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Posted Jul 31, 2011, 4:31 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 6,706
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JDRCRASH
There you go again, citywatch, offering no base as to why you sneak this overly pessimistic statement in your comment.
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I've been waiting for yrs & yrs & yrs for demand for office space to finally fill up the existing amt of bldgs in dt. I thought that would've happened by now. but as I posted not too many wks ago, the hood still has a high amt of unused space for businesses. Still more than west LA.
why is that important? Highrise construction is very $$, & generally only space for commercial use can support the cost of devlpt that goes beyond low rise wood framing. So for projs like the 2nd phase of the wilshire grand proj to go forward, companies that can afford pricey new space in towers will have to move to the hood. Or for projs like eleven or concerto to make sense once again, the price of housing will have to be as high as it was over 3 yrs ago.
Is it realistic to expect that to occur within the next 10 yrs? maybe, maybe not. But I do remember thinking a long time ago that no way would dt, as far into the future as 2011, still have so much unused space sitting around. but I like to think the person I've bolded in red below knows a thing or two.
as for brigham yen, I too would choose his posts over mine or many others cuz he's often actually in dt & appears to have quite a few inside contacts. however, I also appreciate posts like the one from milquetoast. If it weren't for him, I'd otherwise have not known about the company that's designing the metropolis proj.
in the meantime, I'll try to do my share of the heavy lifting by pointing out articles like this one just posted to time.com....
Quote:
The City of Angels Who Never Sleep: Can Downtown Los Angeles Be Manhattanized?
By Jens Erik Gould / Los Angeles Saturday, July 30, 2011
Los Angeles and New York City are about as different as two cities can get. New York is vertical while is L.A. horizontal. NYC is about the subway; L.A., the car. New York has its nightlife concentrated in Manhattan, while downtown L.A. has traditionally been the laughing stock of the city's nightlife. Now that is changing. Downtown, which used to be dead after working hours, is working hard to become a hub for entertainment, sports, dining and housing, in addition to continuing as a day-time financial center. Some are even calling it the "Manhattanization" of downtown.
On a recent Saturday night, there were scenes typical of a happening city center. Hummer limos cruised the streets. Partiers sauntered down the area's sidewalks and joined lines of people waiting outside nightclubs for admission. Some apparently inebriated club-goers climbed atop a large yellow Denny's restaurant sign and waved their arms as a friend snapped an off-balance picture.
People exited the Regal cinemas after showings had finished. The nearby Nokia Theatre prepared to host ESPN's Espy awards show and an American Idol performance that week. Club Nokia, its smaller neighbor, was due to host Boyz II Men and Jamie Foxx in a few days. Looking down on it all was the new 54-story Ritz Carlton tower, which is attached to a J.W. Marriott.
Downtown development took a hit in the recession, but is now coming back. Over the past decade, $15 billion in private investment has helped create $40 million in net new tax revenue and 90,000 new jobs, says Jan Perry, city Councilwoman for the district. It's the result of a concerted effort by city officials to use tax revenues to make downtown "an area that can be considered alive 24-7 and be a major center for arts, entertainment and culture," Perry says.
Residential developers are also looking to downtown because the far-reaching suburbs of L.A. county have pushed out almost as far as they can go. "Who wants to sit in a car for three hours everyday getting to their place of employment from the Inland Empire?" says Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics, a research firm specializing in the commercial real estate market. "Employers are finding that to attract the best people they need to locate in places where there's access to multiple forms of transportation. One of those places is city centers."
Nothing reflects the disparity between the new and old downtown like the stimulating L.A. Live district and its aging neighbor, the convention center. The former is a new entertainment nucleus spanning four million square feet, or six city blocks, which houses bars, restaurants, movie theaters, hotels, live music venues, and Staples Center, the 20,000-seat arena that houses four professional sports teams including the Lakers.
Before Staples, "nobody came downtown," says Michael Roth, spokeman for Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the arena and L.A. Live. "It created a destination downtown." The adjacent convention center, however, is a vestige of the past. It's 40 years old years old and looks it. Its West Hall needs about $50 million in investment to bring it up to date. "Forget about functionality; aesthetics-wise it's just very odd. It stands out," says Pouria Abbassi, general manager and CEO of the convention center. Its 1971 design is antique "juxtaposed to L.A. Live and Staples Center."
......Philanthropist Eli Broad is building a $130 million art museum that is scheduled to open in 2013. The historic Belasco Theater, which lay dormant for 20 years, just reopened after being restored. Developers new to downtown are investing in housing, such as the Affirmed Housing Group, which chose the area for its first project in the L.A. market. Officials are even studying a project to build a street car system.
Portland-based developer Williams & Dame bought a parking lot across from the Ritz Cartlon to build a tower that will house a Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn. "The dynamics for downtown Los Angeles are terrific for the future," says Homer Williams of Williams & Dame. "You're getting that 24-hour feel that cities need."
Even with the changes, L.A. is unlikely to become another New York. It still loves its cars, and it still has its multiple urban centers stretched out across Southern California, which are unlikely to have their thunder stolen by downtown. And some of them, such as Hollywood, have gotten their own big boost of investment in recent years. "We're Los Angeles," Councilwoman Perry says. "There are a lot of unique aspects to what we're doing that are reflective of Los Angeles desires and tastes and interests."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2082958,00.html
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Has this person forgotten what SD and NYC were like 20-30 years ago? Does he really think the only reason people come to LA is to head to the beach and shop for overpriced clothes? Or that visitors wouldn't want to be at the center of the mass transit system?
Shoppers walk outside of a parking lot at a recently opened Costco warehouse store on November 13, 2009 in New York City. The store, the first in Manhattan, opened in a former wire factory in East Harlem on the East River. Costco Wholesale Corp., the largest U.S. warehouse club, anticipates that the warehouse store will be its highest-volume store within three years. Currently Costco has three other stores within New York City limits in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
. So a pic from the link posted by westsidelife is a relief, other than the area marked in red, which is the gap where the old state bldg once stood. 
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