LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[craigs]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

I never post regarding the 'state of the forum' but this thread has been meh for quite a while. The general tone is rarely positive and tends to sway wayyyyy off topic but generally returns to the starting line at the intersection of 4th and Hill. If you smell what The Rock is cooking.

Quite a few of those that have been on this forum for roughly 20 (!) years can say that this little thread has become a part of our daily life. I can speak for myself that having that SSP meet at Lost Souls in like (2005-2006ish?) was a highlight for me because it was the first time I was around people who had similar dreams and ideas about the betterment of DTLA (as well as those who love architecture/skyscrapers). Fast forward 20 years later and I still remember that day fondly.

This thread probably won't return to those halcyon days but it's almost exhausting seeing more negative than positive.

The SSP guys in my prior city had regular forum "meats" for a good 15 years, which initially featured a ton of drinking and a 'no photos' policy, then morphed over the decades into group bike rides, pub crawls, European travel, etc. A good dozen of us are lifelong friends, like "come stay for a few days at our house" friends, and "part of the wedding party" friends. Being like-minded folks, many of those guys now work in architecture, transportation planning, development, city government, etc. And our spouses are also friends. My husband has asked why the LA gang isn't like that, and I don't know what to tell him other than there's a ton of negativity about LA in this subforum. Even today there's a post that includes harping on a violent crime committed inside a downtown business, and how local government supposedly has us on the precipice of civic doom, transit fail, and the loss of billions of investment dollars. Who wants to invite that kind of compulsive, perennial negativity into their off-forum life?

Anyway--did you guys know that LA has an official, city-owned mayor's residence? I didn't until I read today's LA Times article on Getty House, in Windsor Square. Apparently, Mayor Bass is trying to fix it up proper.

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by craigs

My husband has asked why the LA gang isn't like that, and I don't know what to tell him other than there's a ton of negativity about LA in this subforum.

We used to meet up quite often, but many have lost interest or just more important things in life took priority and left the forum. The new group of LA forumer are not all that social with other locals and do not seem to have the desire or excitement about our city as the past group did. I was probably the oldest of the group back in the day (early 30's) and still single, but now I'm married with one son and I suspect others have families now and moved on in with their life. Some of us would also get together when out of town forumers would come to town and give them a tour or even have something to eat. Still every so often I get a text or talk with some of the older forumers from out of state, but the local ones from back in the day I hear nothing. Well except Mello in San Diego (nice guy) we talk but not as much as before as he has a family as well. Anyway that's my take on how I see it with the local group.

[citywatch]

This bldg being bought by LA city govt was noted above, but I had only a vague idea of the hotel's history...

Lindsay Blake for Dirt

Downtown L.A.’s historic Mayfair Hotel appears to officially be off the market! The storied lodging was put up for sale at a whopping $69,750,000 (or $237,245 per room) last September and the Los Angeles Times is now reporting that Mayor Karen Bass and her homelessness team are working to acquire it as part of their Inside Safe program. The paper details, “If the city finalizes the purchase, the Mayfair would be a key part of the city’s effort to create ‘permanent interim housing’ — city-owned residential buildings where homeless people can live for up to a year before finding their own apartments.”

Located at 1256 W. 7th St. in DTLA’s Westlake area, the Mayfair started life in 1927, designed by Alexander E. Curlett and Claud W. Beelman, the prolific architecture team behind the former Park Plaza Hotel (now The MacArthur event center), The Culver Hotel and the Commercial Club of Southern California (now the Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel). Commissioned by the Sun Realty Company, a local enterprise headed by Polish-born tailor-turned-developer Isidor Eisner, the upscale 15-story Renaissance Revival-style lodging was erected at a cost of $2.5 million (about $43 million today), with no expense spared in its construction. The furnishings alone, secured by the fabled Barker Bros. company on a three-week buying trip to New York, totaled $350,000, according to a Los Angeles Evening Express article from the day.

Boasting an incredible 160,694 square feet, it was the largest hotel west of the Mississippi at the time of its completion, not to mention one of the most luxurious. Fashioned with a handsome terra cotta and face brick façade and a Georgian-style interior inspired by Robert Adams, whom the Times noted was “the greatest decorator of the eighteenth century,” the Mayfair promptly became a hot spot for well-heeled Angelenos and tourists alike.

thetravel.com

These 10 U.S. Cities Are Home to The Best Downtown Areas In The Country

4 Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is a major metropolitan city on the west coast of the United States. LA's downtown area is absolutely worth visiting; featuring several iconic landmarks and buildings, including the Staples Center, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Grammy Museum, it's one of the top attractions in the US for tourists. The area houses several world-renowned museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, reflecting the city's rich cultural heritage.

Besides the vibrant culture and art scene, the city is home to several major universities, including the University of Southern California (USC) and the California Institute of Technology, facilitating students and researchers around the world. The downtown city is also known for its diverse culinary scene, with various restaurants and food trucks serving everything from street tacos to high-end cuisine[/B].

