LOS ANGELES | Politics, Economics, and Business Development

[Illithid Dude]

MODERATOR EDIT: I don't know why a thread like this doesn't exist yet. We keep getting OT discussions all over the place about LA political events and economic and business developments not related to actual construction updates progress. Let's dump all those discussions and articles here.

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Anyway, it seems like Angels Landing has been cancelled, or is at least in serious trouble, because our city is run by morons. I've copy and pasted this from Real Deal LA.

Peebles, MacFarlane entity sues city for thwarting $1.6B Angels Landing project
Developers seek to recoup $20 million investment in the DTLA mixed-use development

City of Los Angeles Faces Lawsuit for Angels Landing Project
Victor MacFarlane and Don Peebles with rendering of Angels Landing (Getty, Peebles Corporation)
Jan 17, 2025, 6:40 PM
By Lauren Elkies Schram

UPDATED JANUARY 20, 2025 at 10: 30 AM:

Developer Don Peebles and partner Victor MacFarlane’s Angels Landing Partners has sued the City of Los Angeles for allegedly unlawfully terminating their contract to build the $1.6 billion Angels Landing project Downtown, which would have been among the largest African-American-led developments in the city’s history.

Peebles’ eponymous firm and MacFarlane Development Company are seeking $20 million they invested in the project when the city “abruptly and inexplicably terminated its agreement with Angels Landing without proper justification,” according to the complaint filed in L.A. Superior Court.

The Angels Landing team was selected by the city to develop the vacant site at 361 South Hill Street, between Hill and Olive streets and 4th and 5th streets, in the Bunker Hill neighborhood following a request for qualifications in April 2017.

The 1.9 million-square-foot DTLA mixed-use project was going to mark the Peebles Corporation’s foray into the L.A. market, the company’s CEO said. The firm is based in Miami, but has developed in New York and elsewhere.

Angels Landing called for two mixed-use buildings — one 850 feet tall and the other 600 feet tall — with hotel rooms, rental and condominium units, retail, restaurants, an elementary charter school and open space.


The city and the developers executed an exclusive negotiating agreement as of March 2018. It stipulated that the developers would be reimbursed by the city if the city terminated the agreement when the developers were not in default of their obligations, per the complaint.

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Peebles and MacFarlane filed suit against their minority partner, Ricardo Pagan-led Claridge Properties, for failing to make an initial capital contribution of $184,951 in April 2021. The suit was resolved and dismissed in June 2023, with Claridge no longer maintaining a capital interest in Angels Landing.

But the city informed Angels Landing in July 2023 that Claridge’s transfer of interests to Peebles and MacFarlane “constituted an unauthorized ‘transfer,’ which would allow the city to terminate” the exclusive negotiating agreement. The city sent a second letter about the default in October 2023 calling the assignment an “unpermitted transfer.”

In February 2024, the city terminated the agreement with Angels Landing.


“The city tried to say it was a breach of our development agreement, which it was not,” Peebles told The Real Deal Wednesday. He added that they tried to “argue they had the right to terminate our agreement, which they did not.”

MacFarlane and the City Attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Pagan was not reachable.

[Doctorboffin]

^Not surprised.

Our city is run by absolute morons who seem to genuinely despise the people they pretend to care about.

At this point I think it's pretty safe to say anything that isn't Onni and was proposed before 2020 is dead*. Maybe Mitsui and the Mack Urban buildings will survive, as the developers already have a vested interest in the area, but I wouldn't get my hopes up for anything else.

Only real positive on the horizon is the D line. I live in South Park and my building is full of USC students, mostly from east Asia where living in a high rise is common. I could see a world where a lot of UCLA students choose to live in Koreatown and downtown, and that might rejuvenate some developments.

Either way, the next decade is going to be bleak in terms of groundbreaking unless there is serious change to the city's leadership, which, lol. I guess some blame should fall on voters though. I tried explaining countless times to people why ULA and more recently Prop 33 would be an absolute nightmare, and every time people refused to listen. Thank god the latter didn't pass.

*Excluding the Arts District. I'm very cautiously optimistic that it will continue chugging along.

[scania]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Anyway, it seems like Angels Landing has been cancelled, or is at least in serious trouble, because our city is run by morons. I've copy and pasted this from Real Deal LA.

Peebles, MacFarlane entity sues city for thwarting $1.6B Angels Landing project
Developers seek to recoup $20 million investment in the DTLA mixed-use development

City of Los Angeles Faces Lawsuit for Angels Landing Project
Victor MacFarlane and Don Peebles with rendering of Angels Landing (Getty, Peebles Corporation)
Jan 17, 2025, 6:40 PM
By Lauren Elkies Schram

UPDATED JANUARY 20, 2025 at 10: 30 AM:

Developer Don Peebles and partner Victor MacFarlane’s Angels Landing Partners has sued the City of Los Angeles for allegedly unlawfully terminating their contract to build the $1.6 billion Angels Landing project Downtown, which would have been among the largest African-American-led developments in the city’s history.

