LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by BigDan35

I see the very first project listed on the front page is "717 Flower" and it says it'll be 40 stories...on the first page it's listed as "under construction". But when I go to the "high-rise construction" part of this forum I don't see it anywhere. What's the status?

Because no one cares about LA.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

So here are three new projects we learned about from the quarterly update from the LA Downtown News.

1) 751 S. Spring Street - 32 Stories
2) Witmer Tower - 1027 Wilshire - 40 Stories
3) 11th and Olive - 62 Stories

[fridayinla]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

So here are three new projects we learned about from the quarterly update from the LA Downtown News.

1) 751 S. Spring Street - 32 Stories
2) Witmer Tower - 1027 Wilshire - 40 Stories
3) 11th and Olive - 62 Stories

Those are just the new big projects, there are other new smaller ground up projects like Locus One, and new renovations like the Giannini building at 649 S. Olive St.

EDIT: Colemonkee, by the way looks like Broadstone Los Angeles is now called Canvas L.A.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

So here are three new projects we learned about from the quarterly update from the LA Downtown News.

And here's some nitty gritty that gives ppl a better idea of how likely or unlikely the unpublicized projs you list are going to move past the talk or rumor stage---it includes the bldg you're planning to move to, LASF:

The 20-year-old, 37-story skyscraper at 1100 Wilshire Blvd. opened in December as the only modern high-rise to be turned into a residential building. So far, 135 of the 228 units have been filled (an increase from the 85 sold in February), and 70 residents have moved in.

HIKARI
The 128-unit, six-story apartment complex at Second Street and Central Avenue is 70% leased since its opening in December,

BISCUIT COMPANY LOFTS
The Biscuit Company Lofts opened in March and the building is more than 70% sold out.

MOZAIC
Mozaic has signed 120 leases and the second, 165-unit building at 888 N. Alameda St. opened in mid-February, bringing the 272-apartment development to completion.

DELANO LOFTS
The $11 million conversion of the 13-story Delano Lofts, formerly known as the National Building, is complete and almost ready for move-ins, said developer Izek Shomof. The 130,000-square-foot property at 609 S. Grand Ave. in the Jewelry District features 99 loft-style apartments...65% of the units are already leased.

ROWAN LOFTS
About half of the 206 units in Downtown Properties' Rowan Lofts have been pre-sold, and the building is scheduled to finish in the fourth quarter of 2008, said project manager Bill Stevenson.

ROOSEVELT LOFTS
The Roosevelt Lofts released its second phase of condos and half have been reserved, said April Fissell, the director of sales.

PAN AMERICAN LOFTS
The 111-year-old former office building at Third Street and Broadway is awaiting a certificate of occupancy and should open by summer. Developer Urban Pacific Builders' $20 million transformation put 40 condominiums into the 115,000-square-foot structure....Three-quarters of the units have been sold.

EASTERN COLUMBIA
More than 100 residents have moved into the Eastern Columbia building....All units but the penthouses are sold out.

MURA
The five-story ground-up condominium complex at 629 E. Traction Ave. in the Arts District could open by late summer, said Pulte Home Corporation's Marketing Manager Suzanne Finne. She said only a few of the 190 one- to three-bedroom residences remain unsold.

VERO
Developer Sonny Astani's $65 million condominium complex at 1234 Wilshire Blvd., which opened earlier this year, is sold out.

CITY NATIONAL PLAZA
The twin 51-story black granite office towers at Fifth and Flower streets are now 75% leased, following the inking of 100,000 square feet of deals in the first quarter of 2007 and 233,661 square feet of office space since 2006

Meanwhile.....

FEDERAL COURTHOUSE
Bidding has been postponed for the second phase of a 1 million-square-foot courthouse at First Street and Broadway in the Civic Center....General Services Administration Regional Public Affairs Officer Gene Gibson said budget constraints have forced the court to explore alternatives, including asking Congress for more funds, after bids came in well over estimates. The project, next to City Hall, originally budgeted at $314 million, will need to be repackaged, Gibson said.

[colemonkee]

Updated the first post to reflect the Canvas L.A. name. Stupid name, if you ask me. I liked Broadstone better, even if it wasn't really that relevant.

LASportsFan, I'll add 751 S. Spring Street, Witmer Tower and the 62-story 11th and Olive tower when we get more info - specifically renders. I'm sure LAMG already has them, he's just waiting for the optimal time to drop them on us.

Originally Posted by BigDan35

I see the very first project listed on the front page is "717 Flower" and it says it'll be 40 stories...on the first page it's listed as "under construction". But when I go to the "high-rise construction" part of this forum I don't see it anywhere. What's the status?

