LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[alki]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

I wonder why? I mean, all these other developers do fine with their downtown properties. I'm guessing there is more to this story, something shadier, probably.

These big developers raise money from investors for the construction but then siphon money off $$$ for themselves and their operations by cutting back on the quality of the construction materials while getting a bigger construction loan. Then the building has trouble renting up because the construction looks cheap to perspective renters but they need big rents to pay off the construction loan. Throw in a bad recession and that makes it difficult for a building to pencil out and the developer freaks.....throws out any screening requirements and rents to any warm body. A temporary fix that proves disastrous further down the road.

[alki]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

What impresses me the most isn't the change of design, but the timeline this guy actually is aiming for. August is less than 5 months away!

This guy is smart.......the national economy is coming back and LA's economy is starting to pick up steam. He wants to be first out of the ground......you never want to be last. Figure 18 mos to two years in construction and when he goes to rent up demand should be fairly strong.

[Quixote]

Meruelo Maddux Successor Plans Upgrade of South Park Office Building

With New Name, Firm to Make-Over Desmond Building



By Ryan Vaillancourt, Staff Writer
March 9, 2012

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Evoq Properties, the newly branded successor of Meruelo Maddux Properties, is in negotiations with potential tenants to occupy a long vacant South Park building that the firm plans to renovate later this year.

The plan to revitalize the five-story Desmond’s Building at Hope and 11th streets marks one of the first clear development plays under the reincarnated firm, which still controls dozens of commercial and industrial properties throughout Downtown.

Just three days after announcing its new name, officials with Evoq (sounds like “evoke”) on Thursday hosted an open house at the Desmond Building — complete with a DJ and several luxury sports cars on display — for Downtown business players. It was both an introduction to the firm and to their plans to fill the 78,500-square-foot brick building with tenants looking for non-traditional office space, said Max J. Fowles-Pazdro, Evoq senior vice president.

Plans for the Desmond include a rooftop restaurant and a renovation of the 15,700-square-foot ground-floor space to suit an array of neighborhood-serving retail, said broker Will S. Adams, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis.

The firm is in early discussions with potential tenants and is in the process of seeking building permits for an array of improvements, Adams said. Occupancy is expected by late 2012 or early next year, he said.

http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/merue...fe845b4-6a2b-11e1-b1ae-0019bb2963f4.html

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Yes! i love that building. if it ends up looking anything like that render, then we are golden. now to get the two lots around it developed...

[Illithid Dude]

Wow, things are really starting to pick up. And by starting to pick up, I mean it's getting meshuganah around Downtown. I love how just a few months ago, people were saying that they would be surprised if a residential highrise would break ground in their lifetimes (hyperbole, but still), and now look at things. What really interests me about this proposal is that it is office space, not lofts. When was the last time Downtown got new office space of any quantity? Ten years ago? More? It's interesting that they are going that route, especially with residential vacancy being 3% and office vacancy being 20%. However, even more interesting then that is the information that they are currently in talks with potential tenants. Perhaps the success of this building could encourage developers to build some more office space. I've read that part of the reason that DT continues to have high vacancy is that existing office space is geared more for large law firms and the like, when the demand is really towards more tech start up like companies. Perhaps developers could build some office buildings catering more to those types of companies. Moreover, Muerlo Maddox (or however you spell it) planned a tower next to the lot that this new adaptive reuse is on. I wonder if the location of this building is indicative of a desire to go forward with that proposal... (the tower I refer to is on 11th and Grand). Which brings me to my last though, concerning EVOQ. Amazing that a company literally a week old is already starting development. I wonder what else, if anything, they have up the pipeline..... It's exciting times.

[tujunga]

Anyone noticed that the fencing is up for construction of the 23 story Marriot Courtyard and Residence Inn Hotel next to the Ritz?

[a9l8e7n]

Originally Posted by tujunga

Anyone noticed that the fencing is up for construction of the 23 story Marriot Courtyard and Residence Inn Hotel next to the Ritz?

Probably pre-construction work. Seems to be right on time.

[colemonkee]

Illithid Dude, EVOQ is Mureulo Maddox - they've just re-branded themselves. I'd wager that this development has been going on behind the scenes for some time, and is being announced now to coincide with the announcement of their name change. Standard operating procedure for a re-brand: give people a reason to talk about you. As for the condo tower on 11th and Grand, I actually hope that never goes forward as planned. It's a terrible design from both a visual and urban perspective, and needs to be re-concepted. Something should - and I believe eventually will - be built there, but not in the form currently proposed.