Peebles’ eponymous firm and MacFarlane Development Company are seeking $20 million they invested in the project when the city “abruptly and inexplicably terminated its agreement with Angels Landing without proper justification,” according to the complaint filed in L.A. Superior Court.

The Angels Landing team was selected by the city to develop the vacant site at 361 South Hill Street, between Hill and Olive streets and 4th and 5th streets, in the Bunker Hill neighborhood following a request for qualifications in April 2017.

The 1.9 million-square-foot DTLA mixed-use project was going to mark the Peebles Corporation’s foray into the L.A. market, the company’s CEO said. The firm is based in Miami, but has developed in New York and elsewhere.

Angels Landing called for two mixed-use buildings — one 850 feet tall and the other 600 feet tall — with hotel rooms, rental and condominium units, retail, restaurants, an elementary charter school and open space.


The city and the developers executed an exclusive negotiating agreement as of March 2018. It stipulated that the developers would be reimbursed by the city if the city terminated the agreement when the developers were not in default of their obligations, per the complaint.

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Enter Your Email
SIGN UP
Peebles and MacFarlane filed suit against their minority partner, Ricardo Pagan-led Claridge Properties, for failing to make an initial capital contribution of $184,951 in April 2021. The suit was resolved and dismissed in June 2023, with Claridge no longer maintaining a capital interest in Angels Landing.

But the city informed Angels Landing in July 2023 that Claridge’s transfer of interests to Peebles and MacFarlane “constituted an unauthorized ‘transfer,’ which would allow the city to terminate” the exclusive negotiating agreement. The city sent a second letter about the default in October 2023 calling the assignment an “unpermitted transfer.”

In February 2024, the city terminated the agreement with Angels Landing.


“The city tried to say it was a breach of our development agreement, which it was not,” Peebles told The Real Deal Wednesday. He added that they tried to “argue they had the right to terminate our agreement, which they did not.”

MacFarlane and the City Attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Pagan was not reachable.

This is not good at all. I’m hoping the new lady can get this figured out since Kevin Deleon lost.

[DIESELPOLO]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Anyway, it seems like Angels Landing has been cancelled, or is at least in serious trouble, because our city is run by morons. I've copy and pasted this from Real Deal LA.

Peebles, MacFarlane entity sues city for thwarting $1.6B Angels Landing project
Developers seek to recoup $20 million investment in the DTLA mixed-use development

City of Los Angeles Faces Lawsuit for Angels Landing Project

I guess I don't quite understand what's happening here. The city terminated an agreement with a developer over what seems like a technical transfer of payments from a third party that the developer teams were working with?

Is something like this a surmountable issue that the city could have acknowledged and continued on with the development agreement, or were they acting responsibly to minimize a bad deal that this episode seemed to signal to them? I truly have no context for this.
–––––––––––––––
One would still need to understand if the transfer of interest in question represented a violation to the city and developers' development agreement, but there is a reasonable case for cancelling a contract if the transfer does not satisfy the contract's original terms: "Other developers may perceive selective enforcement of "transfer of interest" clauses as unfair, leading to reduced confidence, increased scrutiny of city decisions, and potential legal challenges alleging unequal treatment." –Answer to ChatGPT inquiry

[Illithid Dude]

It seems to me like the city was looking for an excuse to cancel the agreement, and found one.

[38 Geary]

Does it say why the city is trying to cancel it? Usually it's developers that cancel projects citing economic conditions, not the other way around.

[caligrad]

Peebles and MacFarlane came out on news networks publicly to say they felt not only Kevin De Leon but the city as a whole was making it very difficult for them to build their project, ignoring phone calls, slowing down the approval process intentionally and adding red tape (for whatever the reason may be), I figured it was only a matter of time before the City figured out a way to block the project completely if the developers didn't pull out first. City Hall is so broken it's not even funny.

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by Doctorboffin

I guess some blame should fall on voters though. I tried explaining countless times to people why ULA and more recently Prop 33 would be an absolute nightmare, and every time people refused to listen. Thank god the latter didn't pass.

Agreed here, although measures like this show why the proposition system is dumb. Voters shouldn't be able to make policy with complex economic implications based on 30 second ads they see online/on tv. We should vote for leaders and those leaders should make policy.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Our "leaders" are retards, no other way to say it. Projects like Angels Landing and Onni LA Times should have been fasttracked and pushed by our councilperson instead of the fucking opposite. Imagine how many jobs would have been created? The economic impact of thousands of new units and hotel rooms in and around Grand Central market and Bunker Hill, the multiplier effect that a massive new development would bring to the area, all the business mom and pop shops that are struggling in the area would have gotten... Instead, we get nothing except a black eye and an empty fucking eye sore.

its due time to throw everyone out and elect business minded councilmembers and mayors. I'm so sick of the incompetent boobs that are elected in this freaking city. The number one dumbass currently is Eunicess Hernandez. Her district already looked like shit when she took over but she somehow found a way to make it 10x worse. Were fast tracking the rest of the city to look the same by electing more democratic socialists and im very fearful for the state of DTLA in the next few years

