LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[colemonkee]

Weren't Main and Spring updated around 2013-2015? They don't have protected bike lanes, but they do have the green bike lanes and at least the parklets on Spring.

[BrandonJXN]

I remember the Spring St. bike lanes because the green paint could never stick onto the street.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

I remember the Spring St. bike lanes because the green paint could never stick onto the street.

Not saying that you're wrong and I recall that as well, but I can't recall if that issue was with the bike lanes or the old contra flow bus lane on Spring. I feel like it couldn't have been bikes erasing the paint.

[craigs]

42-story apartment tower rises at 8th & Figueroa

One of DTLA's most conspicuous parking lots is a thing of the past

Steven Sharp
Urbanize Los Angeles
January 19, 2022







Nearly one year after we last stopped by, the concrete podium is complete, and the trunk of Mitsui Fudosan America's new residential high-rise is taking shape at the intersection of 8th and Figueroa Streets in Downtown
Los Angeles.



The project, which replaced a surface parking lot across the street from the Figat7th shopping center, will eventually consist of a 42-story building featuring 438 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments above podium
parking and approximately 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Designed by Johnson Fain, the approximately 530-foot-tall building will be clad in glass with LEDs embedded into its facade. Mitsui Fudosan, per a condition of approval imposed by the Los Angeles City Planning
Commission, is also required to encase the above-grade parking garage in the same type of glass wrapping the trunk of the tower - something which has not been seen before in Downtown. A landscaped amenity deck
with a swimming pool will cap the podium.

At the time of its groundbreaking in mid-2020, completion of the 8th and Figueroa tower was expected within three years.



Besides housing, the project will also result in several off-site improvements, including the addition of a new mid-block crosswalk feeding into Figat7th. Brookfield, which owns the mall and the surrounding office complex,
is in the midst of construction on its own apartment tower just west of the Mitsui Fudosan site.

Mitsui Fudosan America, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Fudosan, has owned the land at 8th and Figueroa since the 1980s, and once considered developing the property with an office tower. After that
1990s proposal fell through, the site remained a parking lot for nearly 30 years until plans for the residential development were initiated in 2016.

In addition to the Figueroa Street property, Mitsui Fudosan America also owns a second property two blocks east at 8th and Hope Streets, where the company expects to break ground on a similar apartment tower in
the near future.

[colemonkee]

HK (Hunter Kerhart) still bringing the heat!!! Looks like we're now 4-5 stories above the podium. This bad boy should start taking off.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Weren't Main and Spring updated around 2013-2015? They don't have protected bike lanes, but they do have the green bike lanes and at least the parklets on Spring.

I meant the sidewalks, landscaping, signage, etc. Still in pretty sorry condition

[colemonkee]

^ Oh, yeah. Totally. When I lived downtown, up until 2015, there were many spots along Spring that one would trip over the sidewalks. Those ficus trees, while great for shade, are brutal to the sidewalks.

[hughfb3]

LED's going up on the Moxy/AC

[Blesha13]

Would love to see the crown on the 8th and Fig tower change its lights for holidays and sporting events.

[colemonkee]

Branded Cities, who is representing the developer in selling the ad space on those signs, is charging $2+ million fro a 10% share of voice for just the corner wrap-around unit on Figueroa and Pico. There's a separate sign to the east that faces just Pico that will be different. So they are looking at $20+ million in annual revenue (split between the developer and Branded Cities) for just that sign alone. The other one on Pico is a bit cheaper, and there will be additional digital signage on the second hotel tower. So just in digital signage revenue, they are probably looking at $30-$40 million per year.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Branded Cities, who is representing the developer in selling the ad space on those signs, is charging $2+ million fro a 10% share of voice for just the corner wrap-around unit on Figueroa and Pico. There's a separate sign to the east that faces just Pico that will be different. So they are looking at $20+ million in annual revenue (split between the developer and Branded Cities) for just that sign alone. The other one on Pico is a bit cheaper, and there will be additional digital signage on the second hotel tower. So just in digital signage revenue, they are probably looking at $30-$40 million per year.