^ most of the usual urban suspects are on that list, but both the 'absolutely worth visiting' & the changes in dtla over the past 10-20 yrs in particular make PR posted on a travel website not just a matter of content providers for vacationers blindly doing promotions for tourists or travelers based throughout the US.

incidentally, I like the subj of dtla, of how new & old devlpt is affecting it & also all the pluses & minuses the area faces as it makes up for lost time. This forum doesn't interest me as a social meeting site. I also don't have a blind, rah rah, homer-type interest in dt, or discussions from ppl who act like they're in a cult. I recognize the complexity of what dtla is all about & don't appreciate being gaslighted.

Also, I find it ironic that people who rarely post here about specific info related to dtla seem way more interested not in that, but instead in the ins & outs of ssp rules, of who or who doesn't post here, of what personalities or what political issues they like or don't like. Or anything but what 'downtown los angeles' & devlpt are all about. I don't like posting short replies or comments, or posting info that's totally personal opinion only. Again, this ssp forum is interesting to me when it's about dtla, not about the ppl who post to it or don't post to it, or whether ppl are this or that .

[black_crow]

Took this one during the weekend (Runyon Canyon).
The new Onni tower (1000 S. Hill Street) might fill that gap a bit.

[BrandonJXN]

Really need that gap filled in.

[Quixote]

A month old but still worth posting:

Condé Nast Moving LA Offices Downtown

The company behind media brands like Vogue, The New Yorker and GQ is moving its Los Angeles office downtown.

Condé Nast is relocating from Mid-Wilshire to the edge of the Arts District at the ROW DTLA mixed-use campus owned by Atlas Capital. The lease is for approximately 25,000 square feet, sources told Commercial Observer. Condé Nast will join apparel and fashion-focused tenants at ROW that include Revolve, Adidas and Shein.

https://commercialobserver.com/2023/04/la-conde-nast-office-downtown-lease/

[black_crow]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

Really need that gap filled in.

I believe you can see a construction crane (if you look close enough) right next to the Ritz-Carlton (over that small white building).
It would close that gap quite a bit from that angle.

[craigs]

Nice pic, black_crow. That is such a great angle of the skyline.

Like you guys, I'm really looking forward to 1000 S. Hill making its mark on our southward-expanding skyline.

[black_crow]

Originally Posted by craigs

Nice pic, black_crow. That is such a great angle of the skyline.

Like you guys, I'm really looking forward to 1000 S. Hill making its mark on our southward-expanding skyline.

Thanks and thanks for your updates as well. Very appriciated.

Set to stand 760 feet in height, the new Onni tower would be the city's 4th tallest building.
The Ritz-Carlton for example has a height of 667 feet. So seeing that tower filling that gap right in the middle (from that angle of course) is lovely.

Not too long ago... South Park had pretty much no skyscrapers at all and now we are talking about filling that gap. That makes me very optimistic.
Just imagine that picture without South Park or the Wilshire Grand. We came a long way.

[LA21st]

The Koreatown skyline has changed a good bit too in last 7 or 8 years.

[citywatch]

• Video Link

^ parking minimums being removed

EDIT: just saw this & it made me grimace....

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chicago-empty-towers-threaten-future-130115508.html

dtla has been down this same road before, or one similar to it, so I don't know if that means LA is either less or better prepared to deal with what other cities are currently experiencing. Urban America, from the east to the west coast, started declining over 50 yrs ago, as burbanization kicked into high gear, but then bounced back, particularly starting around the 2000s. I don't know if the next 5-10 yrs will be a case of back to the future. Or what goes around comes around.

Getty, Loopnet, Crunchbase

LuxUrban Hotels is ready to reopen the Trinity Hotel after the 109-year-old property in Downtown L.A. has spent the last quarter century collecting cobwebs. The Miami-based hospitality firm has signed a 15-year master lease with the New York-based Chetrit Group to operate the 179-room, nine-story hotel at 851 South Grand Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed. The Beaux Arts hotel, which opened in 1914 as the Trinity Auditorium, is ready to open July 1, LuxUrban announced, under the “LuxUrban Ultra” brand.

“Downtown Los Angeles offers a wide array of cultural, entertainment and business activities and the region’s improving hospitality market reflects the abundance of opportunities that this bustling commercial and residential hub provides,” LuxUrban CEO Brian Ferdinand said in a statement.

The Trinity Auditorium, later known as the Embassy Hotel, was the location of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s debut in 1919. It hosted labor union meetings, jazz and rock concerts into the 1960s. In subsequent years, it was used as an annex and housing complex by USC, until the Chetrit family acquired it in 1998. It hasn’t opened since. For more than a decade, the New York-based Chetrits have sought to convert the 140,400-square-foot property into a hotel. The hotel opening stalled in 2014 because of a conflict between the property owner and the labor union Unite Here Local 11, which successfully blocked the family from obtaining alcohol permits.

