Hi, all,

I'm working on an article for a financial magazine called Trader Monthly. Every month I profile the most luxurious and innovative condo projects--new construction or rehabbed--in a particular city, and this month, it's LA. What do you guys think are the top of the market? The W? The Century? The Ritz? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Lisa

end condos will be in Century City at the site of the former St. Regis.

They are going to HAVE to be multi multi million to make sense of the cost to completely tear down a sky scraper and rebuild from scratch.

Just my opinion tho.

It looks like the Olympic and City House would be higher end too since building that high will be expensive. This development seems like a long shot tho.

The condos at the 9900 block of Wilshire (site of the now shuttered beverly hills macy's) will also be higher end for opposite reasons. The developer is limited to height and size here so they can charge more for the prime real estate.

I think the Carlisle on Wilshire will also be pricey (similar to the recently completed Californian.) And there is a tower going up at Wilshire and Comstock that will be similarly priced. That stretch of Wilshire is just about built out so these lucky last few buildings will be able to charge a premium.

Again, all just my opinion.

You should try going to www.skyscraperpage.com and looking for the California forum. There are a lot of young professionals on that site who actually live in the condos downtown and would probably have a pretty good idea of what the highest end condo buildings are.

Personally, I'd think the group of condos being developed by South Group (Luma, Elleven, Evo) would be some of the nicer ones, given that the group is making an concerted effort to create condo units near each other and are about to spend of ton of money redeveloping the sidewalks, all in the name of creating a pedestrian friendly community.

Also, I don't know that the City House and Olympic would necessarily be long shots at all. I'm not exactly too knowledgeable about all this stuff, but last I checked the project has been approved and will break ground this fall 2007.

I second that^

Visit www.skyscraperpage.com at the California section.

I dont know what the most luxurious one will be/is. Probably going to be the Ritz (of the towers confirmed to be built)

Delete post.

[QUOTE=djm19;12186557]I second that^

Visit www.skyscraperpage.com at the California section.


I would agree to that as well, but don't expect any replies for a minimum of 72 hours. Things haven't been the same over there*

I feel the most qualified for your criteria, realestatewriter, are the South Group's projects (as a few others mentioned), Park Fifth (http://www.park-fifth.com/, what a monster!) and The Century on the site of the former St. Regis Hotel (also as mentioned above). However, it is tough to pinpoint one or two projects simply because there are so many upscale ones that could be a good topic for your article.

Check the Los Angeles Times archives on this subject. Los Angeles magazine also has some great articles.

I heard something about a real estate group out of London building top end condos at the site where Robinson May is currently on Wilshire and Santa Monica next to the Beverly Hilton.

Found part of the article.

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9900 Wilshire Super Premium Luxury Sale
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, by Cary

2006-08-9900wilshire.jpg

The yet-to-be approved development at 9900 Wilshire in Beverly Hills (the former Robinsons-May store) is inflating that bubble quickly. The British developer Candy & Candy (it sounds so regal, no?) purchased the property for $500 million. That is the second most expensive real estate transaction in Southern California ever. That’s also just a slight increase over the $33.5 million that the previous owner, New Pacific Realty, paid in 2004. We smell something fishy here. Candy & Candy still plan to proceed with the Richard Meier-designed condo and retail complex, though they are rebranding it as “super-premium” luxury, as opposed to crappy old luxury.
· In Beverly Hills, High End Indeed [LA Times]