LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[Blesha13]

Are Jose Huizar’s proposals pretty much cancelled? I think Alloy was the only project that was approved and is U/C.

[citywatch]

No wonder the completion date has been pushed forward by 2 yrs....the supplier of the exterior fiberglass facade probably can't get them made sooner. A few months ago, the builder did a media presentation about the first few outer panels being put up...nothing installed since then...


• Video Link

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by Blesha13

Are Jose Huizar’s proposals pretty much cancelled? I think Alloy was the only project that was approved and is U/C.

For the most part i think so which is sad sense some exciting stuff was being pushed through under his watch. I think Alloy was only allowed to continue because it was already under construction when Sh** hit the fan. A few were Chinese backed so i would assume as of now those are all canceled. Especially since most didn't finish the entitlement process. Would have been easy to sell fully entitled projects that were shovel ready.

[craigs]

From LA Reddit, a pic of the Moon setting over downtown:

[ocman]

Originally Posted by citywatch

No wonder the completion date has been pushed forward by 2 yrs....the supplier of the exterior fiberglass facade probably can't get them made sooner. A few months ago, the builder did a media presentation about the first few outer panels being put up...nothing installed since then...


• Video Link

Nice to see dirt finally being put on the top of the building. Wonder what those white boxes are.

[H2O]

Looks like structural foam. It is used under green roofs to make up the grade without adding the weight of deep soils.

[citywatch]

Not welcome news...this is a major reason why investors tend to avoid giving dollars to more projs in dtla . If devlpt like Oceanwide on Fig were gold mines, funders would be lining up to sponsor or take them over. I'm guessing equity residential out of chicago saw something about the proposed apt tower at the corner of 4th & Hill St that didn't pencil out...much less all the problems they had from threats of nimby type lawsuits...so they dropped their plans.

When ppl complain about new projs in dt not being taller or not being designed a certain way, or this or that, I wonder if they're aware of the long history of LA's economics? However, the market conditions in the arts dist admittedly do go against conventional wisdom.

PacMutual Building in Downtown LA Hits the Market at Half Its Previous Price



Office investors want out of Downtown Los Angeles.

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the owner of the historic PacMutual building, put the property on the market for a big discount of $100 million, Commercial Observer has learned. Property records show the Canadian real estate firm paid $200 million for the landmark office building in 2015.

This comes as landlords throughout the city look to cut ties with traditional workspace amid an unprecedented drop in tenant demand following the COVID-19 pandemic and a surge in remote work. Indeed, just a block and a half away, the owners of the 62-story Aon Center are looking to sell their 1.1 million-square-foot tower for $48.5 million less than they paid to acquire it in 2014.

Downtown L.A.’s central business district already had a high office vacancy rate before the pandemic, and now it is up to around 25 percent, according to C&W’s fourth-quarter report.

.

[NYC2ATX]

Originally Posted by craigs

From LA Reddit, a really nice winter skyline shot:

One of the best views of LA, especially after a fresh snowfall in the mountains.

Do you think the residents of those houses in the foreground, which are apparently on Don Carlos Drive in Baldwin Hills, know that their homes appear in thousands of photos annually?

[craigs]

Relatively recent aerial from LA Reddit:

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by citywatch

Not welcome news...this is a major reason why investors tend to avoid giving dollars to more projs in dtla . If devlpt like Oceanwide on Fig were gold mines, funders would be lining up to sponsor or take them over. I'm guessing equity residential out of chicago saw something about the proposed apt tower at the corner of 4th & Hill St that didn't pencil out...much less all the problems they had from threats of nimby type lawsuits...so they dropped their plans.

When ppl complain about new projs in dt not being taller or not being designed a certain way, or this or that, I wonder if they're aware of the long history of LA's economics? However, the market conditions in the arts dist admittedly do go against conventional wisdom.



.

Offices are dead all over the country.

[hughfb3]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Offices are dead all over the country.

Except Austin and Miami, the latter of which is just about to start site work on a super tall office building called One Brickell Centre

[colemonkee]

^ Austin's not immune. Facebook reneged on their lease of the office component of the current tallest building (still under construction), 6 Guadalupe. That building now has no office tenants lined up ~6 months before opening. It's a mixed use building, so the developer won't be totally left out to dry, but the tech sector issues are hitting more than just SF, LA, and NY.

[scania]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Offices are dead all over the country.

You can’t listen to anything he says. His hope is the demise of DTLA. I have him blocked for a plethora of reasons. You can’t listen to people who only look for negative things. All of the development in DTLA, he/she has never mentioned any of them.
And you’re totally spot on about office development. So many companies during Covid realize that it wasn’t necessary to have offices. Most people could do their job at home and in some cases be more productive.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

Except Austin and Miami, the latter of which is just about to start site work on a super tall office building called One Brickell Centre

What's the downtown Miami office vacancy rate? NYC is still building offices, but many of their buildings are struggling. It's a huge there right now.

I work at a commercial real estate firm and office projects are dying. Even in midtown Manhattan. Sure, some new buildings might be getting built but it's not reality of healthy office market.

I was in downtown DC a couple of weeks ago and it's just sad. I don't know what these cities with all this office space are going to do. In a way, downtown LA is better off than cities with high concentrations of office space, because all those restaurants and retail in those cities are really being affected from WFH.

