LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[citywatch]

^ your post made me look up a bit of history from a few decades ago...

Nowhere is this decline more acute than along Broadway, once the city’s premiere retail street. “It was the middle-class shopping district in the ‘40s and ‘50s,” remembers consultant and downtown resident Estela Lopez, a leading force behind a proposed new business-improvement district for the area. “It was everyone’s downtown.”

None of the other successfully revitalized districts in Southern California--Old Pasadena, Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade and West Hollywood--had endured the years of neglect that Broadway has.

The district continued to deteriorate physically, but the upsurge of Latino shoppers was an expanding market for bargain retailers, owners of Spanish-language movie theaters and modestly priced restaurants. By the mid-1980s, the district was profitable, with rents on some properties nearly doubling between 1980 and 1985.

Office space above the street’s ground-level storefronts is largely unoccupied, driving vacancy rates in many buildings to as high as 80%. The historic core is “the hole in the doughnut,” asserts Zoraster. “The tide has not been rising enough to lift all the boats of downtown.”

The mentality of some of the street’s tenants and property owners makes adapting this kind of approach to Broadway problematic. Attempts to upgrade, such as the short-lived merchant-based “Miracle on Broadway” business improvement district in 1995, didn’t take root because some proprietors saw no need for, or lacked interest in, renewing the boulevard. Others have even contended that cleaning up Broadway would frighten away their Latino customers.

“Broadway was the first Hispanic shopping district and some people thought it would scare [Latinos] away if it became too clean,” recalls developer Jose de Jesus Legaspi, who has sought to interest merchants in upgrading their properties. “One merchant actually told me that ‘Hispanics like dirt,’ then threw a piece of paper on the floor to prove his point.” Such attitudes only serve to calcify Broadway’s economic malaise.

Most of the street’s Latino customers have taken their business to more pleasant and family-friendly shopping environments like Huntington Park, downtown Whittier and the Montebello town center. But Legaspi and others believe the loss of shoppers could be reversed if Broadway reconstituted itself as more mainstream, albeit still largely Latino-oriented.

But turning Broadway into a downtown version of a suburban mall would waste its greater potential. Once cleaned up, Broadway would reveal, like a retouched old photo, a bracing urban landscape, a cornucopia of early 20th-century architectural gems unrivaled west of Chicago. With the restoration of such grand old theaters as the Los Angeles, the Orpheum and the State, developer Legaspi envisions the emergence of a kind of urban shopping and entertainment district with a special, but not exclusive, emphasis on Latino culture.

Broadway’s buildings also should attract more arts-oriented Angelenos, particularly the under-30 crowd who have been a critical element in urban restorations in cities as diverse as Denver, Houston, New York and Boston. Speculators have been buying older properties in the historic core as well as in the adjacent jewelry district. Tom Gilmore, a real-estate investor, believes apartment and loft conversions could spark the area’s development along the lines of San Diego’s Gaslamp district.

[Doctorboffin]

https://urbanize.city/la/post/bjarke-ingels-designed-670-mesquit-development-showing-life-signs

Man, I hope this goes through, easily the best proposal in the whole city. They also sped up the timetable to 5 years, or 9 years with phases, which is much better than the original plan to not have it done till 2040.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by homebucket

While intriguing, I'd probably try to develop the cluster of surface lots bordered by Georgia, Olympic, Figueroa, and James Wood first.

I agree. Those low rises near the top of that pic need to go. Surprised they've lasted this long.

[craigs]

From LA Reddit, a new pic of downtown showing Brookfield growing tall--and skinny:


source

[LAisthePlace]

Fantastic shot. Really fills a gap in the skyline and love how svelte it looks from that angle (much like the Wilshire Grand when seeing it from its skinny angle)

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by craigs

From LA Reddit, a new pic of downtown showing Brookfield growing tall--and skinny:


source

Brookfield will just be about 20 or 25 feet shorter than the Pelli tower to the right in the photo (about 695' vs. 720' or so), so it will be a real sliver of a building. Very skinny from the north or south (as in the pic). A great addition. Has about 25 or 30 floors to go. Maybe mid 2022 top out?

Are there any big projects that are likely to start construction this year? Times Mirror? Finishing Oceanwide, the vacant towers bathed in lavender light on the right? Happier New Year after a bad Omicron start I hope. No major wars. Peace would be nice. Return to "normalcy". The Roaring Twenties funtime. Bustling crowds.

[hughfb3]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Brookfield will just be about 20 or 25 feet shorter than the Pelli tower to the right in the photo (about 695' vs. 720' or so), so it will be a real sliver of a building. Very skinny from the north or south (as in the pic). A great addition. Has about 25 or 30 floors to go. Maybe mid 2022 top out?

Are there any big projects that are likely to start construction this year? Times Mirror? Finishing Oceanwide, the vacant towers bathed in lavender light on the right? Happier New Year after a bad Omicron start I hope. No major wars. Peace would be nice. Return to "normalcy". The Roaring Twenties funtime. Bustling crowds.

