Location: 2nd Street and Main Street
Function: Mixed-Use | Performing Arts/Special Events Venue (St. Vibiana's Cathedral) | Restaurant | 300 Units
Developer: Tom Gilmore | Richard Weintraub
Architect: Nadel Architects (http://www.nadelarc.com/)
Completion: N/A

Vibiana Place

On Aug. 30, developers Tom Gilmore and Richard Weintraub celebrated the replacement of the 3,500-pound cupola to the bell tower of the former St. Vibiana's Cathedral. The building at Second and Main streets, converted for $8 million and now called Vibiana, is used as a performing arts and special events venue. The developers are moving forward with the addition of a state-of-the-art finishing kitchen and other amenities to the property, as well as the transformation of the former rectory into a restaurant and guest facility. Plans are also underway for a mixed-use high-rise on a lot just south of the former cathedral, which was once the headquarters for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, but was closed after suffering damage during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. - Los Angeles Downtown News

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3915/stvibiana072007wt8.jpg

Not bad design at all and very stylish. It's definitely standing out in the Historic Core from it's neighbors. Hopefully this one gets the green light to break ground sometime soon. Fingers are crossed!

You can cross those little sausages of yours till they snap off, but I don't see much more information to go on.

This is directly across the street from the new Japanese theatre that is being "refurbished" (seems like they tore the whole thing down to the ground and started from scratch, lol). That entire parking lot between Main and LA Street and all the way up to 3rd street has got to go. This would fit in there nicely!

You can cross those little sausages of yours till they snap off, but I don't see much more information to go on.


^ Why don't you have any hope for this to break ground?

Heya fellas, I thought i READ SOMEWHERE this tower got canned? iF IT'S STILL A GO ....that's great news.

^ Why don't you have any hope for this to break ground?

I've got nothing but hope. I'm sick of hope. I demand satisfaction. As much as I respect Gilmore, I haven't seen anything much on this project. :cheers:

Big Plans Raise Builder’s Low Profile

REAL ESTATE: Weintraub has hands full with three big projects.

By DANIEL MILLER
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff
November 19, 2007

For a real estate developer who’s done some notable projects and who’s gotten into a scrape or two, Richard Weintraub has managed to keep a fairly low profile.

But that may change soon.

He and his Weintraub Financial Services Inc. are taking on several conspicuous and potentially controversial projects at once – including a retail project in developer-averse Malibu, a re-do of the iconic Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel in Studio City and what could be a risky condo project next to the old St. Vibiana Cathedral downtown.

...

His other big project, the Vibiana Lofts, may be a good test of his optimism.

The 44-story tower is entitled for 300 units and would likely be a very high-end project in a market that has not yet proven it can sustain such a development.

Weintraub was introduced to his project partner, Tom Gilmore, a downtown real estate developer, by L.A. architecture writer Sam Hall Kaplan several years ago, and the two hit it off. Gilmore has owned the property that includes the development site and the cathedral since 1999 and Weintraub partnered with him on it about four years ago. Since then, the former cathedral at 210 S. Main St. has become a well-used events space, hosting weddings, art functions and fashion shows.

“He did something a lot of Malibu people don’t do – come downtown and see the vision,” Gilmore said.

The condo tower is still in the planning stages and Weintraub said he’d like to monitor the downtown housing market before moving forward.

“I want to see how these other buildings get absorbed over the next year,” said Weintraub, who added that he and Gilmore are in talks with an unnamed “world-class” architect for the project. “We want to build something very unique and probably very expensive.”

“One of the things I like about him is that he translates his broad big picture ideas into the most minute details,” said Gilmore. “He really sweats the details and he’s got good taste and knows what the market is.”

...

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Source: Los Angeles Business Journal (http://www.labusinessjournal.com/article.asp?aID=36939967.4792704.1554813.08979402.6411691.332&page=1)

something big in the future maybe?