LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[LAisthePlace]

Unique view of The Grand spotted on Reddit. Can't wait till it is all finished up.

[a9l8e7n]

@LAisthePlace thats an amazing view. Great find!

[citywatch]

^ always like seeing new images of dt.

nothing new to add here....just noticed that block of land next to the fwy, south of 9th st & seen by millions of ppl driving by each yr, finally was mostly cleared out late last yr....the site of the proposed olympia devlpt. Don't know how strong that proposal is, esp since I believe it was being funded by Chinese investors.....things are very up in the air right now.


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^ glad they finally cleared out that land....recall driving by there for yrs & seeing those old bldgs always made that part of dt look more shaky or iffy. Same thing with the old bunker hill area....some ppl actually thinking that part of dt should have been preserved makes me go Huh?! dtla would have seemed less borderline over the past 60 yrs if more areas like that or where the olympia proj is to go up had been cleaned up a long time ago.

If acreage in dt can't be occupied by a classic old bldg or slick new devlpt, at least it should be neutral....empty land or one of the parking lots that has a landscaped perimeter around it, like the ones where a few of the newer projs from companies like AEG finally were built.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by citywatch

^ glad they finally cleared out that land....recall driving by there for yrs & seeing those old bldgs always made that part of dt look more shaky or iffy. Same thing with the old bunker hill area....some ppl actually thinking that part of dt should have been preserved makes me go Huh?! dtla would have seemed less borderline over the past 60 yrs if more areas like that or where the olympia proj is to go up had been cleaned up a long time ago.

If acreage in dt can't be occupied by a classic old bldg or slick new devlpt, at least it should be neutral....empty land or one of the parking lots that has a landscaped perimeter around it, like the ones where a few of the newer projs from companies like AEG finally were built.

The building that was cleared out was a busy medical building that served a primarily lower income client base thereby providing a much more valuable service than the parking lot that replaced it.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by citywatch

nothing new to add here....just noticed that block of land next to the fwy, south of 9th st & seen by millions of ppl driving by each yr, finally was mostly cleared out late last yr....the site of the proposed olympia devlpt. Don't know how strong that proposal is, esp since I believe it was being funded by Chinese investors.....things are very up in the air right now.

That was one of my favorite proposals but hopefully someone builds something good there someday. Not trusting Chinese investment these days.

Am I right in assuming that LA's next 800+ footer will be 1045 Olive or Angel's landing?

1000 hill is pretty close and may break ground soon too.

[citywatch]

^ this is from Dec 2019 and I think it was posted here at the time....the article also mentioned the oceanwide proj being on hold, so projs with chinese backing are moving very, very slowly or are totally stalled. The land is in a part of dt that's too visible to be in the condition it was in for decades. So even though a parking lot isn't ideal, it's a necessary bridge to keep the hood moving forward.

I recall driving by there since yrs ago, looking at the rooftops of industrial type bldgs that have long been south of 9th & west of Fig, & thinking that block left a poor impression of dt to all the ppl passing by there on the fwy. Ppl in the nearby LA Live devlpt also didn't have a great backdrop to walk by or look out over from a hotel room or restaurant.

there remains thousands of acres throughout central LA in equally poor shape, so it's not like cleaning up a small part of dtla in full view of so many visitors, travelers or drivers wasn't necessary.

City Century recently closed the long-pending $121-million acquisition of a site on Olympic Boulevard alongside the 110 Freeway, where it announced in 2016 that it intended to build three high-rises on the site of a former medical clinic lying between L.A. Live and the Metropolis residential and hotel complex.

The sale by a group of physicians who owned the 3.3-acre parcel at Olympic and Georgia Street, formerly occupied by a HealthCare Partners facility, had been in escrow since 2015 because it was contingent on City Century securing city approval for the project. That approval has been secured. The buyer paid $121 million, according to real estate data provider LandVision.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by Easy

The building that was cleared out was a busy medical building that served a primarily lower income client base thereby providing a much more valuable service than the parking lot that replaced it.

Exactly, there was a small apartment too if I recall correctly.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by dktshb

Exactly, there was a small apartment too if I recall correctly.

apartmentfinder

I believe the bldg you're referring to is on the east side of Georgia St, across from the land where the olympia proj is supposed to go up on....this was posted in 2013...

