LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[LA311]

to the 50% reservation mark at Park Fifth in only 2 1/2 months!

[Echo Park]

Originally Posted by citywatch

[/b]The auto centric nature of LA & the crowded fwys are a big joke. However, if you----& I'm not referring to you personally, LAB, as much as I'm referring to locals in general----feel that transit should be our No 1, 2, 3 priorities, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. That's cuz the $$ for projs like extending the red line, & the work---inc the politics---required to get such proposals finalized are going to take a loooong time to put together. I don't wanna burst your optimism, but if you're being realistic about this issue you'd have to admit that we'll probably all be old & gray by the time we can ride the subway to SaMo.[/b]

Wait are you saying new rail lines actually cost money, and LOTS of money at that? Whoa! I had no idea! I thought these things were provided by the government at no cost! *smacks forehead* How silly of me and other transit advocates, because we all thought for sure the purple line would be finished by next week. citywatch, you truly are the all knowing beacon of revelation. Urban planning studies be damned *tears up urban planning books and throws the debris out the window* You're right, lets put these silly ideas of mass transit on the back burner and make building shiny new towers for the rich as priorities 1, 2, 3. What an exciting city we live in.

[k3d]

Originally Posted by Echo Park

Wait are you saying new rail lines actually cost money, and LOTS of money at that? Whoa! I had no idea! I thought these things were provided by the government at no cost! *smacks forehead* How silly of me and other transit advocates, because we all thought for sure the purple line would be finished by next week. citywatch, you truly are the all knowing beacon of revelation. Urban planning studies be damned *tears up urban planning books and throws the debris out the window* You're right, lets put these silly ideas of mass transit on the back burner and make building shiny new towers for the rich as priorities 1, 2, 3. What an exciting city we live in.

Why does your post say "Let Malibu burn" at the bottom?

[DTLA]

Quote: The anticipated growth has recently sparked some eye-opening projects. The largest is Park Fifth, a 890-foot (270-metre), $1 billion high-rise condominium that will house 726 residential units ranging in price from $400,000 to $5 million. The building, to be completed in 2010, has been in presales for just over two months and 50 percent of the units have been sold, according to developers.

Is park fifth 890ft. or 820ft? I'm kind of skeptical of this article if they can't get the height correct, but I don't know if the height has changed recently, or if I'm just wrong about the height. It does have the presale time correct, though, so that's a good sign. If it is true, then that's amazingly good news.

[Quixote]

^^ Park Fifth's website says it's to be 850ft.

[BrandonJXN]

This thread makes me lol.

Where is Coleman? He needs to save us with something witty.

[Echo Park]

Originally Posted by k3d

Why does your post say "Let Malibu burn" at the bottom?

It's a signature. It's the title of a Mike Davis essay. Fitting for these times I believe.

http://www.radicalurbantheory.com/mdavis/letmalibuburn.html

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Echo Park

make building shiny new towers for the rich as priorities 1, 2, 3. What an exciting city we live in.

oh, brother.

[DTLA]

^^^ I'm gonna take a chance and say that's the first el che reference ever on skyscraperpage.


So, this site says park fifth is 820ft, the park fifth site says its 850ft, and the article says its 890ft. Has the height changed, or can people just not keep track of the right numbers?

[citywatch]

Insider's Viewpoint: Walking in Downtown L.A.

By MICHAEL GOTTLIEB
CREJ Editor
OCTOBER 29, 2007

I did something extraordinary this month: I took a walk in downtown L.A. After grabbing a cup of coffee at the new Starbucks located at the base of The South Group's Elleven residential project, I stepped past the terminally hip, seemingly unemployed coffee shop denizens that always hang out at coffee shops and headed down 11th Street toward the Nokia Theatre to see what all the excitement was about.

Along the way I walked around scaffolding and beneath massive cranes erecting new residential towers on both sides of the street. In the windows of the completed projects, I saw real estate leasing signs for ground-floor retail, such as the sign announcing the arrival of BottleRock, a wine bar, which will be opening in street-level space in Forest City's Met Lofts. There were plenty of people walking past me on the street from red-shirted Staples Center employees and construction workers changing shifts to people who were clearly area residents and workers.