Chicago is rethinking LaSalle st offices (where i used to work) because WFH is killing it. It is a major deal.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Offices are dead all over the country.

urban America has been down this road before....over 40 yrs ago, it was both residents & corporations fleeing to the suburbs. Back then, the cores of many cities were seen as largely rundown crime ridden wastelands. However, cities like SF, NY, Chicago, etc, weren't rated as marginalized as other cities were. However, NYC became quite bad in its own way, but I don't think SF took as many hits....but I could be wrong. Today's world may be a first for that city, although its economy was more modest decades ago.

If past experience in decline helps in a city's current post-Covid world, then dtla certainly has been down this road before. Which is why today's dt is both in better shape, but also still struggling with some of the same issues it had over 40 yrs ago...


• Video Link


Guessing why things like the Oceanwide proj on Fig remains abandoned yrs after the fact & the apt tower proj at 4th & Hill St...right above a subway stop too...has been cancelled by chicago based Equity Residential, it helps to understand the past in order to better understand the present & future.

Investors in dtla are similar to banks willing to give mortgages to homeowners. Most homes aren't owned outright by the occupant. So the dollars in their property are still dependent on third party sources. Same thing with large projs in dtla, also assuming they're profitable from the day they open.

For decades, property owners of bldgs along broadway relied upon shop owners...mainly swap stores...to keep the money flowing in. That's while their bldgs' upper levels remained vacant.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by ocman

Nice to see dirt finally being put on the top of the building. Wonder what those white boxes are.

The white boxes are geofoam: https://www.geofoam.com/
Lightweight, sturdy and allows for shaping civil or landscape projects as desired.

I'm really happy this project has progressed so well. Chicago's loss is LA's gain, and I'm just happy this was built somewhere. Where there are many shortsighted idiots here that prevented this from being built, at least civic leaders in LA had enough vision to see how this project/museum would be a massive boon to the area. I'm hoping to see it in person when I visit next month.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by citywatch

urban America has been down this road before....over 40 yrs ago, it was both residents & corporations fleeing to the suburbs. Back then, the cores of many cities were seen as largely rundown crime ridden wastelands. However, cities like SF, NY, Chicago, etc, weren't rated as marginalized as other cities were. However, NYC became quite bad in its own way, but I don't think SF took as many hits....but I could be wrong. Today's world may be a first for that city, although its economy was more modest decades ago.

If past experience in decline helps in a city's current post-Covid world, then dtla certainly has been down this road before. Which is why today's dt is both in better shape, but also still struggling with some of the same issues it had over 40 yrs ago...


• Video Link


Guessing why things like the Oceanwide proj on Fig remains abandoned yrs after the fact & the apt tower proj at 4th & Hill St...right above a subway stop too...has been cancelled by chicago based Equity Residential, it helps to understand the past in order to better understand the present & future.

Investors in dtla are similar to banks willing to give mortgages to homeowners. Most homes aren't owned outright by the occupant. So the dollars in their property are still dependent on third party sources. Same thing with large projs in dtla, also assuming they're profitable from the day they open.

For decades, property owners of bldgs along broadway relied upon shop owners...mainly swap stores...to keep the money flowing in. That's while their bldgs' upper levels remained vacant.

This isn't 40 years ago and WFH is a much bigger threat to offiices.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by LA21st

This isn't 40 years ago and WFH is a much bigger threat to offiices.

But economics & laws of investment generally don't change from decade to decade. however, I agree that more ppl now expect to work nearby...even in their own home or apt. So that's going to affect urban centers like dtla. But my last post was to point out that dt has gone through downturns before, in more extreme versions of a post Covid world. The old Union Bank bldg at 8th St & Hill St is a good example of that...it has since been converted into apts...& shows that dt in various ways is in better shape today than it was yrs ago.


• Video Link

https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/2017/11/06/union-bank-our-neighborhoods-15/

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

Except Austin and Miami, the latter of which is just about to start site work on a super tall office building called One Brickell Centre

I realize this is getting OT, but knowing what's going on elsewhere does help knowing what should or shouldn't be happening in dtla. Or how the market conditions of other cities compare with those in dtla...LA's overall too.

I'm guessing One brickell is different from their Waldorf Astoria proj? Either way, I think the waldorf proj will have a clunky building block design...

https://youtu.be/wNo2HmojkkU

^ but I never knew that Miami had a nickname of "magic city".


meanwhile, these 2 urban centers in the past 20 or 30 yrs have been viewed somewhat more positively or maybe less negatively than dtla has been. But in 2023, everything is getting wobbly or shaky...

https://www.youtube.com/live/83UVfeBc5eM?feature=share

https://youtu.be/5UBhccHF8Ac

[craigs]

Almost every major US downtown has fewer office workers today than in 2019. Some have really tanked, like San Francisco, while others have fared especially well, like San Diego--and LA is somewhere in the middle of the pack. We would do well to incentivize non-office uses downtown, like housing, hotels, and entertainment--but the economy is still wobbly due to various reasons, and there's no way for the city to force developers to build out, renovate, or convert buildings if they are reticent to act.