LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[Muji]

Icon Plaza at Figueroa and Exposition, seen on Monday.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

Loving this trend of long stalled projects coming back to life.

From brigamyen.com

oh my! But before I get my hopes up high, does filing for a city permit necessarily mean anything in terms of actual start of construction? for instance, weren't city permits filed for the parkfifth proj? if so, everyone is fully aware of what happened there.

so I don't want to go from this.... to this.....

and thanks for the pic, muji. I long recall that site at fig & expo being a gas station. While it wasn't the worst deadzone in the usc area, it didn't exactly enhance the hood either. All the changes now underway around sc, or that have been completed over the past few yrs, make that part of LA much better today than it ever has been. now with the expo line soon to connect that hood to dt to the north, samo to the west, the pieces of the puzzle finally are falling into place.

however, as mentioned a few posts ago, problems with excessive homelessness around skid row & other parts of dt, not to mention ppl's fears of running into troublemakers on trains & buses, still make LA vulnerable to falling apart all over again......like all the yrs from around the time of the 92 riots, the big eq in northridge & the yrs & yrs & yrs that ppl happily fled to the burbs.

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Also, this makes it four 200 feet+ towers breaking ground in downtown this year. That is a mini-boom by any standards. And it is just the beginning.

Now if only the Embassy building renovation gets finished, that area of downtown will be BOOMING.

EDIT: BTW, I updated page 1.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

EDIT: BTW, I updated page 1.

Speaking of Page 1, I have a couple of corrections.

First, One Santa Fe is under construction.

Second, could you update the 22 story hotel tower next to L.A. Live with the nighttime rendering? It makes the building look better.

Third, a couple buildings are completed. These are: The YWCA Building, 2700 Figueroa, and 3025 South Figueroa.


Anyways...

I found another rendering for my favorite building, Park Tower.



Boom shaka laka. You can clearly see iHope in the background, hovering over Market Lofts.

Speaking of iHope....
It will have 708 parking spaces, for 200 units. Eeeeeeeew.

[BrandonJXN]

Maybe iHope will have public parking?

[Kingofthehill]

Looking at the first page, isn't the YMCA building done now? And, yes, exciting times for Downtown, and LA in general. The shift towards the lower end of Broadway is particularly exciting. Now, if only the gentrification/redevelopment wave can make the jump south of Olympic and start to meet up with South Park.

[LA/OCman]

Originally Posted by citywatch

oh my! But before I get my hopes up high, does filing for a city permit necessarily mean anything in terms of actual start of construction? for instance, weren't city permits filed for the parkfifth proj? if so, everyone is fully aware of what happened there.

so I don't want to go from this.... to this.....

and thanks for the pic, muji. I long recall that site at fig & expo being a gas station. While it wasn't the worst deadzone in the usc area, it didn't exactly enhance the hood either. All the changes now underway around sc, or that have been completed over the past few yrs, make that part of LA much better today than it ever has been. now with the expo line soon to connect that hood to dt to the north, samo to the west, the pieces of the puzzle finally are falling into place.

however, as mentioned a few posts ago, problems with excessive homelessness around skid row & other parts of dt, not to mention ppl's fears of running into troublemakers on trains & buses, still make LA vulnerable to falling apart all over again......like all the yrs from around the time of the 92 riots, the big eq in northridge & the yrs & yrs & yrs that ppl happily fled to the burbs.

I don't fear the exodus of the City Center will occur due to the fact that Downtown never really had many residents before. I do think that everyone needs to put pressure on the City and County to address the homeless problem. As more businesses open up and more residents move in...there will be so much pressure to find permanent housing for the homeless and temporary housing for those in need. Also, the LAPD needs to address the crime increase Downtown and get those security cameras operational.

As far as moving to places like South Pasadena....there will always be those who prefer suburban areas with easy transit to Downtown. That is OK. I am a baby boomer and what I am seeing is a lot of people buying a place to use during the week and also have a beach place to escape to. I was at a loft party last week and I can tell you of four people there who have lofts downtown also have beach getaways in Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo and Laguna. While Downtown is mostly young..there are many baby boomers...ages 46 to over 60...who are moving in as well. Downtown is perfect for empty nesters who also bring stability in the real estate market.

Remember, close to 20,000 residents have moved DT in the last 10 years....and despite the economy...there are 1200 residental units that will come on the market soon. If you are frustrated with the grit...I say you have to be patient as well as diligent in contacting your elected officials to demand change. I remember endless "letters" I sent to the Mayors about the litter problems Downtown in the 80's. I never thought there would be BID's who would maintain the cleanliness of the streets. You should have seen the garbage on Broadway back then! It was disgusting.

[alki]

Originally Posted by Trojan

Has anyone noticed the scaffolding and construction on the building in the middle? It is pretty much an empty building shell.

What are those tracks? The Gold line?

[alki]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Park Fifth is like my wet dream, but that is not what I was referring to.



This is park tower. I think it is one of the greatest designs of a high-rise proposed right now. It looks like no other high rise, and I love that. The building is only 490 feet tall, so I could see it being feasible as, like, apartments or something. It is proposed for the parking lot across the street from Ralphs.

Yes, nice one. It looks like a building you would see in a S. American capital. Any chance of it getting built?

[alki]

Originally Posted by Trojan

What are your guys' take on Boyle Heights being the next 'it' neighborhood, say in 5-10 years? I'm pretty sure Highland Park will continue to see more action (gentrification) this year and next and continue to get even stronger in a couple years. We've seen what has happened in Silver Lake and Echo Park, so what are the possibilities a similar situation will happen in Boyle Heights? I'm sure in some point in time it will happen, but when?