While the project was eventually able to move forward through permitting, it has remained closed to the public. The conflict also extended to the Trinity’s sister project, the Hotel Clark near Pershing Square — an establishment the Chetrits have also sought to reopen for decades. Most recently, the Clark was slated to open its doors in September 2019. However, that date came and went without welcoming guests.

LuxUrban Hotels, formerly known as CorpHousing Group, manages a portfolio of hotel rooms in New York, Miami Beach, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. with 1,034 hotel rooms available for rent. In 2021, the company pivoted from leasing and re-leasing multifamily units toward leasing hotels. In December, the short-term rental company and its CEO were sued for more than $1 million after allegedly skipping out on rent at apartments across New York City. LuxUrban has called the accusations “meritless.”

[nmkef]

In line with the accidental IG post we talked about a few pages ago, new 845 S Olive plans are before DLANC tomorrow: https://dlanc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/845-S-Olive_for-05162023-DLANC-PLUM.pdf

Shows the reduced height at 108' tall with 334 units. Interestingly they're all cited as studio units in the plan, but maybe that's a placeholder? There's also a ~3100sqft restaurant space on Grand, and ~1600sqft "cafe" space on Olive.

Too bad about the reduced height but it still looks reasonable in the area. I'll never complain about *something* filling up some of the ridiculous parking lot blob on that block.

[Easy]

Thanks for the update. Given the narrow lot and the number of units, I’d guess that they will indeed all be studios.

[nmkef]

I just realized the project has zero residential auto parking citing AB2097, only ~160 long term bike spots in a garage. Makes even more sense to have all-studio project, with close proximity to metro, FIDM, etc.

[citywatch]

recently posted vid review of the moxy hotel on Fig across from the convention ctr....

https://youtu.be/0addOgFlmqA?t=30

The vlogger mentions how the hotel really isn't as ready for opening as it should have been. I imagine the devlpr has faced various issues with the supply chain, available contractors, qualified employees. But it sure is a relief having one of the more visible properties across from a facility that plays host to travelers & day trippers be more than things like an old small bldg leased to Hooters.

I believe any new devlpt will never have such a high RoR that all the investment money given to it will be equaled in a few yrs or decades, much less months. That's why the proj on Olive St may have been downsized...the devlpr may be scrambling to find sources for funding. The credit mkts are reportedly drying up....example: the past few yrs of the stalled oceanwide proj on Fig. Shorter construction allows for wood framing, whereas the original plan would have required more costly steel.

Investors probably are spooked when they see various devlpt in dtla, both old & certainly newer, not generating enough money to cover the loans they were originally given. That's why the wobbly reputation of dtla going back over 40 to 50 yrs has slowed down its improvements. I recall reading around 7 to 10 yrs ago how supporters of dtla, inc from the dtla improvement dist, traveled to NYC to gin up interest in LA from the investment community based there.

[headcheckjj]

All the crews on the 8th and Fig tower (https://la.urbanize.city/post/42-story-8th-figueroa-tower-tops-out-dtla) are saying that Mitsui Fudosan is hoping to start on the 8th and Grand tower around January now that 8th and Fig is wrapping up.

https://la.urbanize.city/post/mitsui-fudosan-aims-2024-groundbreaking-8th-grand-hope

[scania]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

All the crews on the 8th and Fig tower are saying that Mitsui Fudosan is hoping to start on the 8th and Grand tower (https://la.urbanize.city/post/mitsui-fudosan-aims-2024-groundbreaking-8th-grand-hope) around January now that 8th and Fig is wrapping up.

https://la.urbanize.city/post/mitsui-fudosan-aims-2024-groundbreaking-8th-grand-hope

Wow!!! To idiot nay sayers always trying to doubt development. Also, the leases at Beaudry are doing well, despite how high the rents are there!

[HusBy]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

All the crews on the 8th and Fig tower (https://la.urbanize.city/post/42-story-8th-figueroa-tower-tops-out-dtla) are saying that Mitsui Fudosan is hoping to start on the 8th and Grand tower around January now that 8th and Fig is wrapping up.

https://la.urbanize.city/post/mitsui-fudosan-aims-2024-groundbreaking-8th-grand-hope

That would be incredible! Probably the best design of any of the current proposals.

[Charmy2]

Originally Posted by craigs

Nice pic, black_crow. That is such a great angle of the skyline.

Like you guys, I'm really looking forward to 1000 S. Hill making its mark on our southward-expanding skyline.

How is construction coming along over there? Has it began going vertical yet?

[colemonkee]

^ 1000 S. Hill is going vertical, but still on the base. Should take off any time now.

A Q1 start of 8th and Grand would be amazing. If it stays at 50 stories - and based on the skyline rendering - we're looking at yet another 600 footer.