Actually, this building is 35 stories - I'm not sure where I got the 40 story figure from, perhaps wishful thinking. I've corrected that on the front page. As for creating a separate thread in the Highrise Construction thread I suppose we could, but it's not that exciting of a project. Yes, it's 35 stories, but it's not too architecturally significant - at least what we can see from the one render we have. The Ritz Carlton hotel tower (54 stories) does have a separate thread, since it's a much more exciting and significant tower. It should be moving from the Proposals section to the Construction section soon.

[ladowntowner]

One telling sign of DTLA's continuing re-emergence for me is the fact that every time I go for a walk around the hood I'm stopped at least 1-2 times by either motorists or pedestrians asking for directions. These are invariably "upscale" types and indicates to me that a lot of "outsiders" are either visiting friends that have recently moved here, looking to relocate here or are coming here to hang out at the latest trendy spot. This would never happen even three years ago.

[BrandonJXN]

^ A interesting thing happened to me about a month ago. I was in downtown walking from Bunker Hill to the OBD when this beautiful woman and her equally hot boyfriend stopped me and asked me where Lost Souls was. I noticed she had a thick Russian accent. So I told them that just follow me because that was where I was going. After about a 10 minute walk, we walked in and had a bit of a conversation about downtown. I asked them how they heard about this place? They looked a little confused so I said that unless you know exactly what you are looking for, Lost Souls is pretty hard to find. So the guy said that some friends of his visited LA from Russia last summer, fell in love with Lost Souls (amoung other places) and wanted to see this place for themselves. They said that alot of people think that downtown LA is dead and dark and there is nothing to do but they are going to tell their friends that they were wrong and DTLA is totally different (in a good way) than what they thought.

So look for an invasion of the Red Army sometime soon.

[BigDan35]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

So here are three new projects we learned about from the quarterly update from the LA Downtown News.

1) 751 S. Spring Street - 32 Stories
2) Witmer Tower - 1027 Wilshire - 40 Stories
3) 11th and Olive - 62 Stories

Those are approved or just proposed?

[colemonkee]

^ Proposed.

ThreeHundred, if an army of beautiful Russian women invades downtown, I will buy you several beers.

[BrandonJXN]

^ If Flora, Olga, and Helga do invade downtown, send their hot brothers to me. You can keep the beer. I want vodka.

[colemonkee]

Deal! You can have the vodka. I think I had my fair share last night for the next year. Blueberry Stoli tastes good, but don't be fooled - it's still the devil.

If any of you have a chance, I highly recommend picking up a print version of this week's Downtown News (with the development update). It has several images that never made it to the website:

- a clearer render of Meruelo's 717 Flower project, without the boxes in the way
- Recent aerial photos of quite a few projects (looks like DT News sprung for a helicopter ride)
- A full-page color ad on the back for Park Fifth with a HUGE render
- A paid advertising "article" on Park Fifth that says a sales center will open in June (by appointment only)
- An article about the Market Lofts project with pictures from the courtyard, which looks almost finished.

As someone who's scanner-challenged, I don't have a way to put these online.

[Steve2726]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

Meruelo has some serious cash! Every since he took his company public, he's on fire. Did anyone else read that he plans to break ground on a new tower every six months? I love this guy, where do I sign up to invest in his company

It is publicly traded after the recent IPO

MMPI Meruelo Maddux Properties Inc (NASDAQ GM)

$8.25 - $0.1 (-1.20%) 5/21/2007 9:55:00 AM ET

52-Wk Low $ 7.11
52-Wk High $ 10.79
Market Cap 707.9 M
Shares Outstand. 85.8100 M

Company Information

Dev/redevp/own commercial & residential properties
Meruelo Maddux Properties, Incorporated
761 Terminal Street Building 1, Second Floor Los Angeles CA 90021
Phone: (213) 291-2800

[latennisguy]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

As someone who's scanner-challenged, I don't have a way to put these online.

damn! i was going to ask you to scan the images...I'd love to see them, and I can't get a hard copy..i'm back in h-town

[alikaalex]

Back in the 2.0 thread, I posted the following about a development planned at the intersection of 7th & Lucas in City West:

I work right across the street from the block of Ingraham/Bixel/7th/Lucas. A while back I saw yellow Public Notice signs posted on the buildings fronting 7th St. It appeared from the notices that there might be two separate builldings going up on that side of the block: one at the NE corner of 7th & Lucas and one at the NW corner of 7th & Bixel. Of course, that was a while ago, and my memory of the signs may be a bit fuzzy, but if I see anything interesting happening down there, I'll be sure to post!

According to the new Downtown News development issue, it appears this will be the Lucas One condo project...