I'm keeping watch for Onni's 1000 S Hill 60 story. With their Long Beach project nearly topped out and their Hollywood Santa Monica bl Wood frame nearly topped out... me think this one's next in line. Based on past experiences, Onni likes to begin construction of fully approved projects at the top of the year.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

I'm keeping watch for Onni's 1000 S Hill 60 story. With their Long Beach project nearly topped out and their Hollywood Santa Monica bl Wood frame nearly topped out... me think this one's next in line. Based on past experiences, Onni likes to begin construction of fully approved projects at the top of the year.

If I'm not mistaken that was already supposed to have broken ground by now. Not sure if that's a bad sign but I guess delays are normal and Onni is pretty reputable.

I'm thinking 1045 Olive could be another since it's been approved already.

There were a couple other 7-800 foot proposals floating around too but not sure what came of those. There was a 500+ footer planned in Hollywood too, I also don't know what became of that.

[Easy]

I don't have any better insight than anyone else, but here's how I see pending projects.

Likely to break ground in 2022

Fig+Pico Phase 2 hotel
Onni Olympic/Hill
Onni Times Mirror
Relevant 845 S Olive and/or 3rd/Spring (if CEQA exemption is approved)
8th/Hope (at least demolition, but construction is likely)

Potential to break ground in 2022, but more likely 2023

Angels Landing
Onni 2143 Violet

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by Easy

I don't have any better insight than anyone else, but here's how I see pending projects.

Likely to break ground in 2022

Fig+Pico Phase 2 hotel
Onni Olympic/Hill
Onni Times Mirror
Relevant 845 S Olive and/or 3rd/Spring (if CEQA exemption is approved)
8th/Hope (at least demolition, but construction is likely)

Potential to break ground in 2022, but more likely 2023

Angels Landing
Onni 2143 Violet

1045 Olive was approved, so hopefully that can start this year / next. Angels Landing seems like a stale proposal at this point though...

[Easy]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

1045 Olive was approved, so hopefully that can start this year / next. Angels Landing seems like a stale proposal at this point though...

Angels Landing submitted their Final EIR over the summer and have always pointed towards a late 2022/early 2023 groundbreaking.

[craigs]

Watching Channel 7 Eyewitness News' weathercast, I noticed that their live camera now shows Brookfield breaking into the skyline. If you click the link, it rotates between locations (downtown, Long Beach harbor, the Santa Monica Pier, etc.) so you might need to wait a minute for the live shot of the downtown skyline.

[craigs]

Urbanize Los Angeles has posted what it says are new renderings of The BLOC:

[headcheckjj]

Incredible!

This will really fill in that 8th street corridor along with the Brookfield Tower and the two MFA towers on either side!

Any idea when the projected completion date is?

[LA21st]

Came down the 110 from Pasadena today. Brookfield is already making a massive impact on the skyline.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Brookfield will just be about 20 or 25 feet shorter than the Pelli tower to the right in the photo (about 695' vs. 720' or so), so it will be a real sliver of a building. Very skinny from the north or south (as in the pic). A great addition. Has about 25 or 30 floors to go. Maybe mid 2022 top out?

Are there any big projects that are likely to start construction this year? Times Mirror? Finishing Oceanwide, the vacant towers bathed in lavender light on the right? Happier New Year after a bad Omicron start I hope. No major wars. Peace would be nice. Return to "normalcy". The Roaring Twenties funtime. Bustling crowds.

That photo really shows how much downtown LA has changed in the last 10 years for people who have no idea lol

[pwright1]

Chef Ray Garcia's new restaurant taking shape at Disney Hall

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by pwright1

Chef Ray Garcia's new restaurant taking shape at Disney Hall

^^^
Looking very cool and urban. Will look even better when the crowds return, which they will. Just as in the 1920s, when the "Spanish" Flu ended and the war was a memory and the economy boomed, people just went wild as a 10 year party started. Making up for lost time.

I just hope I am around for the Olympics. That will be a huge party. I greatly enjoyed the 1984 games, went to the amazing opening ceremony--the 84 piano "Rhapsody in Blue" unforgetable, saw the race where Decker fell etc. By 2028, downtown should be bustling and totally amazing looking. Hopefully the homeless issue will be resolved by then, and all the great old buildings and theaters in the Broadway district will be repurposed and bustling again.

Did you get any good photos during the recent storms? You do a great job with these photos, a historical record of our times and the changing face of DTLA and all of the city. A collective thank you pwright and to the other excellent photographers who post here

• Video Link

[BrandonJXN]

I have to say that The Grand is starting to grow on me. At first I thought it was a relatively meh building. Which for anything Frank Gehry is still high praise. But when you put in in context with the rest of Bunker Hill, it actually fits in really well.

[colemonkee]

Speaking of The Grand, Jose Andres announced via Twitter yesterday that he'll be opening up a restaurant in the complex, which is big, big news as he is a huge draw.