LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

As for a skybridge; I guess it's not totally out-there, since the Bonaventure already has several:

Just because the Bonaventure was built with skybridges, and more recently G.H. Palmer Associates has been incorporating them into their developments that does not mean that they are not "totally out-there" as a concept at a time when the city is attempting to become more pedestrian oriented. These just serve to create stand-alone fortress-like projects that do nothing beneficial at the street level. This is a passé design element intended to appeal to suburbanites that live in fear of mixing with the "riff-raff" on the street in a "dangerous" city. Ever venture around on the sidewalks surrounding the Bonaventure? There's not many less inviting, anti-pedestrian stretches anywhere in the CBD or all of downtown - it's simply horrid. Just look at those ugly, cold and sterile concrete walls in the pic you posted.

They should be outlawed from new construction and the ones that exist should be removed.

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by LongBeachUrbanist

"Use" that location, eh?

Uhm... errrr... yeah. To park my... ehhh... car. Yeah, that's the ticket!

[bobcat]

Ho, hum...

Grand Avenue Project Facing Another Delay
By DANIEL MILLER - 11/17/2008
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff

Related Cos. is unlikely to break ground on the $2.7 billion Grand Avenue project in February, marking yet another delay for the downtown development that has already missed several start dates.

The likely postponement means the New York City developer for the first time would have to pay $250,000 fines for every month construction is not begun – fines enacted in July by the joint powers authority overseeing Grand Avenue as a way to prod movement.

Related has had trouble securing a construction loan for the 3.6 million-square-foot mixed-use development near Walt Disney Concert Hall. And with the credit markets still locked down it appears unlikely that the loan can be secured in time.

“February would be a push under the best of circumstances. Nobody is even talking to people about making loans right now,” said Bill Witte, president of Related of California.

“I think the fact that we and many others are waiting for the capital markets to clear up is not a surprise to anybody.”

Even so, the delay would be a disappointment to county and city officials who have pushed Related hard to move forward on Grand Avenue, which in its first phase would include a luxury hotel, residences, retail space and a 16-acre civic park.

The postponement also dampens expectations that were raised last month when Related announced it had received a $100 million equity injection for the project from three South Korean insurance companies. That infusion came just six months after Related secured $100 million in equity financing from Istithmar, the investment vehicle of Dubai’s royal family.

The $1 billion initial phase was originally to have been completed by 2011 but a year of delays has pushed that back to 2012. But with the trouble in the credit markets it’s unclear whether Related could even meet the later target date.

“Until the credit markets unfreeze that project is going to be on hold,” said Mark Tarczynski, a senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. and prominent commercial real estate broker in downtown Los Angeles. “It is not the fault of the project or the market fundamentals. It is just a debt problem.”

Related has until February 2011 to start the project – and would have to pay $250,000 for each month construction is not under way until then – under the July action taken by the Los Angeles Grand Avenue Authority, an entity of the Los Angeles County and the L.A. Community Redevelopment Agency. After February 2011 the project would go back to the authority for reconsideration.

Related plans to submit 80 percent completed construction documents to the joint powers authority by Dec. 15. The 80 percent figure represents what Related believes is necessary in order to go out to bid for a construction loan.

“At that point we’d be ready to move toward a construction loan closing, but because of the continued uncertainty in the capital markets we really don’t know when the window will open,” Witte said. He added that after a loan is secured construction could begin in “a matter of months.”

But as Related waits for the capital markets to thaw, the payments to the joint powers authority will start to add up; the company could wind up forking over $6 million in a worst-case scenario.

The payments could be used to help fund the affordable housing component of the development’s second phase, said Martha Welborne, managing director of the Grand Avenue Committee, a citizens body that oversees and advises on the project.

“It will just play out as it plays out. They have every incentive to want to get going and I’m sure the $250,000 payment is additional incentive,” Welborne said.

Meanwhile, the design is continuing on the 16-acre park, which connects Grand Avenue to Los Angeles City Hall to the south. Welborne said construction of the park is slated to begin in first quarter 2010 with funding already secured by a $50 million ground rent payment Related has made for land.

That payment, along with Related’s ability to secure $200 million in funding from foreign investors, has calmed fears that Related will walk away from the project.

The chair of the Grand Avenue Authority is Gloria Molina, the Los Angeles County Supervisor. She could not be reached for comment. However, her policy director, Gerry Hertzberg, did speak.

“They are spending money as we speak,” said Hertzberg, who is also is a member of the Grand Avenue Committee, the citizens group. “There is every signal that they’ve tried to go forward. It is an international problem we are looking at.”

Indeed, the Grand Avenue project is in better shape than some other big urban redevelopment schemes cooked up around the nation during the real estate boom. For example, a multibillion dollar plan to build office towers, apartments and parks over rail yards in Manhattan collapsed in the spring.

