LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[scania]

That’s awesome and a great pic!!!

[craigs]

More funding approved for DTLA supporting housing tower at 600 S San Pedro Street

Plans call for 302 apartments in an 18-story building

Steven Sharp
Urbanize Los Angeles
June 29, 2023



Next door to the Weingart Center's Downtown headquarters, the concrete frame is rising for a new residential tower which will rank as L.A.'s largest permanent supportive housing complex when completed. But it an even larger project across the street may soon take that crown.

At its meeting on June 28, the Los Angeles City Council voted to adopt two resolutions which advance new funding for the construction of another supportive housing tower on the city-owned parking lot at 600 S. San Pedro Street. That move will allow for the California Municipal Finance Authority to issue a combined total of $30 million in bonds to the entities 600 San Pedro LP and 600 San Pedro 2 LP, which are controlled by the Weingart Center and Related Cos.



The project site, which sits at the southeast corner of 6th and San Pedro Streets, is already approved for the construction of a new 18-story building which would feature 302 apartments - including 298 restricted affordable units and four manager units - above approximately 10,230 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and on-site supportive services. Plans also call for a new four-story parking garage with capacity for 212 vehicles, which is intended to serve the existing Weingart Center facility across the street.

At the time the project was approved in by the City Planning Commission in late 2019, Weingart Center had intended for the apartments to be offered to households at the extremely low-, very low-, and low-income levels.



If and when the tower at 600 San Pedro begins construction, Weingart will not be done at the intersection of 6th and San Pedro. The non-profit service provider also has plans for a 12-story building with more than 100 supportive housing units at the same intersection

Weingart and Related are also working on the Alveare apartments, a proposed 335-unit affordable housing complex which would rise not far to the west at 1405 S. Broadway.

[citywatch]

The decade-long effort to build a new park on the long-vacant property at the northwest corner of 1st Street and Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles was dealt a blow earlier this year, when city officials moved to reallocate funding away from the project, citing an ever-growing budget gap.

In a motion introduced on June 28, De Leon calls for a report back on the potential for using the 1st and Broadway property for temporary homeless housing, while still maintaining it as a future site for park development.

The motion, which has been referred to the Council's Housing and Homelessness Committee for consideration, argues that the ongoing homelessness crisis requires an "all hands on deck approach." De Leon has requested that the Bureau of Engineering develop a design for temporary homeless housing on the parcel at 217 W. 1st Street, and also report on the suitability of the site for that use, analyzing factors such as resident safety and quality of life, staff safety, and access to supportive services. He also instructs the City Administrative Officer to identify funding to build the project.

Meanwhile, the Arthur Will fountain not too far from the proposed 1st & broadway homeless camp remains switched off....

https://youtu.be/aZSv-S60HrM?t=2259




lawalkingtours.com

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Kevin de leon is an idiot. I hope this doesn't happen. There is money earmarked for a park. We don't need the extravagant bullshit, just trees, a few benches and a walking path. Why is this so hard for the city of LA to figure out?

[nmkef]

Scaffolding getting taken down at Oceanwide this morning (along Flower)

[Tikibrewer]

The crew was using that scaffold to take the aluminum fascade panels off of the building this morning.

[a9l8e7n]

https://twitter.com/LA_Construct/sta...03442756448256

60-story tower at 1000 S Hill Street at the intersection of Olympic and Hill. Already a few floors tall. Excited to see this building grow.

[scania]

This will definitely have a major impact on downtown. From an aerial view, to people on the streets. This many new people will ramp up more retail of a lot of different businesses.

[citywatch]

TG for the onni apt tower proj....right now it's the only thing (or for ppl who treat negative news about dt like they're in some kind of Jerry springer cult, the MAIN thing) in dlta that's offsetting trends like this...

realdeal.com

In 2010, Union Bank Plaza, next to the 110 freeway on the edge of Downtown Los Angeles’ financial district, had “all the characteristics investors want,” JLL broker David Doupe said at the time. “A strong rent roll, high credit tenancy and long-term leases in a market with high barriers to entry.” How things have changed. The tower is now about 40 percent vacant. This past March, New York-based investor Joel Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital picked up Union Bank Plaza for $110 million — about half what seller KBS bought it for in 2010.