I'm cautiously excited to hear about the resurgence of the 9th and Olive project. I, like everyone else, had written that project off. The redesign is interesting - I dig the top, but the balconies kind of ruin the nice, clean massing of the previous version, especially on the 9th street side. Yuck. Regardless, this along with Angelini (Sonni Astani's project - spelling?) will not only add to that burgeoning neighborhood, but it will start to make the pedestrian connection between the Southpark and the Historic Core.

I'll check on the fencing around the Courtyard Marriott and get pics sometime this weekend. If only half the projects that are planned for this year move forward, it could be the year I start doing regular photo updates again.

[ziggy331]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

I'm happy to see this building reactivated! Anything that helps to bring life to our sidewalks is A-ok in my book.

I've always envisioned a bigger project to incorporate this building into the design, much like this in Boston:





But of course that's what I would want in a perfect world. Maybe some day...

[colemonkee]

LA has plenty of surface parking lots, where Boston does not, so it's not necessary here. Now, I would love to see something like that (sans the historic buildings, of course), built on one of the adjacent surface lots.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Illithid Dude, EVOQ is Mureulo Maddox - they've just re-branded themselves. I'd wager that this development has been going on behind the scenes for some time, and is being announced now to coincide with the announcement of their name change. Standard operating procedure for a re-brand: give people a reason to talk about you. As for the condo tower on 11th and Grand, I actually hope that never goes forward as planned. It's a terrible design from both a visual and urban perspective, and needs to be re-concepted. Something should - and I believe eventually will - be built there, but not in the form currently proposed.
:

EVOQ, I thought, was a new company that was made to handle the liquefied assets of Mureulo Maddox. I didn't know it was the same company re-branded. Thanks.

And concerning 11th and Grand, I don't think we will see it in the form it once was, as even then it was a extremely rough rendering. Anyways, it didn't meet the DT Urban Design standards, so would have to have a design change to meet those requirements either way.

I'm cautiously excited to hear about the resurgence of the 9th and Olive project. I, like everyone else, had written that project off. The redesign is interesting - I dig the top, but the balconies kind of ruin the nice, clean massing of the previous version, especially on the 9th street side. Yuck. Regardless, this along with Angelini (Sonni Astani's project - spelling?) will not only add to that burgeoning neighborhood, but it will start to make the pedestrian connection between the Southpark and the Historic Core. I'll check on the fencing around the Courtyard Marriott and get pics sometime this weekend. If only half the projects that are planned for this year move forward, it could be the year I start doing regular photo updates again.

I agree with you about the massing. Would look better cleaner and more congruent with the existing building.

Also, re-reading the old LA Downtown Development thread, I loved your old pictures. It would be great if you could start doing regular photo updates.

[edluva]

los angeles simply isn't the kind of city that can generate the demand needed to put up high quality developments like the one pictured above on a regular basis. where is all that demand for class A office coming from? commercial rents here are dirt cheap as it stands.

keep wishing for all the trappings of a white collar city, in a place which is blue collar to the bone. let's decide first how we'll (honestly) identify our city before we go about pretending we can be/build what we're not. here's one to start: LA has no white collar urban core (eg. this ain't boston)

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by edluva

los angeles simply isn't the kind of city that can generate the demand needed to put up high quality developments like the one pictured above on a regular basis. where is all that demand for class A office coming from? commercial rents here are dirt cheap as it stands.

you guys are wishing for all the trappings of a white collar city, in one which is blue collar to the bone. let's decide first how we'll identify out city before we go about pretending we can be/build what we're not.

Yeah, I'm with Edluva. Until our vacancy rates drop to a manageable level, we aren't going to be getting many cool office towers at all, with the possible exception of Century City.

However, I wouldn't really classify L.A. as Blue Collar, though I wouldn't classify it as White Collar either. Our citys economy, much more then others, depends on creative types. What color collars are those?

[colemonkee]

^ Plaid.

[edluva]

i'd venture to say we're blue collar to the core. how much of our collective income derives from "creative" work vs that stemming from trucking, construction, gardening, and other blue collar services? hollywood is a lot less important economically than we'd like to realize, at least where the most relevant measure of economics (income) come to play. yes there are plenty of transplant types who serve tables waiting for their big break, but urban los angeles is still blue collar to its core, literally to its core, owing to the millions of latino, black, and asian immigrant workers who populate our urban center - the very urban center that we just a couple posts above wished looked more like boston, a city with a white collar core.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by edluva

i'd venture to say we're blue collar to the core. how much of our collective income derives from "creative" work vs that stemming from trucking, construction, gardening, and other blue collar services? hollywood is a lot less important economically than we'd like to realize, at least where the most relevant measure of economics (income) come to play. yes there are plenty of transplant types who serve tables waiting for their big break, but urban los angeles is still blue collar to its core, literally to its core, owing to the millions of latino, black, and asian immigrant workers who populate our urban center - the very urban center that we just a couple posts above wished looked more like boston, a city with a white collar core.

