Quote:
|
Originally Posted by plinko
a little birdy told me that the Glass House is $5M over budget in terms of the design vs. what it was projected to take to construct the tower. I have no other information on the status or where it might go from here, but I wouldn't expect a groundbreaking anytime soon...
|
I'm guessing you're referring to the Glass tower proj catercorner to elleven. If so, & if your source is accurate, then that's a big letdown because the devlpr several months ago made it sound like it was a given that his proj would break ground by April, & a real estate analyst claimed the glass tower was one of the more realistic proposals out there.
OTOH, is anyone surprised by this news?:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ladowntowner
The Titan Organization bought the club and the lot it sits on for $30 million with the intent to build two soaring condo towers. But with the slowdown in the for-sale housing market, the developer appears to be putting those plans on hold for at least a few years.
|
If I were a betting person, I'd remove the Olympic & cityhouse towers from a list of proposed projs for DT & leave them off for the next several yrs. I don't wanna say forever, but even before Astani & the devlprs of the Hanover bldg & Medallion started saying it's tougher to make projs pencil out today, or South Pk said recently that funding has gotten tougher for their 4th phase bldg, the Titan towers did seem like a lot of pie in the sky.
The ONLY proj that may break ground before Oct is the Medallion at 4th & Main, which is a 6 floor, wood framed bldg. But I'm not even sure about that one either, since it already has been delayed repeatedly. After that, I'm guessing preparation will begin on bunker hill for the Grand ave proj.
That photo of the model of parkfifth, assuming it's to scale, makes the main tower look like it won't be much taller than the Gas tower. I hope that's not a hint that the devlpr is BSing about the actual or eventual height of his bldg (of 850' tall).
So now with the Titan towers on the back burner, that leaves parkfifth as the only remaining truly big skyscraper type of proj (meaning taller than the LA Live hotel & main Grand ave tower) that may rise in the hood in the immediate future.
What bothers me is the devlprs of the Olympic & Cityhouse towers said funding for their proj already was lined up, meaning they sounded not much less confident about their deal than the devlprs of the parkfifth & Glass tower have sounded about theirs.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Easy
Probably later this year from what they've indicated.
|
They've actually apparently revised that date to the 1st qtr of 2008, or sometime between Jan to March of 08. If I had to bet on the likelihood of that occurring, I'd be unsure of which way to go, because not only has the devlpr's start up date changed, but he's said the height of the tower will depend on how things pencil out. Someone claimed the devlpr has said actual groundbreaking depends on early buyer response to the proj.
Could all those $$$ ads in the LA Times be an early marketing test for the devlpr? IOW, if not enough ppl are responding in a serious enough way to those ads, will the 1st qtr of 2008 end up being the 1st qtr of 2009, or 2010, or later?
With all the news about the Titan, glass tower & parkfifth projs either being bad or uncertain, here's something that at least gives a hopeful sign of other changes occurring in the hood:
A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Pete's
The Downtown Renaissance Is Finally Spilling Onto the Streets
by Kathryn Maese
On a recent Thursday night I had a sudden hankering for a Hellman Burger, so my husband and I walked over from our Historic Core condo to Pete's Café. As we crossed at the corner of Spring and Fourth streets, he spotted a colleague who had just recently moved into the Old Bank District. It seems more and more people we know are coming Downtown, or at least entertaining the idea. My husband's colleague had been checking out the Continental Gallery, which had some stunning photos of Downtown buildings and architecture on display. It also happened to be the monthly Art Walk, with dozens of galleries hosting simultaneous openings with free wine, music and of course, art.
I'd been to several Art Walks before, but the energy on the street June 14 seemed so different and lively. Pete's was louder and busier than I'd ever seen it, and we were lucky to grab a table in the bar. As we settled in for dinner and a few cocktails, a neighbor joined us and we couldn't help but talk about the changes unfolding - people everywhere, businesses open later, baby strollers, new retail coming in, less of a menacing feeling as you walk down the street.
Then there was the Art Walk. It's been a growing phenomenon over the past year, but the frenzied level on this night surprised me. Before making the rounds, we stopped in at Ray's grocery store across the street for some gum - a necessity after Pete's garlic mashed potatoes - and checked out the new expansion. When it first opened, the tiny market only stocked a few basics. These days it carries everything from chicken stock and espresso to gossip mags. Ray even has plans to open a restaurant across the street.
We headed south on Main Street to the corner of Fifth, where a jazz band was set up on the sidewalk in front of Pharmaka gallery. It felt like an outdoor fair with dozens of people strolling what was once one of the shadiest parts of Downtown. Every light-filled window I passed was stuffed with people ogling art and mingling. As we neared Bert Green Fine Art I noticed that the now-illuminated Main Street Grille was coming along nicely in a sketchy space that once harbored drug dealing and other illegal activity. Now galleries have cropped up just about everywhere. Bert Green is even staying open till 9 p.m. on Thursdays through the summer.
I have to admit, though I enjoyed the art, it was more fun to people watch and check out the guy in the window of Green's gallery as he worked on his laptop and drank wine. We ran into a few people we knew, neighbors and friends, before hitting Downtown News photographer Gary Leonard's workshop off the beaten path at Eighth and Olive. We'd just missed Carlos Guitarlos, who stopped in to sign a few CDs and chat up Gary, but it's well worth the walk to check out the city's wacky, poignant and almost forgotten moments in black and white.
After drinking some cheap wine, we stopped into the new and entertaining Seven Grand whiskey bar across the way, which was unbelievably packed. Thank God no lines out the door yet, but the night was still young. The patio was filled but our luck held out and we squeezed in at a table where we whiled away an hour over some whiskey and beers. Though Vince Vaughn was spotted hanging out here the other weekend, the bar still has its neighborhood vibe intact.
On the way back it was cool to see the DASH bus still running for the Art Walk, and I hope it catches on. I'm already planning to hop on next month and bring some new friends into the Downtown fold.
We passed up the Miss Downtown L.A. Pageant at the Broadway Bar and instead rounded out the night with a pit stop at Bar 107 - also elbow-room only - and then finally popped into our favorite secret watering hole. Apparently it's not that hush hush since several hundred people knew the password and were packed in like sardines.
I admit feeling a twinge that others are discovering the neighborhood. But I'm more thrilled that the reality of Downtown's revitalization has finally jumped beyond the cold construction cranes and renderings of multi-billion projects to a more human level, to the street level. The Art Walk is just one example. In the last few months I've seen more people on the street than ever before. Driving home late a few nights, I've noticed activity everywhere. The bars have lines out the door, restaurants are filled, and crowds mill about on the sidewalks well into the evening.
For the last two years I've been used to having Downtown Los Angeles to myself after everyone's fled home from work. But these days there's a permanent change afoot. It's hard to miss. Even my building is finally getting retail this year. A new sushi restaurant and bar is going in and will add even more life to my neck of the woods at Third and Spring. I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that it'll potentially be open till 2 a.m., but it's what I signed on for after all.
Downtown isn't getting any less crowded. But that's a good thing.
page 6, 6/25/2007
Prev
If it's any consolation, it sounds like we'll have another hip party place during the interim:
Linear Mode