The qualities that once made top-tier office buildings in Downtown L.A. like Union Bank Plaza attractive to investors have been lost. About a third of the submarket’s office space is vacant, and more tenants are becoming commitment-phobes, averse to signing long-term leases. Meanwhile, landlords are struggling with higher debt payments due to rising interest rates.

The area’s top-tier offices comprise about 23 million square feet, spread across 24 buildings, according to data from Savills and the Downtown Center Business Improvement District. Together, those buildings are valued at about $8.4 billion, according to 2022 data from the L.A. County assessor’s office. But experts predict that national office values will plummet by about 40 percent over the next three to five years as more leases expire and tenants continue to shrink their footprints. Downtown L.A.’s prognosis is even more acute, with some, including Boston Consulting Group, estimating losses of up to 55 percent. That equates to a $4.6 billion loss in value for Downtown L.A.’s Class A office space, according to a TRD analysis of L.A. County data.

Downtown L.A. has a confluence of factors that are putting downward pressure on values — the competing Century City office market, concerns around homelessness and crime, the lack of a Fortune 500 company headquartered in the city and a new transfer tax on commercial sales. Add that to the fundamentals that are affecting downtowns across the country, and Downtown L.A. is in an isolated, painful position.

If office values do plummet, it could be an opportunity for new landlords to buy buildings for cheap and spend money to attract new tenants. At lower purchase prices, an owner could also reduce rents in an effort to boost leasing. But that hasn’t happened yet.

Occupancy across its portfolio dropped to 79 percent at the end of 2020 from 83 percent in 2019, leading Brookfield to report a drop in annual rent on a year-over-year basis for the first time ever. By the end of 2021, the portfolio was about 77 percent leased.

“Lenders are not anxious to own these office buildings,” said Marc Young, an attorney at Allen Matkins, who added that he hasn’t seen a flurry of foreclosures or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure. “They’re not in a hurry to take title to some of these buildings.” Young said the most probable and least painful outcome is a loan modification or extension — a method often dubbed “extend and pretend.” In some cases, a borrower may be able to score a short-term extension to help weather the pain. But that’s only if a lender is willing to refinance. Given that banks have seen an increase in delinquencies on commercial real estate loans — up to 0.76 percent in the first quarter, from 0.69 percent in the prior period — more have pulled back on lending to office owners.

This year, Shorenstein Properties put its 1.1 million-square-foot tower at 707 Wilshire Boulevard up for sale. It was hoping for bids to come in at about $220 million, or $200 a square foot, according to a source familiar with the matter. The top bid, from L&R Group of Companies, was $160 million, or about $145 per square foot, the source added. Shorenstein bought the building for $244 a foot in 2014. At a lower buy-in, there’s an opportunity for buyers to be “more aggressive in trying to court tenants,” Kidder Mathews broker George Crawford said. It leaves more wiggle room for tenant improvement costs, renovations and lower rents.

Right now, brokers say there’s a bit of chicken-or-the-egg at play. Investing capital into office buildings may help attract new tenants, which would boost revenues, but without more income coming in already, the debt payments are too expensive for it to pencil out.

[Zapatan]

LA has to be one of the most poorly run cities in the US, this is not really surprising.

If it can get its act together there is so much potential.

TG for the onni apt tower proj....right now it's the only thing (or for ppl who treat negative news about dt like they're in some kind of Jerry springer cult, the MAIN thing) in dlta that's offsetting trends like this...

Yea, seems like Mitsui may be starting later this year as well. If only Crescent Heights can get a loan for their tower within the next year or two.

I know the types of people you're referring to and they must live in a delusional fantasy land if they think LA doesn't have serious problems.

[scania]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

LA has to be one of the most poorly run cities in the US, this is not really surprising.