The delay also could have one positive effect on the project – a decrease in construction costs, which until this year had been escalating rapidly amid a shortage of construction workers and high worldwide demand for steel. Construction costs are 25 percent off last year’s high according to one estimate.

“I would not characterize this as a blow. We are holding our own downtown,” said Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Association, a downtown booster organization. “I don’t have any question that it is going forward, but the developer can’t self fund this project. They have to get financing somewhere.”
Los Angeles Business Journal, Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved.

[colemonkee]

That doesn't come as a huge surprise, unfortunately. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't break ground at all in 2009. But that might just create the market conditions (re: lower construction costs) that could make the deal a little sweeter for Related.

[citywatch]

[BigDan35]

I'm so sick of hearing about this — —. Delays delays —' delays.

[LAmarODom420]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

Nice pictures; but when do the Supergraphics come online?


As for a skybridge; I guess it's not totally out-there, since the Bonaventure already has several:

Don't get me started on the Bonaventure...or William Pereira...how did he get some many commissions??? Besides the Transamerica Pyramid, his buildings are a haunting negation of an integrated, thriving urban entity...Blade Runner anyone?

[WonderlandPark]

Months ago, I got heat for saying that this will probably get delayed again and again, well, told you so. Look for Park 5th to cancel or delay indefinitely.

[BigDan35]

Originally Posted by WonderlandPark

Months ago, I got heat for saying that this will probably get delayed again and again, well, told you so. Look for Park 5th to cancel or delay indefinitely.

Nobody likes an "I TOLD YOU SO!" person.

[yeah215]

Really a lot could be done to make the Boneventure a lot more friendly of a neighbor. The ground floor can be remodeled to be opend up a bit more to hte street. The glass can be reglazed with a lighter, more translucent color, and the blank concrete can become a place for an interesting painting, mosaic, even advertisement billboard space. It is just a question of investment into the property.

All of this would need to be reciprocated by some of the other surrounding property owners. They also should improve the accessibility of their properties. The city should also help by reworking the street scape. Perhaps take a way a lane of traffic and expand the sidewalks, plant nice trees and add some street furniture, kiosks and newsstands.

I don't think that sky-bridges are necessarily bad. I just think they need to be built in the proper context. They should be designed to connect single projects that span two sides of a street. Also, they should be seen as supplemental to the street level crossings, not a replacement for them. For example, I have no problem with the sky bridge between the LA hotel and the ballrooms. That seems to make sense to me. It connects two parts of the same project. It wouldn't make sense for people who are at a convention at the hotel to have to go down the lobby level, then outside, cross the street, back into another building, and then upstairs to attend a meeting in the hotel's conference facilities. That seems silly. The sky bridge should be for that type of connectivity, not as a replacement to streetscape integration.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by WonderlandPark

Months ago, I got heat for saying that this will probably get delayed again and again, well, told you so. Look for Park 5th to cancel or delay indefinitely.

It seems like it was only a few months ago that I thought it was reasonable to assume that proj, originally announced to be under way in late 2007, wouldn't break ground til the revised date of 1st qtr of this yr. Then another revised date of last qtr of 2008, or right around now, sounded reasonable. But now the idea of that tower beginning to rise sometime even in 2009, even the last day of 09, doesn't sound realistic. So it's becoming deja vu all over again.

The devlpr of park 5th proposed another large proj back in the 1980s, which also never saw the light of day. I hate to think that history is repeating itself. Even more so since the NE corner of 5th St & Olive has been one of the bigger deadzones in the hood, sapping even more life out of Pershing Sq.

But the situtation is getting so dicey throughout the country & world, that even if park 5th, or also the Grand Ave proj, broke ground right now, that in itself wouldn't necessarily mean or guarantee anything.



At the Spire site, 400 N. Lake Shore, the grandly conceived tower is nothing more than a hole in the ground surrounded by a ring of caissons. Construction cranes are gone. It is unclear when, if ever, they will return. Developer Garrett Kelleher has spent at least $50 million on construction, according to project spokeswoman Kim Metcalfe. She cites that investment as evidence that work on the project will resume and that it will open in 2012, even though the skyscraper's star architect, Santiago Calatrava, recently filed a lien seeking more than $11.3 million in payment from Kelleher.

"When you've invested this much time, effort and tangible money in the project, it is not not going to happen," Metcalfe said.

Work also is frozen at 111 W. Wacker Drive, home to Chicago's other stalled supertall skyscraper, the Waterview Tower and Shangri-La Hotel. (To be considered "supertall," a skyscraper needs to be at least 1,000 feet high.) The firm that developed and designed Waterview, Chicago-based Teng, planned for it to reach an impressive 1,047 feet, a foot taller than New York's celebrated Chrysler Building. Instead, the project is stuck on the 26th floor, its exposed concrete frame looming over Wacker.

