LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[jlrobe]

Originally Posted by ladowntowner

I highly suspect that story was tongue-in-cheek, I could be wrong, but I doubt it. I heard from a fairly reliable source that the space will be turned into yet another "temporary" surface parking lot.

Cant we effectively outlaw parking lots through zoning somehow? Make a developer pay some fee (legally) of say 1 million dollars/yr to operate a parking lot? I dont know how to do that through zoning. We can limit residential density, and we can FORCE parking. Why cant we have a cap on parking density or something?

On the flip side, we can pay a developer 250,000/yr if they develop and maintain a park instead using our Quimby fees. That we can give them options

a) Dirt lot that costs nothing and generates nothing
b) A parking lot that generates revenue but costs 1 million in operation costs
c) A park that costs little to construct (Just a grass field and bushes will do), but generates 250,000/yr.

[LAofAnaheim]

Parking lots have a parking tax, which is passed through to the drivers. If you assess an operating cost, it will get passed to the drivers anyways. The benefit is that parking will get more expensive, and maybe less of an option to drive into downtown. We have the cheapest city parking in the entire nation, especially for a top-tier large city (i.e. Chicago, NY, SF)

A good option, which I've seen in SF, is we have city-owned parking garages, therby reducing the need for developers to incorporate parking into their buildings/retail spaces. Makes is cheaper and easier for them to build, and the city gets the parking revenues. I'd rather see that.

[colemonkee]

Don't try this at home, kids. Actually, don't try it at all. I don't know what I was thinking. Evo sticking out into the skyline. Taken yesterday while driving on the 10 east to 110 north connector road.

[Wright Concept]

Originally Posted by LAofAnaheim

Parking lots have a parking tax, which is passed through to the drivers. If you assess an operating cost, it will get passed to the drivers anyways. The benefit is that parking will get more expensive, and maybe less of an option to drive into downtown. We have the cheapest city parking in the entire nation, especially for a top-tier large city (i.e. Chicago, NY, SF)

A good option, which I've seen in SF, is we have city-owned parking garages, therby reducing the need for developers to incorporate parking into their buildings/retail spaces. Makes is cheaper and easier for them to build, and the city gets the parking revenues. I'd rather see that.

This is also done in Santa Monica and Pasadena to turn their Downtown's around.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Don't try this at home, kids. Actually, don't try it at all. I don't know what I was thinking. Evo sticking out into the skyline. Taken yesterday while driving on the 10 east to 110 north connector road.

Least there was traffic so you wouldn't have, you know, died.

[Affrojuice]

I have thought the same thing about city built parking structures for a while. Parking structures put in strategic places, like somewhere along 7th for restaurant row, on or close to Broadway, and another one between the historic district and civic center, would really help spur development. I know parking structures are not always great to look at, but if done well, with retail on the ground floor etc, can blend into the urban fiber, even help with densification.
I would rather have this:

Santa Monica's LEED civic center parking structure

than this:

from fridayinla

[JDRCRASH]

Wow! Concerto seems to be speeding up!

I really wanted Grand Ave. to break ground in February....
Funny, because it was announced only days after I sarcastically said it wouldn't in the summer.
Go figure.

[Affrojuice]

with those guys working hard on saturdays, it will just be a matter of time until the ritz comes out of the ground and becomes the new addition to our skyline

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by Affrojuice

I have thought the same thing about city built parking structures for a while. Parking structures put in strategic places, like somewhere along 7th for restaurant row, on or close to Broadway, and another one between the historic district and civic center, would really help spur development. I know parking structures are not always great to look at, but if done well, with retail on the ground floor etc, can blend into the urban fiber, even help with densification.
I would rather have this:

Santa Monica's LEED civic center parking structure

than this:

from fridayinla

I recalled seeing the Santa Monica parking garage a number of months back featured as an "Eyesore of the Month" at James Howard Kunstler's website. It looks much better in the evening shot than by daylight (which you can see in the link), and of course would be an improvement over the embarassment pictured just above, smack dab in the middle of our financial district which looks more like it's straight out of beautiful downtown Baghdad or Beirut. 🞵🞵🞵? Even a - *gasp* horror of horrors - surface parking lot would be an improvement over this space. Why doesn't the city get on the case of the landowner to clean it up???

[WonderlandPark]

Basically Kunstler hates anything modern, looking at his website. I like the garage, day or night.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

So much for citywatche's happiness.
Ahh well...so how bout them Lakers?

hey, how about them Clippers!?

Actually, I had steeled myself for bad news about the proj's time table cuz of blogdowntown's description of comments made by Frank gehry. I figured if he, of all ppl, was skeptical about the devlpr's funding----& in light of financing problems that slowed down the devlpr of Concerto over a yr ago, even before the mortgage industry had gotten really deep into trouble, & that are still holding back the glass tower (& probably the devlpr of LA Central too?)----that bad news was just around the corner.

So now the big question is if Related allowed their PR dept to release a statement a few wks ago that makes groundbreaking in Feb sound like a certainty, & if also in December they got additional funding, & if the Grand Ave devlpt is one of their "current projs", then they better at least start tearing down the parking structure in the next few wks.

12.17.07

On Monday, Related Cos., the developer behind the Time Warner Center in New York, said it had received a capital infusion of nearly $1.4 billion from companies including the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government and Goldman Sachs. At a time when the credit markets are still on the couch, the deal gives the private developer a fattened purse to fund future development.

While Related's current projects are fully financed, the capital will help fund New York City residential and commercial projects in the future, the company said.

Related is competing to develop a 26-acre site atop rail yards on the edge of the Hudson River in New York, with media and entertainment company News Corp. as the anchor tenant in its proposal. Other current projects include a $3 billion Los Angeles development and the $3 billion Snowmass Village Resort in Colorado. Related completed the Time Warner Center in 2004.

Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Construction work is underway on The Grand, one of the largest vertically-integrated, mixed-use projects under construction in the nation. The multi-phase 3.6 million square foot development spanning three city blocks will cost an estimated $3 billion to develop. Phase I has been designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry for the project developer, Related Companies. Demolition of the parking garage at Grand Avenue and First Street will commence in February 2008 following remedial site work.

Here's a good example of why I wanna get the gap across from Disney filled in ASAP, a posting by jlrobe at SSC:

PS: I went to see the opera last night at the music center. It was an amazing performance. Truly world class. The ONLY difference between this opera performance and SF's, was that SF had a real city wrapped around the hall! People left the peformance on an active, integrated, and urban landscape.

When I was in the sold out Hall with other multicultural theatre goers I felt like I could be in NYC or anywhere else. When I stepped out into the music center's small plaza, I still felt great. Then when I got to the street, I was transported from NYC/SF, back to LA. I saw city hall, christmas lights, the walt disney concert hall, and then NO people to appreciate it. It really saddens me. I started to look at the GRAND's current parking podium and I was envisioning the retail, the towers, etc. It made me smile! I really hope it gets done.

The big pieces are already there. City Hall, the cathedral, an expanded colburn, MOCA, Mark Taper, Ahmanson, Dorothy Chandler, the Disney Hall, and even a freakin subway. We are getting closer and closer to a real cultural "center". I can smell it.

Hopefully when I go the opera next year, I will have a beautiful crane to look at!

Even if a whole lot more ppl still aren't walking around Grand Ave even after Related puts up its new bldgs, at least the fugliness of the deadzone parking lot currently there won't be a constant reminder of how a major part of the hood hasn't changed much in over 40 yrs. The gap of all the empty land or depressing parking lots along 1st St, from Grand Ave to Hill St, combined with the lack of ppl out on the sidewalks, screams "THIS HOOD STILL AIN'T READY FOR PRIME TIME!!"

BTW, thanks to the internet, & ppl like ralossi, blogdowntown & others, disappointing news is easier to take. IOW, over 10 yrs ago, everyone often was in the dark about the latest info regarding new projs in the hood. The local media, esp the LA times, wouldn't bother to say a peep about the status of various projs. So if there was bad news, it wouldn't be known to the public til months, if not yrs, after the fact. And by that time, ppl's hopes & expectations were even higher than they'd otherwise be.

[JDRCRASH]

This is why i'm starting to distrust the Media. They can't confirm information but release it anyway.

The 10 minute triangle has been in the works for over half a century, and it's STILL not done.
This is getting tremendously ridiculous. It shouldn't have to be this hard to build high-rises in L.A. We've go to make it easier.

BTW, I heard that the Industrial Land Protection ordinance would protect 80% of the Downtown Industrial and Manufacturing District!!!!!
Now do some of you still support it?

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

This is why i'm starting to distrust the Media. They can't confirm information but release it anyway.

The 10 minute triangle has been in the works for over half a century, and it's STILL not done.
This is getting tremendously ridiculous. It shouldn't have to be this hard to build high-rises in L.A. We've go to make it easier.

BTW, I heard that the Industrial Land Protection ordinance would protect 80% of the Downtown Industrial and Manufacturing District!!!!!
Now do some of you still support it?

Now what are you rattling on about JDRCRASH?

It's not the 10 minute triangle, but the Ten Minute Diamond. According to this article from the Los Angeles Downtown News, it was 90% complete or underway by end of third quarter '07, having been drafted/approved exactly 10 years prior to that date. And what does it even have to do with making high-rises easier to build, precisely???

I'm sure that many of us "still" support the "Industrial Land Protection" ordinance, for the reasons previously stated, which I will summarize:

1. It can serve to keep office/residential development more focused and dense where it is currently zoned.
2. As demand requires, zoning on the edges can be changed to permit residential, since nothing is set in stone.
3. There are currently plenty of gaps in blocks already zoned for high-rise office/residential that will remain so for many years to come.
4. Why should we allow/encourage more willy-nilly development by zoning needed industrial and manufacturing blocks out of existence?

At this point, we'll be lucky if any of the previously considered "sure shot" developments that haven't already actually broke ground ever (or any time soon) get built. Stop whining about imagined (by you) "lost" development opportunities that have no economic basis. Have confidence that when/if the demand is there and it makes economic sense, developments will be proposed and built.

[Quixote]

January 15, 2008


From Flickr, by fridayinla


From Flickr, by fridayinla

[Quixote]

January 15, 2008


From Flickr, by fridayinla


From Flickr, by fridayinla


From Flickr, by fridayinla


From Flickr, by fridayinla

[Quixote]

January 15, 2008


From Flickr, by fridayinla


From Flickr, by fridayinla


From Flickr, by fridayinla


From Flickr, by fridayinla

[JDRCRASH]

Good photos Westsidelife. Although I think the corner Billboard of Hanover doesn't quite seem stretched enough on the Figueroa side.
FridayinLa seems to have a favorite photo spot for each project.


Hey guys, shouldn't we be starting a Los Angeles Downtown Project Rundown 4.0 pretty soon here?

What is the limit on how many pages there can be in a thread?

[colemonkee]

Great shots as always, friday. And thanks for posting them westside.

JDR, these threads can have up to 10,000 posts now. Your last post was #3,374, so we have a ways to go until we'll need 4.0

[JDRCRASH]

10,000! Sheesh.

I guess that's good because it saves the trouble of starting a new one.

[LAofAnaheim]

Yogurt wars are going to get hotter (or cooler?) in downtown LA! Cantaloop is soon to open in California Plaza.