LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[SoCalKid]

I was actually just coming on here to ask if anyone knew the timeline of this project. It's unclear from this picture if this is just the LA Live portion or the whole street though. It is a little strange that this got started right when the Lakers, Kings, and Clippers are in the playoffs though...

[citywatch]

^ It's apparently ongoing phases of the proj announced a yr ago. The pandemic slowed things down & redoing the plaza was probably penciled in by contractors way before the owners knew what events might happen....around 2:28 the merging of the area between the arena & LA live is mentioned.


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[citywatch]

Swig Co

A high-profile office building in downtown Los Angeles has landed a new buyer as part of a redevelopment deal that came with a steep discount. The Swig Co., a San Francisco-based real estate firm, sold the former Union Oil headquarters building at 617 W. 7th St. for $20.5 million to the Shomof Group, a local firm with a track record for historic conversions and extensive redevelopment projects. The deal, confirmed by local property records, works out to about $94 a square foot. That's about half the nearly $39 million — or $180 per square foot — Swig paid for the downtown building in 2011.

The roughly 215,000-square-foot property hit the market this year as a potential residential conversion opportunity while the amount of available office space in the city, like some other areas across the country, outpaces demand.

Built in the early 1920s, the building at the corner of Seventh and Hope streets was developed to house the headquarters for Union Oil, one of the world's major petroleum exporters after its founding in the late 19th century. The Beaux Arts property established the company's corporate hub in Los Angeles and is now about 40% leased to a mix of professional, legal and financial services firms, according to CoStar data.

booking.com

Add Kodō Hotel to the list of the best and most unique places to stay in Los Angeles. Modern, minimalist and boasting just nine rooms, the boutique hotel opened earlier this year in downtown L.A.’s Arts District along South Santa Fe Avenue just below 7th Street. Directly across the street from Warner Music Group’s L.A. offices, Kodō Hotel is tucked away on the second floor of a former Beaux Arts-style fire station that dates back to 1927.

Travel aficionados may recall that this spot had a brief life as another boutique hotel, the aptly named Firehouse Hotel, which enjoyed a brief run after opening in 2019, not far from such hotspot restaurants as Bestia and Bavel. Now the nearly 100-year-old Engine Co. No. 17 building has been renovated and reborn with a completely different vibe, trading in boho cool for a Japanese-ryokan-inspired aesthetic.


booking.com

Guests should be aware that the hotel does not have an elevator and the hotel rooms are reached only via a tall staircase. Rooms, starting at $218 a night, are available at kodohotel.com and booking.com. The property’s ground-floor Kodō restaurant serves everything from sushi rolls and omakase platters to salads and main dishes like Uni-mentaiko Cream Pasta with cured egg yolk. It features minimalist meets earthy design in keeping with the aesthetic of the hotel, as well as an outdoor patio and a private dining room that’s located in the fire station’s former handball court.

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[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by citywatch

^ It's apparently ongoing phases of the proj announced a yr ago. The pandemic slowed things down & redoing the plaza was probably penciled in by contractors way before the owners knew what events might happen....around 2:28 the merging of the area between the arena & LA live is mentioned.

I was there last night, there is nothing being done on the street yet, just on the LA Live plaza. Hopefully that's early work for the entire plaza. That street can't be shut down soon enough.

[citywatch]

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[NIMBY Slayer]

For the love of all that is decent and good, I hope they replace the windows on the Union Oil headquarters building with something more period appropriate. The current windows, not sure when they were added, maybe the 70s, 80s, or 90s when the majority of architects were blind, are hideous and a blight to a beautiful building.

[hydr_ant]

I moved out of la last year unfortunately, but came back last month for a quick visit and made sure to check out construction progress and see some new surprises












Quick notes -- was surprised to see the impact of the supportive housing towers in Skid Row. The neighborhood was much worse than I remembered, but these towers gave me hope. The arts district Alloy was also almost finished -- besides the east-facing facade being busier than I would've liked, the building will add a lot to the neighborhood. And ofc Onni's building has climbed a lot. Its proximity to the Mayan and some beautiful theaters should really make this part of downtown a jewel.

[colemonkee]

Great photo update, hydr_ant!!!

[LAsam]

Thanks for the new photo update! The new apartment tower from Onni is starting to have a presence in the skyline.

[scania]

I talked with a construction worker on site this morning…he said they had just poured the 43rd floor and they are presently on track for another floor per week (Wednesday). He also said they will top out at 55 floors. So we are roughly 3 months away from topping out.

[LAsam]

Onni may not always build to the highest standard of quality, but they certainly do get sh*t done.

[scania]

Originally Posted by LAsam

Onni may not always build to the highest standard of quality, but they certainly do get sh*t done.