Upon arrival at Nokia, the first part of the $2.5 billion L.A. Live project to open, I was reminded of Vegas with the 5,000 square feet of LED screens flashing and speakers pumping music in the 40,000-square-foot plaza that AEG hopes will become "Times Square West." Across the street Staples Center felt almost staid in comparison to the palpable energy emanating from Nokia, as people wandered through the area in preparation for the Eagles and Dixie Chicks concert scheduled that night to open the 7,100-seat auditorium.

I then headed north along Flower Street toward CIM Group's Market Lofts project. I figured I'd pick up a few groceries at the Ralphs Fresh Fare that opened there this summer after a 50-year downtown grocery absence. Along the way, in the distance, I could see 1100 Wilshire, the long-time office albatross, now occupied as a high-end residential property.

Passing the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf - apparently you can't have a Starbucks without a Coffee Bean nearby - the tables out front were filled with USC students. Although it was a weekday afternoon, the Ralphs was busy too, with a line at the deli, reflective of the reported $1 million a week in sales Ralphs is doing at the new supermarket. As I left with my purchases, I couldn't help but feel a little resentment about how much nicer this Ralphs is compared to the Ralphs near my home in Sherman Oaks.

So what, you might ask, is so extraordinary about my little walk? Everything. The scene I just described would have been impossible a year or so ago, because none of it existed. I would never have gotten a cup of coffee. I would never had taken in the sights of Nokia. I never would have been able to buy groceries. I would never have taken the walk in the first place and that's coming from an Angeleno who does walk in this city because there is no better way to get a feel for a place than by walking it, in my opinion.

Skeptics may debate the impact of L.A. Live and other new developments on their ability to drive sustained energy onto the streets of downtown. But take a walk in South Park. You can't deny what you see, feel and taste on the streets of downtown L.A. as the area continues to build on the energy of Staples Center and the 40,000 residents expected to be living in the four-mile-square downtown area by 2009.

It may be imperfect. It may not be that 24/7 streetscape needed to validate a vibrant downtown, yet. But as more pieces of the puzzle are filled in, such as the start of the first phase of the Grand Avenue project, which Nelson Gilmore, chairman of the Grand Avenue Committee, says will happen in December, there are a couple of long-standing bets that I will be collecting on from those who bet against downtown. Soon everybody will be walking in downtown L.A.

[JDRCRASH]

The good news keeps coming!
More!!! More!!!

[jlrobe]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesBeauty

Well, from the way I look at it. It's just a little too much work (basically financially insurmountable anything short of a natural disaster aiding the wrecking ball) to reclaim this town for pedestrians on a metro-wide scale. LA needs to focus its "pedestrian friendly" urban developments in "strategic" areas that are substantial in size relative to the pedestrian experience. In this case, the eastside of LA offers some hope to counteract the atrophy given its historical context dating back just before the car craze culture exploded into the eventual embarassing mess we experience every day.

interesting for you to say that. I think LA can take back much of its city, hood by hood. A north/south line along sepulveda connected to a purple line to the sea and an expo line would open up west LA/Palms. Westwood blvd could be a completely ped area from westwood village to the west side pavilion. Santa Monica and wilshire in those areas would be hard to change, but it can be done.

West LA west of the 405 could easily be ped friendly if it wanted to. Wilshire, santa monica, and pico could easily accomodate ped friendly orientations although olympic and sunset are lost causes.

Ktown, hollywood, silver lake-los feliz-echo park, downtown highland park, expo park, and venice could be transformed to ped neighorhoods with some effort. Some intersections would be tough, but a transformation is possible in many LA areas. Sure the whole city cannot be redeveloped, and some areas cannot be completely pedestrian, but many of them are in position to be more ped friendly than not.

Dont give up hope! Sometimes I am overwhelmed by LA's problems and autocentric appearance, but I micronize LA and think of improving LA hood by hood.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

^ Not that I disagree with you (as I'm one of the biggest transit advocates on this forum - I attend pretty much all transit meetings and voice my support of expanding rail at those meetings), but again, I refer back to my own post in response to your ideal proposals:

What your vision entails is "a little too much work and basically financially insurmountable" at least for the foreseeable future. We cannot continue to borrow against the future (bonds) to finance all these projects. The state and the country are in a huge deficit and transit is just not a high priority compared to infrastructure catering to suburbia (the automobile). The war, highways, etc. take priority over subways.