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

Our "leaders" are retards, no other way to say it. Projects like Angels Landing and Onni LA Times should have been fasttracked and pushed by our councilperson instead of the fucking opposite. Imagine how many jobs would have been created? The economic impact of thousands of new units and hotel rooms in and around Grand Central market and Bunker Hill, the multiplier effect that a massive new development would bring to the area, all the business mom and pop shops that are struggling in the area would have gotten... Instead, we get nothing except a black eye and an empty fucking eye sore.

its due time to throw everyone out and elect business minded councilmembers and mayors. I'm so sick of the incompetent boobs that are elected in this freaking city. The number one dumbass currently is Eunicess Hernandez. Her district already looked like shit when she took over but she somehow found a way to make it 10x worse. Were fast tracking the rest of the city to look the same by electing more democratic socialists and im very fearful for the state of DTLA in the next few years

Those are the ones who don't want downtown/Westlake to improve because they think it will drive gentrification. They're fine with those areas not getting better, which is just insane.

At some point a real business person will come in and show how bad these "leaders" were.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

100%. They do nothing substantial for 4 years, let problems get significantly worse then come election time talk about how they will freeze rents and institute rent control laws and win

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Those are the ones who don't want downtown/Westlake to improve because they think it will drive gentrification. They're fine with those areas not getting better, which is just insane.

At some point a real business person will come in and show how bad these "leaders" were.

There's one specific business person who is definitely running for either governor or mayor (again). A political pollster reached out to me to take a poll (was exciting, I'd never had that happen!) and it was clearly commissioned by Caruso and was testing a couple of lines of attack plus his appeal for mayor vs governor. A prominent congressman, Ro Khanna, recently called for Bob Iger to run for Mayor as well. That could be interesting as well! If we had Caruso as governor and Bog Iger as mayor the future would be so much brighter...

[FromSD]

I'm just curious why the city would have a vested interest in blocking the construction of a project like Angels Landing in DTLA if the project had a reasonable chance of happening. Has the city suddenly pivoted to being against the further development of DTLA? I don't buy the argument that the city is so paranoid about gentrification that they don't want to see Downtown projects go through. Some of the more recently elected leftist council members may be concerned about gentrification, but aren't their concerns more focused on areas outside of Downtown? It seems to me that DTLA was the one place in LA that everyone agreed needed more development and where more development was wholeheartedly welcomed.

The article posted above doesn't reveal the motives for the city's decision to cancel apart from the technical breach of contract. I think it's more likely that the city lost confidence in a developer that wouldn't be able to execute the project successfully. I really don't know. But whatever people think of the city's wokeness or ineptitude, I would guess that economic conditions Downtown or concerns about the developer are really what is at play here.

[LA21st]

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260907

Question for the Bass defenders--why can't she do something like this?

[ReDSPork02]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story...ery-convention-center-expansion-in-doubt

This is ridiculous. Get it together LA.
We can't chew gum and walk....?

Seriously!
Looks like they have "no time" to complete the expansion proposed. When they had ELEVEN YEARS!

LOS ANGELES 2028: No L.A. Convention Center expansion by 2028; Long Beach receives detailed, 118-page “roadmap” for its 2028 prep.

https://www.thesportsexaminer.com/los-an...iled-118-page-roadmap-for-its-2028-prep/

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by ReDSPork02

https://www.latimes.com/california/story...ery-convention-center-expansion-in-doubt

This is ridiculous. Get it together LA.
We can't chew gum and walk....?

Seriously!
Looks like they have "no time" to complete the expansion proposed. When they had ELEVEN YEARS!

LOS ANGELES 2028: No L.A. Convention Center expansion by 2028; Long Beach receives detailed, 118-page “roadmap” for its 2028 prep.

https://www.thesportsexaminer.com/los-an...iled-118-page-roadmap-for-its-2028-prep/

The Mayor (who's finished) doesn't care about downtown. Neither do those pathetic council members. Cant wait until they're all gone.

Btw, another one of Bass's hires is under another scandal. Good grief. Bass has been a disaster. Bye Karen. Kick rocks you career loser.

[scania]

Rebuilding the homes is definitely more of priority than the LACC. The backlash would be enormous if the council decided to do otherwise. If it’s possible to still start and then pause, that would be amazing. But the reason to pause is totally understandable and applauded.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by scania

Rebuilding the homes is definitely more of priority than the LACC. The backlash would be enormous if the council decided to do otherwise. If it’s possible to still start and then pause, that would be amazing. But the reason to pause is totally understandable and applauded.

I dunno. I'm worried our lazy ass leaders will use this as excuse not to do anything for the Olympics now.
They very well could, as Bass didnt have any plans before the fires.

[Quixote]

This is treading into political territory, but a better-run LA starts with governance reform — most critically by way of City Council expansion. As currently constituted, the mayor wields a relatively weak amount of power. While I'm feeling down on Bass, she's receiving more criticism that she deserves.

[craigs]

Edited since edited since moved to a different thread.