And to be fair, some of the other projects from Santa Monica, West Hollywood, etc...all cut corners. If any of you have toured these buildings, you know exactly what I'm saying. But, I am hoping that the Mitsui gets started quickly on their next project at 8th and Grand.

[Zapatan]

New projects are looking good.

Haven't heard any news on Mitsui though.



hydr_ant, what's the midrise project in the third to last photo?

That street looks pretty gritty though :|

[scania]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

New projects are looking good.

Haven't heard any news on Mitsui though.



hydr_ant, what's the midrise project in the third to last photo?

That street looks pretty gritty though :|

That's the Skid Row tower. You'll probably never walk over there.

[craigs]

I was downtown yesterday, stayed overnight at the Hotel Figueroa, and left early this afternoon. Last night I went out for drinks and dinner with a gaggle of guys, and we did a lot of walking on an irregular path from the Hotel Figueroa to the Grand Central Market
and then back, with a couple of bar hops along the way. Downtown was lively well into the night, including when I popped into the Ralph's on 9th Street for snacks (open until 1:00 a.m.!).

Anyway, now that it's getting closer to its full stature, Olympic + Hill seems wider than I expected it would be. And, of course, it's getting taller and taller. I think it looks decent--I don't get the hate. But I'll reserve final judgment for when it opens.

I snapped this pic with my phone around noon today:



Bonus: the view of the skyline (incl. Westlake, Koreatown and Hollywood in the far distance) from the 12th floor of the Hotel Figueroa:

[scania]

Nice pics!

[HusBy]

Great to hear about the liveliness of DTLA at night, Craigs, and on a Tuesday no less. How would you say it compares to the pre-covid nightlife vibe?

Anyone else see this LA Times article about the thriving downtown residential market?

https://www.latimes.com/business/sto...E3MDg5Nzk3MTI.

A few highlights:
- 90,000 people now call DTLA home!
- The new high end buildings are leasing well.
- Few new projects compared to the last 10-15 years so supply will be constrained in the near future (which hopefully puts pressure on already entitled projects to start... looking at you Mitsui tower #2).

[craigs]

Originally Posted by HusBy

Great to hear about the liveliness of DTLA at night, Craigs, and on a Tuesday no less. How would you say it compares to the pre-covid nightlife vibe?

I really couldn't say, because I was living in San Francisco when COVID hit. It was easy for downtown to meet and exceed my admittedly low expectations for a Tuesday night, but it did so all the same. I felt safe at all hours and I actually enjoyed being there. I moved out of LA in 2001 (moved back in 2021) and one really noticeable difference downtown is how many of the beautiful older buildings have been cleaned up and repurposed. There are so many really gorgeous buildings downtown that used to be hidden under decades of grime. But not anymore!

Anyone else see this LA Times article about the thriving downtown residential market?

https://www.latimes.com/business/sto...E3MDg5Nzk3MTI.

That is a really great article. I'm going to follow your lead and give it a preview following this post.

[craigs]

A tale of two downtowns in L.A.: As offices languish, apartments thrive

Roger Vincent
Los Angeles Times
May 2, 2024

By many measures, downtown Los Angeles’ newest apartment tower is over the top with such gilded flourishes as stone tiles from Spain lining the elevator cabs and hand-troweled Italian plaster on interior walls. Humming birds have somehow found the fruit-laden trees decorating the outdoor lounge on the 41st floor.

For Stuart Morkun, the developer who oversaw construction of the recently completed Figueroa Eight skyscraper, it was the porte cochere, where residents leave their cars with valets, that really stood out. The travertine used to build it was mined from the same quarry outside of Rome that supplied stone for the Colosseum, New York City’s Lincoln Center and the Getty Museum.

“That’s when I knew we were crazy,” he said.

The decision by Mitsui Fudosan America, the Japanese real estate company that owns Figueroa Eight, to spend as much as $350 million to build an ultra high-end residential tower in downtown L.A. might at first seem to be a risky gamble.
. . . .
In fact, the decision to go big on Figueroa Eight, which opened last month, reflects an unusual disconnect playing out in the neighborhood: While downtown as a place to work still struggles to find its footing post-COVID, downtown as a residential center is thriving. It boasts a large stock of housing in fancy new high-rises and converted historic buildings at rents that are well below those on the popular Westside.
. . . .

[craigs]

And couple of pics from the article:


View of downtown Los Angeles from a balcony at Figueroa Eight. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)


Figueroa Eight, a 41-story apartment tower, recently opened in downtown LA. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)


View from a rooftop patio on the 41st floor of Figueroa Eight where tenants can entertain their guests. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)