[jlrobe]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesBeauty

^ Not that I disagree with you (as I'm one of the biggest transit advocates on this forum - I attend pretty much all transit meetings and voice my support of expanding rail at those meetings), but again, I refer back to my own post in response to your ideal proposals:

What your vision entails is "a little too much work and basically financially insurmountable" at least for the foreseeable future. We cannot continue to borrow against the future (bonds) to finance all these projects. The state and the country are in a huge deficit and transit is just not a high priority compared to infrastructure catering to suburbia (the automobile). The war, highways, etc. take priority over subways.

I will make this post short since it doesnt pertain to downtown directly.

Just for the record, I know you are a big supporter of transit and I respect your point of view.

[jlrobe]

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/11/park_fifth_rumo.php#reader_comments

I heard from curbed that park fifth is having some serious financial problems and is likely to be scrapped.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

If 50 percent of the units were sold in 2 ½ months well before construction started, it wouldn’t seem like a deal that an investor would want to back out of.

Was the 50 percent sold an accurate number, or a number the developer released with a little inflation to make the project appear in good shape?

Anyone know for sure?

[colemonkee]

hmm, that's not good news if it's true, but let's wait for an official announcement before we throw in the towel. Curbed is known for being a maven for downtown naysayers. At this point I would take it exactly for what it is - a rumor.

[jlrobe]

Originally Posted by DowntownCharlieBrown

If 50 percent of the units were sold in 2 ½ months well before construction started, it wouldn’t seem like a deal that an investor would want to back out of.

Was the 50 percent sold an accurate number, or a number the developer released with a little inflation to make the project appear in good shape?

Anyone know for sure?

I posted the same comment on curbed, however, no units are "sold" they are simply "reserved". This project can still be considered high risk by many. People can opt out and simply lose their deposit and pay a fine. If the market crashes, I think people would rather eat the 10k than assume massive negative equity.

Who knows if it is true, but curbed claims the source is legit.
Let's just hope LA central and grand ave finish by december. They are the mega projects that give other developers the chance to take a chance on downtown over the next 2-3 years.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

Good point. That’s true, the units are not sold, just reserved. Still, that many potential buyers putting down 10k, knowing they could lose it if they decide not to buy shows a lot of interest in this project.

Can LA Central get started already. That little teaser they put out that ground breaking was just 3 weeks away was a couple of months ago. Putting up the fence around the construction site just made me buy into “maybe this developer is going to hit their mark”

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by DowntownCharlieBrown

Was the 50 percent sold an accurate number, or a number the developer released with a little inflation to make the project appear in good shape?

I took the Reuters article, the one about Asians with $$ buying in DT, at face value. But then I realized the most important part of that story was obviously exaggerated & incorrect. That's the claim parkfifth has been in presales for only 2 months, when everyone here knows the proj started offering condos to buyers way before August. I don't know if the reporter got the 2 months figure from the devlpr or not----not a good sign if he did----but I do hope the 50% presold figures at least is closer to the truth.

None of this may matter if the devlpr is running into funders who are even more skittish than what Sonny Astani encountered AFTER his Concerto highrise condo proj already had broken ground. And based on what a friend told me, I do know that parkfifth's predicted startup in the 1st qtr of 2008 is no more likely to happen than what occurred with the Grand Ave proj's original publicized groundbreaking date of October....2006!!

And I hope what's starting to look like a really dragged out start of actual construction on the site of the LA Central proj, esp since it at least has a construction barrier around it, isn't going to be a repeat of Concerto.

With this recent news about parkfifth----& if you add up all the bits (or rumors) of the story, it does look worrisome----I sure will be if the Related Cos doesn't start prepping the site of their Grand Ave proj within the next 30 days.

Because of all the problems in the mortgage industry, & the constant news of home prices falling, I have a hunch that only 2 projs may actually break ground over the next 6 to, even worse, 12 months: LA Central & Grand Ave.