Teng announced in April that the Beijing Construction Engineering Group Co. Ltd. and its American subsidiary would arrange for more than $300 million in construction financing to finish the job. Yet construction remains on hold. Sean McMahon, a spokesman for Teng, did not return telephone calls.

There are other signs of a skyline on hold. Since July, there has been no construction on the 16-story Staybridge Suites hotel at 127 W. Huron St., where the developer is Duke Miglin, son of cosmetics entrepreneur Marilyn Miglin and the late developer Lee Miglin. Although the building's innovative structural frame is complete, the frame is not covered. And winter is coming, with its destructive snow and ice.

"You can't let building materials sit exposed that weren't intended to be exposed for a long time," said the building's architect, Joe Valerio of Chicago. Miglin did not respond when asked to discuss the project.

[WonderlandPark]

Originally Posted by BigDan35

Nobody likes an "I TOLD YOU SO!" person.

"lets keep smiling, and that will develop our city! more smiles people "

"If I cover my ears and hum to myself loudly, I won't hear the bad economic news."

I find that equally annoying.


L.A. was late to this development cycle, perhaps the city should be looking for ways, that once the market returns, the the process is streamlined and ready to accommodate development. That needs to be tied into the transit plan, the subway is coming, time for major TOD planning, working increasing density issues out with neighborhood groups and so on. Ahead of time. L.A. needs to drive down the huge and time consuming up front costs to getting stuff built.

[edluva]

thank you wonderlandpark. i like realism. i may be considered a pessimist here, but it only counterweighs all the flamboyant delusions about our city that persist among angelenos. Angelenos suffer from an inability to view the reality of their own city, warts and all, with acceptance. if angelenos refuse to understand their own city, how are we gonna address the truth and exert progress? the past decade has seen a huge change in a positive direction, to the point where you'll see instances of perverse civic pride, which is a good thing. less of that kind of attitude where someone posts a thread of an unflattering hood only to be met by blatant disavowment.

ugly, suburban, dense, lowrise, dysfunctional, sprawling, diverse, uneducated, contextually challenged, philistine, auto-oriented. LA is all of these things. we are that much less philistine if we allow ourselves to accept that we are philistine...to acknowledge a truth for once is to demonstrate, not say, that we are that much less superficial. we got plenty of cheerleaders. now lets get some realists and ground ourselves the way the subway will finally root this city in its place.

[JRinSoCal]

^Great post edluva! Agreed 100%.

[Kingofthehill]

Hey,

So I'm getting a tour from the builders of LA Live of DTLA. What should I expect?

[Just-In-Cali]

So, as the 'Forum Wars' rage on...I will say this, being very much aware of this cities major shortcomings, especially downtown, I made a choice to look at the positive progress being made, while encouraging change in the progress that hasnt been made. Simply saying that we are delusional because we dont look out our window everyday with contempt is a very narrow way of thinking.
I definatly agree with much of what was posted above...but being wrapped in a pall of bitter, hypercritical anger doesnt suit many of us. I understand under all of that viscious rhetoric, there is a desire to see the city improve. I hope you can understand that under our "sunny, Pollyannaish optimism" is the same desire. We arent ignorant of the massive flaws of LA, but many of us can't simply say "its a horrible excuse for a city" and feel content with that mindset. No insults to anyone...just a statement.

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

But that might just create the market conditions (re: lower construction costs) that could make the deal a little sweeter for Related.

One reason why the cost commodities are so high are due to large construction madness in China and India. Also as a result of that, copper thefts are on the rise.

Originally Posted by citywatch

LOL... should be your trademark!

Originally Posted by BigDan35

I'm so sick of hearing about this — —. Delays delays —' delays.

No kidding....its getting pretty annoying.

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

One reason why the cost commodities are so high are due to large construction madness in China and India. Also as a result of that, copper thefts are on the rise.

You're a little late to the game and that "old" line is rapidly losing it's truth. Many commodities are crashing as of late along with the economy - it's known as demand destruction. There have been thousands of factory closures across China with many more soon expected. We're in for (at least) a temporary period of deflation amongst commodities.

[JDRCRASH]

That should definitely help slow the rising costs of projects like Grand Ave, which, if i'm correct, has nearly doubled in price since it was proposed.

[RuFFy]

I don't know about you guys but I think Edluva is right. There's nothing wrong with being real and quite frankly I think most of his post are well thought out and balanced. Unfortunately, balance isn't in our favor because while DTLA has improved, it has a lot to go.