Boyle Heights has good bones:

• new Gold Line stations
• cheap housing stock
• older buildings with history and cheap rents
• new police station and several public schools
• pocket parks and Hollenbeck Park
• very close to downtown and arts district

It has some attractive features, especially the possibility of building up 1st Street where the lightrail runs through. Having access to the Gold Line is a great advantage because people will be able to easily go to downtown and other parts of the city.

I think its inevitable but there is still so much housing stock in Highland Pk, Glassell Park and Eagle Rock still to be done, I think it will be a while before people start checking out Boyle Hts.

[alki]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

That being said, LA in general is an expensive place to live. For what we're paying for a 1-bedroom loft, we could have a 2-bedroom apartment with a bay window in a historic brick rowhouse back in DC. And it would be down the street from a metro station.

Really?! That is very surprising, but I guess you are right. Just did a search......LA is more expensive than DC:

Top 200 US Cities - Average 2-Bedroom Rental Prices

http://www.wtnrradio.com/story.php?story=355

[all of the trash]

Originally Posted by alki

What are those tracks? The Gold line?

yes, right before the elevated chinatown station

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Speaking of Page 1, I have a couple of corrections.

First, One Santa Fe is under construction.

Second, could you update the 22 story hotel tower next to L.A. Live with the nighttime rendering? It makes the building look better.

Third, a couple buildings are completed. These are: The YWCA Building, 2700 Figueroa, and 3025 South Figueroa.


Anyways...

I found another rendering for my favorite building, Park Tower.



Boom shaka laka. You can clearly see iHope in the background, hovering over Market Lofts.

Speaking of iHope....
It will have 708 parking spaces, for 200 units. Eeeeeeeew.

Okay, I updated it again. And I changed the Park Tower rendering.

[alki]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

Okay, I updated it again. And I changed the Park Tower rendering.

You do good work, JDR. Much appreciated.

And thanks for the clarification on the tracks.

[ziggy331]

"The luxury brand, created in partnership with the boutique hotelier Ian Schrager, is also in contract to manage Editions in Los Angeles and Gurgaon, India, near New Delhi."

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/marriott-plans-more-edition-hotels/

It's been long rumored that Marriott's Edition Hotel would be coming to LA (I think most assumed that the Courtyard tower going up across LA Live would be an Edition) but after a disastrous start in launching that brand, hopes for that quickly faded. I guess the brand is now doing a pseudo-relaunch and LA is once again on their radar. This article was posted last week so hopefully it comes to fruition and downtown is the location!

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by alki

You do good work, JDR. Much appreciated.

It's true. You do much better then any other person who runs a City Compilation thread.

Also, looking at Page 1, should't the Federal Courthouse be moved from 'On Hold' to 'approved'? Or at least 'proposed'.

[colemonkee]

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I don't think One Santa Fe is under construction just yet. I went by the site earlier today. I had my camera with me, but it didn't merit any pictures. I'll show you why:

In the rendering below, courtesy of Blog Downtown and Curbed LA, you can make out the footprint of One Santa Fe. Notice the southern (rightmost) edge of the building. Take note of the path or road that goes out towards the tracks, and the buildings just behind and to the right of the southern edge.


Image Source: Curbed LA & Blog Downtown

NOW, look at the Google Maps image below, which I've edited. The area in the red represents the footprint of One Santa Fe according to the above render and to one other render I found online. When I was out there today, there was no construction activity occurring within that space. It was still being used as a parking lot, with many cars parked behind the barbed wire fence. The area highlighted in green, which is directly in front of the Metro building that services the trains, does have a considerable amount of construction activity going on. The asphalt has been completely removed, and there is heavy machinery moving dirt around, but not digging. And I did not see any foundation equipment or pile driving machinery. But that area does not appear to be part of the actual project.


Image Source: Google Maps and my limited Photoshop skills

So I don't think this one has any meaningful construction activity just yet. My guess is that Metro is reprogramming the area in front of their building to accommodate parking in preparation for real construction to start on One Santa Fe. But I did not see any construction in the area of the actual One Santa Fe building.

[atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by alki

Really?! That is very surprising, but I guess you are right. Just did a search......LA is more expensive than DC:

Top 200 US Cities - Average 2-Bedroom Rental Prices

http://www.wtnrradio.com/story.php?story=355

How accurate and when was the last time the numbers were submitted. Atlanta 2 bedroom market rate downtown is 1050.00 today

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by alki

Really?! That is very surprising, but I guess you are right. Just did a search......LA is more expensive than DC:

Top 200 US Cities - Average 2-Bedroom Rental Prices

http://www.wtnrradio.com/story.php?story=355

According to KotH who's studying in DC now, rents there are much higher than when I left 2 years ago...so take the comparison I made with a grain of salt. Also, that ranking you linked to is from 2009, so it may not be accurate anymore.

Still though, LA seems extremely expensive to me, especially for the shabby quality your money gets you in some neighborhoods. We looked around at some places in Koreatown today. They were only a few hundred dollars per month cheaper than what we're paying to live downtown, but the quality was dramatically worse. Some of these places literally feel like tenements on the inside. Downtown is expensive, but I feel like we're at least getting our money's worth (comparatively speaking) by living in a place that has big windows, high ceilings, hardwood/tile, is well maintained, etc.

[Zapatan]

So is the Park tower actually getting built? I like it.. even at 490 feet it will help fill in LA's skyline a bit, and the 750 foot hotel tower should start later this year too I believe.

But too bad about the 1250 foot tower, I don't think that one's getting built.