Frankly, if the film industry left L.A., the L.A. would die. With that said, the amount of blue collar to white collar is, via internet statistics, about half and half, though I don't know how entertainment is factored into that. Whatever. Anyways, with the new growth of internet and biomedical industries in L.A., I do wonder how that figure will change in the next decade.

[edluva]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Frankly, if the film industry left L.A., the L.A. would die. With that said, the amount of blue collar to white collar is, via internet statistics, about half and half, though I don't know how entertainment is factored into that. Whatever. Anyways, with the new growth of internet and biomedical industries in L.A., I do wonder how that figure will change in the next decade.

LA would suffer no doubt, but it most definitely wouldn't die. we have a giant port complex and logistics support industry, airports, public agencies, hospitals, refineries, construction, and yes, a small private financial and big public legal sector with all it's attendant bureaucracy

as far as internet and biomed goes, i doubt those sectors will grow to the extent and in the quality that they do to make white collar cities like SF or Boston as appealingly yuppified as they are. not in LA they won't. LA lacks the cluster of research institutes and educated class to do such a thing. it's blue collar, remember?

the biggest thing LA has going for it is it's big. big cities require big amounts of housekeeping work (eg regional hqs, big public service agencies, big school districts, lots of gardeners, lots of plumbers, lots of home depots, lots of taco bells, lots of liquor stores, warehousing to distribute all the junk that people buy at walmart and target, forklift servicers, etc etc), and all this economic activity adds up to a big economy. but being big alone does not produce demand for lots of sleek, pricey office towers.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by edluva

as far as internet and biomed goes, i doubt those sectors will grow to the extent and in the quality that they do to make white collar cities like SF or Boston as appealingly yuppified as they are. not in LA they won't. LA lacks the cluster of research institutes and educated class to do such a thing. it's blue collar, remember?

It's interesting that you say that. Something I've been following recently is the formation of what is becoming to be known as 'Silicon Beach', where around Venice/Santa Monica a ton of internet-based companies are taking roost, some of which are increasingly transplants from SF. They move down here because, as they say, they like the fact that they don't exist in their own little 'internet bubble world', and that they exist in an area that they can talk to people of all different fields of work. In short, it is the lack of a cluster of similar businesses that makes them want to move to L.A. I am really curious to see how this segment of business increases over the next few years. Even now, as I live and travel through the biggest areas were these two fields are located, I see construction of new office buildings all the time (drive down Olympic in Santa Monica and you will know what I mean). There's clearly a demand for this sort of thing, and I'd love to see it start to spread throughout the basin rather then stay near the beach.

EDIT: Also, for those complaining about about the lack of high-end retail downtown (though there isn't), according to Brigham, a new denim place just opened in the historic core. The catch? It's a custom jean place, with each pair running for around $200. Sounds relatively high end to me.

http://denmbar.com/

[pesto]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

It's interesting that you say that. Something I've been following recently is the formation of what is becoming to be known as 'Silicon Beach', where around Venice/Santa Monica a ton of internet-based companies are taking roost, some of which are increasingly transplants from SF. They move down here because, as they say, they like the fact that they don't exist in their own little 'internet bubble world', and that they exist in an area that they can talk to people of all different fields of work. In short, it is the lack of a cluster of similar businesses that makes them want to move to L.A. I am really curious to see how this segment of business increases over the next few years. Even now, as I live and travel through the biggest areas were these two fields are located, I see construction of new office buildings all the time (drive down Olympic in Santa Monica and you will know what I mean). There's clearly a demand for this sort of thing, and I'd love to see it start to spread throughout the basin rather then stay near the beach.

EDIT: Also, for those complaining about about the lack of high-end retail downtown (though there isn't), according to Brigham, a new denim place just opened in the historic core. The catch? It's a custom jean place, with each pair running for around $200. Sounds relatively high end to me.

http://denmbar.com/

I suspect that we are too close to the real Silicon Valley (which is not SF, but more like SJ) to ever become significant. But some growth tending toward media related and consolidating on the westside sounds reasonable.

But its good to hear that the upper end retail boom has started.

[Der Blut]

edluva speaks the truth, but it's hard to deny that DTLA is making significant progress.