Entries tagged 'development'

nobody seems to have made it to this paragraph in the article about kb home and anschultz taking over the convention center hotel project: “To form its partnership with AEG, KB Home withdrew from a previously announced proposal to build a twin-tower, 700-unit condo project two blocks away with rival Lennar Corp., said Jeffrey Gault, president of KB Urban.” fig central is (was?) the project’s name.

after having lunch at the cuban place on spring street (go support them being open on saturdays!), shannon and i checked out apartments in metro 417, also known as the subway terminal building. we were shown a two-bedroom apartment which wasn’t terribly exciting, but then saw two one-bedroom apartments on the 8th floor that were both pretty cool. one had a bit of a view of pershing square, and obviously was good for afternoon light, and one had a view over angel’s knoll park, and was good for morning light. we also got to see the rooftop deck (with hot tub) and second-floor lounge, screening room, and exercise room.

the prices are high, but the apartments (and amenities) are quite nice.

janice hahn wants to give the los angeles mall a makeover, and i’m not sure i see the point. i just can’t see how it will ever start getting any after-hours or weekend traffic.

revitalizing broadway is a different story, though. the momentum there is definitely building, including all sorts of residential developments.

you should also check out the great photos accompanying steve lopez’s article about nathaniel ayer’s visit to walt disney hall. (the article is great, too.)

kathryn maese’s article in the los angeles downtown news happens to mention why building the garage at metro 417 took so long — they found “lots of foundations that we didn’t know were there” and an oil well. metro 417 looks nice, and the location is great, but it is quite expensive. (and since my lease is ending at the end of next month, i just got notice of my new lease or month-to-month terms — no change from this year. excellent.)

i’m surprised that a health club is one of the possibilities for ground floor development there — they already have what looked like a pretty decent exercise room for tenants. they’ve covered the windows now, but i used to get taunted by the empty exercise room on my way to the gym each morning.

according to the big list of development projects, groundbreaking on “medallion,” the project at 4th and main (across the street from me) will be this fall.

the los angeles downtown news reports that the old herald-examiner building is being hit with the adaptive reuse stick. they also weigh in on the sometimes silly wayfinding signs.

i find it interesting that the downtown news started running more editorials in the last few months. i don’t remember seeing them at all when i first started reading it regularly, and now they generally have three each week.

the los angeles downtown news covers the excellent news that someone is leasing the million dollar theater and plans to host live events, as well as open a cafe in the lobby. an interesting footnote is that brady westwater, the president of the downtown neighborhood council, has been trying to get someone interested in the regent theater just a few doors down from me. i guess that might mean it isn’t totally gutted, which you might think it was based on the exterior.

(here’s a thought — if the million dollar theater starts hosting events on any sort of regular basis, there’s probably some location near the intersection of 3rd and broadway that would be ripe for a bar. perhaps the ground floor of the new pan american lofts building.)

another article this week reports about a spate of apartment buildings being turned into condominiums. i think i’d have a really hard decision to make if my building were to get turned into condos. (although with where the prices seem to be at for condos downtown, perhaps the decision would be made for me.)