Thank you for posting--I had no idea they made that much on those signs!

[ocman]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Branded Cities, who is representing the developer in selling the ad space on those signs, is charging $2+ million fro a 10% share of voice for just the corner wrap-around unit on Figueroa and Pico. There's a separate sign to the east that faces just Pico that will be different. So they are looking at $20+ million in annual revenue (split between the developer and Branded Cities) for just that sign alone. The other one on Pico is a bit cheaper, and there will be additional digital signage on the second hotel tower. So just in digital signage revenue, they are probably looking at $30-$40 million per year.

That’s shocking. Wonder why there isn’t more digital signage in DTLA if that’s the case. It would pretty much guarantee net gain on any construction or misjudgement in housing market.

[LAisthePlace]

Originally Posted by ocman

That’s shocking. Wonder why there isn’t more digital signage in DTLA if that’s the case. It would pretty much guarantee net gain on any construction or misjudgement in housing market.

I believe only a small part of Downtown (South Park) is considered a "signage" district.

While I don't mind the massive digital signs going up on Circa, Oceanwide, Moxy Hotels right around LA Live in an entertainment district, I hate the visual blight of billboards in random locations throughout the city and am glad we don't have more in Downtown.

That's why the sketchy approval of the Reef signage without the requirement to actually build the new development leaves such a bad taste in my mouth.

"He paved the way for big electronic billboards. Then $75,000 poured in for his reelection"
https://www.latimes.com/california/story...e-digital-billboards-campaign-money-reef

[Easy]

^The Reef electronic sign is an abomination, but it raises a more important point. The City permitted the Reef signage based on the promise of new housing construction which has not happened and doesn't appear to be on the immediate horizon.

This should be a lesson for the City in other concerns, such as affordable housing. If a developer is building a phased project that includes affordable housing, the city should be careful that the affordable units don't come last and potentially never. I haven't heard of that being an issue in LA, but it has been an issue in other cities. As an example, a project like 4th/central which has 1,200 housing units in 10 buildings with 200 affordable units could concentrate the affordable units in later buildings that somehow never happen. I'm not suggesting that 4th/central would do this, but someone might if there aren't measures to prevent it.

[colemonkee]

^ 100%. I think the City should also do an audit of all of the affordable units completed to date where TOC increases have been given, just to confirm that the units were actually rented out as affordable. Would do a lot to build confidence in a public that is very skeptical of these things.

[ernart92]

Great day to walk around today

1) The Grand making its presence known:




2)Regional Connector


3)Brookfield rising beautifully








4)8th & Fig

[craigs]

ernart92, thanks for the photo updates!

I hope you won't mind that I posted a couple of the pics in their project-specific threads in Global Projects and Construction (I credited you and linked your post here).

[Blesha13]

Nice photo update I bet that area looks ominous at night with Brookfield standing tall with its construction lights on/bottom half dark and soon 8th and Fig.

[ernart92]

Originally Posted by craigs

ernart92, thanks for the photo updates!

I hope you won't mind that I posted a couple of the pics in their project-specific threads in Global Projects and Construction (I credited you and linked your post here).

That’s perfect, I do not mind at all, and thank you! I should have been posting since long ago…

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by ernart92

Great day to walk around today

thanks for the pics....they remind me of how long & difficult the process of filling in bunker hill has been for over 40 yrs. I feel bad that most of the ppl in the competition described in this vid have passed on.....the grand's frank Gehry would have been better able to enjoy his proj across from disney hall if the economy had better supported dtla through the decades....the grand was delayed for yrs due to not enough mkt demand & problems with financing as now affecting the oceanwide proj.


• Video Link


the trees on the upper levels of the grand make it stand out from most other projs.

As for the two apt towers further to the south? They're very gratifying because the bldgs fill in two gaps that have long bothered me.....esp the site on the ne corner of 8th & fig. That former parking lot has long tested my patience....I'd always wonder, when is this going to be developed!?