A humble century-old apartment building in the shadow of the Ritz-Carlton hotel has sold for more than $3 million as the neighborhood around Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles proves to be a magnet for investors.

Los Angeles real estate investment firm TRG plans to turn the three-story brick building at 916 Georgia St. into small apartments it calls “micro lofts.”

The apartment building, completed in 1912 when downtown’s South Park was primarily a residential neighborhood, is just north of the $2.5-billion LA Live entertainment complex and two high-rise hotel developments underway on Olympic Boulevard.

the medical clinic is also still around...this is from 3 yrs ago....

HealthCare Partners, a division of DaVita Medical Group and a part of DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA), today celebrated the opening of a new state-of-the-art medical facility and urgent care clinic in downtown Los Angeles at Washington Boulevard and Hoover Street. The new facility replaces the roughly 40-year-old founding clinic of HealthCare Partners and establishes a health care hub in the Pico-Union neighborhood on the west side of downtown Los Angeles.

The pic above was taken before demolition had occurred west of Georgia st....it's a reminder of why I'm relieved those bldgs are no longer visible. I believe the bldg next to & south of the apt bldg was recently cleared out.

the parking lot north of the apt bldg was supposed to be where a moderate priced hotel was going to be built. The land was even cordoned off for awhile but nothing happened. Some ppl said the hotel's design looked like something that would be built in Phoenix or san diego.

some of the other properties further east on Olympic, inc the bldg used by the salvation army, are past their expiration dates too. That part of dt is not ready for prime time.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by citywatch

the medical clinic is also still around...

It still exists, but not in that location. When it existed at that location it was much better than the parking lot and did more to activate that street than the parking lot does. My opinion is that it's parking lots that are a blight on DTLA, not active buildings.

[Easy]

Speaking of demolitions, Mitsui Fudosan filed a new permit for their proposed tower on 8th between Grand and Hope that would eventually demo the parking garage on Hope. It doesn't look like they're far along, but there's recent movement so hopefully this could quickly follow their tower that's already under construction a block west.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Easy

Speaking of demolitions, Mitsui Fudosan filed a new permit for their proposed tower on 8th between Grand and Hope that would eventually demo the parking garage on Hope. It doesn't look like they're far along, but there's recent movement so hopefully this could quickly follow their tower that's already under construction a block west.

Nice, I was just thinking about this one yesterday

[citywatch]

^ Yea, I believe that's the multilevel parking garage next to what was once the robinson's dept store on 7th St.

sorry, easy, but whether low cost rundown bldgs from over 50 yrs ago are being used or vacant, I feel they tend to hurt the energy of dtla. As another example, there's this bldg, the taco house stand near 4th & Hill, south of the grand central mkt....the owner got demo permits for this small food stand over a yr ago but I don't believe they've yet gone forward with tearing it down.....



restaurant.guru


It was supposed to be cleared away for this, an apt tower with moderate priced units....


https://downtownla.com/building/4th-hill-beacon-tower


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when the pandemic hit, I thought the housing mkt would be full of vacancies & would slow the need for new apts. Wrong!! That devlpr, however, may be having trouble in getting financing....I think the builder of the apt bldg in little tokyo across from the Hilton doubletree hotel was delayed for awhile because they couldn't get financing....could be wrong though....not really sure. But they've been slow in completing their bldg even though demand for its apts should be quite high.

this vid posted a few days ago from one of the ppl connected to the above website, managed by the dtla dcbid.....gives a good rundown on dtla....
it starts mainly at 2:20....3:07 is about apts & how they're actually are more full today than in 2018!....3:30 is about hotels....4:20 is about office space & leasing....4:53 is about visitors to dt before & after covid.....6:10 is about office space....8:23 goes into what's happening today.....11:40 is about offices in dt & how transit gives them a boost.....21:52 gives a virtual tour of dt.....24:40 is about the grand ave proj......28:56 is about the new regional connector.....33:50 is about the apt projs at 8th & fig & the brookfield tower....at 36:27 he gives a brief rundown about the arts dist.