After two years of planning, Hi Point Development LLC said it will break ground early next year on a seven-story complex at 1135-1147 W. Seventh St. The City West project would have 115 condominiums and 7,500 square feet of commercial space. The units would range from one bedroom to two bedrooms with a den, and the development would feature a gym, pool and spa area, along with a rooftop deck.

Will make for nice viewing from my office across the street! Incidentally, this will be just across the alley from that project on Ingraham (I think it was 1110 Ingraham or similar).

[colemonkee]

^ If anyone can find a render of Lucas One, I'll add it to the first post. I tried this weekend and came up empty. Where's LAMG when you need him?

[LAMetroGuy]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

So here are three new projects we learned about from the quarterly update from the LA Downtown News.

1) 751 S. Spring Street - 32 Stories
2) Witmer Tower - 1027 Wilshire - 40 Stories
3) 11th and Olive - 62 Stories

Wow, lots of info over the weekend.... When I first read your post I was upset because I thought that the 51 story that is being proposed by Amidi Real Estate Group at 1027 Wilshire was now reduced to 40 stories and renamed Witmer Tower. But after looking into it, the Witmer tower is not at 1027 Wilshire, but at 1247 W. Seventh St.

[LAMetroGuy]

I posted this a while ago in the previous Downtown LA thread, but I believe that the 62 story tower will be part of the "Olive Street Towers" project:

Originally Posted by LAMetroGuy

I was looking at Meruelo's project in their FORM S-11 and found the following proposed/planned/in-construction Residential High Rise projects:

Project Name - Number of Acres - Current Square Footage -Current Use - Redevelopment Plan


The Union Lofts
0.25 131,981 Historic office building 91 loft-style condominium units with 12,500 square foot retail space

717 W. 9th Street
0.75 N/A Commercial parking lot 214 high-rise condominium units with 6,800 square foot retail space

Ullman Tower One 915-949 S. Hill Street
1.50 N/A Commercial parking lot 320 high-rise condominium units with 16,000 square foot retail space

Ullman Tower Two 817-825 S. Hill Street
1.00 N/A Commercial parking lot 195 high-rise condominium units with 12,675 square foot retail space

Olive Street Towers
2.00 N/A Commercial parking lot 395 high-rise condominium units with 19,750 square foot retail space

Southpark Towers 336 W. 11th Street
3.00 N/A Commercial parking lot 651 high-rise condominium units with 41,800 square foot retail space

TransAmerica Lofts 1.00 N/A Commercial parking lot 232 high-rise loft condominium units with 11,600 square foot retail space

Center Village 210 Center Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
4.00 71,635 Cold storage and freezer space 560 high-rise condominium units with 30,000 square foot retail space

Meruelo Chinatown Towers
4.9-acre parcel of surplus land near Metro Gold Line
5.50 N/A Cleared land 500 live-work units with 50,000 square foot retail space

Sky Arc
8.00 N/A Cleared land 635 high-rise condominium units with 70,000 square foot retail space

Meruelo Baldwin Park*
5.00 N/A Cleared land 400 high-rise condominium units with 24,000 square foot retail space

Vignes Towers 4.00 N/A Cleared land 350 mid-rise condominium units with 21,000 square foot retail

http://www.secinfo.com/d14D5a.v5SSa.htm

[JDRCRASH]

Hey guys the Los Angeles River Revitalization Project has been approved!



I looked into the LA Downtown News Newspaper and it said that the project will take 20-50 to implement!
So no more of the that abandoned industrial crap to ruin the skyline!

[fridayinla]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Deal! You can have the vodka. I think I had my fair share last night for the next year. Blueberry Stoli tastes good, but don't be fooled - it's still the devil.

If any of you have a chance, I highly recommend picking up a print version of this week's Downtown News (with the development update). It has several images that never made it to the website:

Colemonkee, did you notice in the aerial shot of Block 8 that half of the block is now under construction (at least the asphalt is stripped)? In fact, the blurb from the development update mentions that only two of the parcels were sold off, so it fits:

"That six-acre site was divided into four parcels earlier this year, two of which Related sold to other developers."

Judging by the rendering below, the new part of the block u/c would the 22-story condo tower with retail and a 7-story condo mid-rise. Although the article doesn't mention this.

[colemonkee]

^ I did see that, but it appears that they're only using that other parcel as a staging ground at this point. It's hard to tell from the photo, but they haven't cleared all the asphalt from that second parcel. There's still a strip of asphalt along 2nd Street (where the row of cars is parked inside the fence in the photo), and the western part of that second parcel is still asphalt, it just looks like open dirt from high above because dirt and dust have spread over there. At least that's what it was like when I walked by there the other day. I'll verify that this weekend when I have some time to walk around.