove to be a strategic move. It will probably come on the market at a favorable time, when the housing market overall has stabilized."
Meruelo insists it is perfect timing.
"Residential in Downtown is still in the first or second inning of that game," he said. "We didn't want to be a pioneer on a nearly 40-story building."
Having seen smaller projects succeed in South Park, the company has acquired a number of other parcels.
Meruelo Maddux said a succession of high-rise buildings will break ground, with a new one every six months.
Still in the planning stage are three nearby towers at 11th and Olive streets, including an unnamed 62-story skyscraper, according to a Meruelo spokesman.
"This is the first domino in a long domino chain," Meruelo said.
Making Waves
In daylight, 717 Ninth will glitter in shades of green. It will turn black opal at night, much like a large body of water.
The slim tower will hold 214 one- and two-bedroom units - just eight on each floor - with four rooftop penthouses capping the 267,339-square-foot structure. Five levels of parking will be enrobed in steel netting and a light installation. Prices for the condominiums have not yet been announced, though other new South Park high-rises have residences beginning in the $400,000s.
The green glass curtain drawn up by Meruelo's in-house architects, Mambo Architecture, will involve three kinds of panels. The watery illusion will continue on the seventh floor pool deck, with a garden of kelp-like ice plants around an infinity pool. The pool's water will flow into a glass-encased installation that falls to the 16,800-square-foot ground-floor retail space, where Meruelo hopes to lure a high-end seafood eatery.
"It's difficult to design a building around a metaphor, because you're always going to run into something that could possibly change the concept," said Mark Moreno, the project manager.
One element that Moreno and the lead architect, Manuel Funes, seized on immediately was a curved spine that runs the height of the building. The design is a conscious attempt to alter the South Park side of Downtown's skyline, both said.
"
We have taken a design philosophy to build towers, and every building we're doing is a tower. We believe it contributes more to the skyline," Funes said.
The design team had intended to go higher, in fact, Funes said, but when the company purchased the land, height limits were in place.
"There was a decision to move this forward very fast so going to amend those entitlements would have taken too long," he said.
As is, 717 Ninth would be Downtown's tallest pure residential tower, surpassing 1100 Wilshire (where the 37 stories contain 17 levels of parking) and 717 Olympic, Hanover Company's under-construction 26-story apartment complex at Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street. But it may hold that title for less than a year.
As Funes points out, "The Chrysler building was the tallest building in the world. For two weeks."
Contact Evan George at
[email protected].
page 1, 5/21/2007
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