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my takeaway is that dtla has a really good future.....I think it's in various way better than it has ever been in over 70-80 yrs of LA's history, even from the beginning since the late 1700s.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by citywatch

sorry, easy, but whether low cost rundown bldgs from over 50 yrs ago are being used or vacant, I feel they tend to hurt the energy of dtla.

No need to apologize. Most Angelenos probably prefer parking lots to old buildings, and although I can't personally fathom how you believe that parking lots create "energy", I can respect your opinion. That taco shack though is nothing like the multistory medical building that was torn down. You're comparing a taco stand to a multistory medical building that would cost many millions to replace.

DTLA2040 actually allows for an easier way to preserve and repurpose many of the older buildings downtown in a way that hadn't been previously allowed by right. It will be easier to add floors and/or repurpose them for non-residential adaptive reuse. There's a pretty interesting video about them at the AIA youtube channel. They new term for them is "background buildings" and I look forward to many of them being repurposed.

I haven't yet watched the video that you posted, but I certainly plan to.

https://youtu.be/UzGalifuu8g

[LAisthePlace]

Originally Posted by Easy

Speaking of demolitions, Mitsui Fudosan filed a new permit for their proposed tower on 8th between Grand and Hope that would eventually demo the parking garage on Hope. It doesn't look like they're far along, but there's recent movement so hopefully this could quickly follow their tower that's already under construction a block west.

That is big news. One of the classiest towers currently proposed IMO.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Easy

Most Angelenos probably prefer parking lots to old buildings, and although I can't personally fathom how you believe that parking lots create "energy", I can respect your opinion.

It's not so much that I favor parking lots to good things, as much as I don't don't want a cityscape that's hard on the eyes. But, yes, ppl rate & judge things differently, so what's good to one person is bad to another....& visa versa. Some ppl say that bunker hill, which got me to start thinking about this subj again, should have been preserved, while I disagree.

However, LA....dtla in particular....has a long history of ppl not warming up to it. They'll say they like the city's weather or beaches, but not too many ppl who live in or visit LA have wanted to sing versions of, 'I left my heart in dtla'.

I think that's mainly because so much of this is not exactly all that easy on the eyes....



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^ when i see that, taken around 1970, I have a better understanding of why the road to recovery for dt has taken so long & been so rocky....or why the center of LA went downhill quite far to begin with.... starting over 60-70-80 yrs ago. You can see the cleared away part of bunker hill.....dt might have seemed less tired if the area we've been dealing with in these past few posts had been cleared away too, beyond just the land for the convention ctr.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by LAisthePlace

That is big news. One of the classiest towers currently proposed IMO.

It is great news, but to be clear this is just the first sign of permitting movement for this property in a few years, so I don't think that anything is imminent. It does give me hope that we may start to see activity by 2023. I'm not an expert, so I may be off.

The tower follows a similar blueprint to all of the rest. Underground parking with 5 stories of above-ground parking with an amenity deck on the 6th floor. For me what stands out is that it's a really great location. One block from 7th/metro, right at the potential future WSAB terminus, walking distance to tons of jobs and amenities.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by LAisthePlace

That is big news. One of the classiest towers currently proposed IMO.

Oh wow, that is a huge news. I love 8th street. How tall is this?

[LAisthePlace]

Originally Posted by Easy

It is great news, but to be clear this is just the first sign of permitting movement for this property in a few years, so I don't think that anything is imminent. It does give me hope that we may start to see activity by 2023. I'm not an expert, so I may be off.

Not being in the industry is there a set of stages that are typical for each development as we follow along? (ex. proposal, draft environmental report, final environmental report, approved by the planning commission, approved by the city council, demolition, construction permits, built?)

I've always been curious.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Oh wow, that is a huge news. I love 8th street. How tall is this?

I count 43 floors (hard to tell which are double sometimes though and if 13 is counted).

It could be a 500 footer, nice looking building too

[headcheckjj]

45 storys at 592 feet, according to this: https://urbanize.city/la/post/taller-terraced-design-unveiled-8th-and-hope-tower

Originally Posted by LA21st

Oh wow, that is a huge news. I love 8th street. How tall is this?