If it can get its act together there is so much potential.



Yea, seems like Mitsui may be starting later this year as well. If only Crescent Heights can get a loan for their tower within the next year or two.

I know the types of people you're referring to and they must live in a delusional fantasy land if they think LA doesn't have serious problems.

All major cities have a plethora of issues. At the same time...LA is so great you find yourself here commenting here on a LA forum. So whatever you need to balance the good with the bad is everyone's choice. I do think some that complain most of the time, simply do nothing to better the city's issues. Most of them probably don't vote. Ha

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by scania

All major cities have a plethora of issues. At the same time...LA is so great you find yourself here commenting here on a LA forum. So whatever you need to balance the good with the bad is everyone's choice. I do think some that complain most of the time, simply do nothing to better the city's issues. Most of them probably don't vote. Ha

I love LA, but am not blind to the fact that the issues plaguing it are basically unheard of in many other developed, first world cities.

[scania]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

I love LA, but am not blind to the fact that the issues plaguing it are basically unheard of in many other developed, first world cities.

LOL. People who think SF and NYC for starters don't have most of the issues that LA has...they are kidding themselves. Sidenote...most of the time when people say on these forums they love something, it's generally the opposite. I remember before I stop commenting on certain forums when people who always had something negative to say about the iPhone, would sometimes say...I love Apple, I love the iPhone, I just need a phone that's not so limited. Hahahahaha They actually hated the iPhone, and every blue moon, they would something that was slightly positive, to in their minds would think that it made their other negative statements have more weight. Lol

[craigs]

Thanks a9l8e7n for posting the 1000 S. Hill construction updates!

[colemonkee]

Moderator edit - deleted a bunch of posts for being off-topic and bickering and suspended citywatch and LA21st for two weeks for posting off topic posts and/or derailing the thread with forumer vs. forumer posts. You all asked for more heavy-handed moderating, so here you go. I will dole out more suspensions without warning for forumer vs. forumer or off-topic posts. If people have negative opinions about LA, that's fine, and perfectly okay to post, as long as it's on topic - that topic being active or proposed development projects in downtown LA. Those continuing to complain about other people's posts will be suspended, or banned if repeated.

[BrandonJXN]

So what is actually under construction and what projects are proposed? The first page needs a lot of attention.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

So what is actually under construction and what projects are proposed? The first page needs a lot of attention.

https://la.urbanize.city/

Originally Posted by colemonkee

You all asked for more heavy-handed moderating, so here you go.

I am fairly certain that no one has asked for ham fisted threats or mass deletions of posts.

And apparently trolling posts with off-topic videos and unprovoked personal attacks against other members (referring to them as Jerry Springer cultists, oddballs and messed up ppl) are still allowed because those posts are still up, somehow. Meanwhile the people who complain about it get suspended and have all their posts deleted? It almost seems like the mods are acting in bad faith here. I really hope that is not the case.

[LAsam]

^Further, on the Urbanize LA page, you can click "Projects" at the top for a map with all the projects and their respective statuses.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by badrunner

https://la.urbanize.city/



I am fairly certain that no one has asked for ham fisted threats or mass deletions of posts.

And apparently trolling posts with off-topic videos and unprovoked personal attacks against other members (referring to them as Jerry Springer cultists, oddballs and messed up ppl) are still allowed because those posts are still up, somehow. Meanwhile the people who complain about it get suspended and have all their posts deleted? It almost seems like the mods are acting in bad faith here. I really hope that is not the case.

I agree 100%. The fact that citywatch, who has been doing the same bullshit routine of derailing this thread FOR YEARS gets suspended while LA21st gets banned because why exactly? His posts gets deleted yet Jerry Springer still lurks from the underworld.

This thread really has gone downhill. I mean moreso than usual.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by LAsam

^Further, on the Urbanize LA page, you can click "Projects" at the top for a map with all the projects and their respective statuses.

That's a very cool new feature I didn't know about. Reminds me of the visualizations that a forumer used to do on here, before this thread went to shit.