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LOS ANGELES | Wilshire Grand Center | 335m | 1100ft | 62 fl | Com

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)

New render for single tower development.

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Previously, as a two tower office/hotel development:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12062157

Developer offers hope to rebirth of downtown LA

By JACOB ADELMAN
04/03/2009

LOS ANGELES—A major developer planned to announce a $1 billion high-rise office and hotel complex Friday, the first new downtown construction project since the real estate spiral largely scuttled dreams of a resurgent city center.

Thomas Property Group's plans call for an 80-story glass-walled building with a slanted profile resembling a ship's sail that would be built on property owned by development partner Korean Air Co.

The design includes a 40-story hotel and condo tower and an 18,000-square-foot public park that would replace the 50-year-old Wilshire Grand hotel.


Company Chairman and Chief Executive James A. Thomas said the city's first major office high-rise in some 20 years will satisfy what he sees as a rising demand for business real estate as downtown grows after the recession.

"There is no place that has the amenities, the attractions that downtown Los Angeles has," he told The Associated Press on Thursday, a day ahead of the official announcement.

The news offers a glimmer of optimism for a downtown rebirth that has suffered in the slumping economy. A Frank Gehry-designed tower complex is stalled, developers have declared bankruptcy and condo prices have plunged.

Some bright spots have emerged in the core of the nation's second-largest city, however, including small businesses cropping up in the area's forgotten storefronts and renewed condo sales in downtown lofts.

The area's long-term hopes are pinned to an emerging nationwide demand for smaller homes in compact, walkable neighborhoods as families shrink and fears of increasing gas prices drive people from their cars.

"I think downtown Los Angeles is going to do quite well when this economy recovers," said Christopher B. Leinberger, a land use strategist and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

Some observers think early boosters' vision of a Manhattan-like metropolis on the Southern California coast was destined to fail in a city where development sprawls and there are several major financial centers in the region.

Downtown "will never be for Los Angeles what midtown Manhattan is for New York or the Loop is for Chicago, because it hasn't been that since the 1920s," said urban scholar Joel Kotkin, author of "The City: A Global History." "There's something called history and it has an odd impact."

The city Building and Safety Department's list of high-rise buildings approved for the permitting process show dozens of downtown projects that have never broken ground.

The stalled projects include Gehry's $3-billion Grand Avenue housing and retail project and the 76-story Park 5th condo complex, which was billed as the tallest residential structure in the West.

The median price for new homes downtown has plummeted from $535,000 in the first quarter of 2008 to about $422,000 in the first quarter of this year, a 21 percent drop, according to tracking firm MDA DataQuick. The median price for all new condos in Southern California dropped about 14 percent during that time.

The slump has forced a growing number of landowners and developers into bankruptcy, including downtown's largest landlord, Meruelo Maddux Properties Inc.

While most construction has halted downtown, smaller businesses are staking a future on streets once largely empty after office workers went home and bordered by Skid Row's massive homeless population.

Japanese convenience-store chain Family Mart—an Itochu Corp. subsidiary known here as Famima!!—now has six stores downtown and plans a seventh one to tap into the growing around-the-clock foot traffic, marketing coordinator Naomi Hotta said.

Downtown newcomers include the headquarters for Herbalife International of America Inc. and the Urth Caffe Inc. chain of coffee shops.

The Nickel Diner, which opened in September and was named one of the best new restaurants last year by Los Angeles magazine, added dinner hours last week.

"We've become kind of the poster child of the new downtown," said co-owner Monica May, who credited the restaurant's signature maple-bacon doughnut for much of its success.

Lower condo prices have lured some bargain-hunting buyers, although overall sales remain sharply down.

"Downtown is fairly small as urban downtowns go but with my income it was as close as I could get to something like London or New York and still stay in Los Angeles," said Hutton Cobb, 52, who rented a home in a nearby suburb for about 25 years before buying a condo in the 24-story Evo building.

Homes have been selling on the far upper end of the scale too, such as the two-story penthouse bought for $9 million on the top floors of the 54-story Ritz-Carlton Residences, where prices start at $1.4 million. The building is part of the LA Live entertainment and retail complex a few blocks from where Thomas plans its new project.

Thomas said the company, working with the A.C. Martin Partners architecture firm, has completed preliminary designs and was preparing to file plans with the city.

Thomas Properties and Korean Air planned to seek financing from lenders and investors on both sides of the Pacific and begin construction in 2011.

Thomas said he expected credit markets to thaw by the time the partners seek construction loans and that the current downtown slump only encourages him to begin the ambitious project there.

"Construction costs are down, material costs are down," Thomas said. "It's ideal to be placing yourself to be ready to ride the wave when the recession turns and the economy moves up."


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Renderings:











 
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#175 ·
THE AC MARTIN DESIGNED WILSHIRE GRAND​
PROJECT IS HALFWAY THERE - CURBEDLA​
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ENVIRONMENTAL APPROVAL FOR 1 BILLION DOWNTOWN PROJECT
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A proposal for a $1-billion hotel development in downtown Los Angeles passed a major hurdle Wednesday when the City Council signed off on the project’s massive environmental impact report.

The council unanimously granted a series of entitlements for the proposed 560 room Wilshire Grand Hotel, including permission to sell alcohol at 21 restaurants, bars and other venues, installation of a rooftop helicopter landing pad and a reduction in the number of parking spaces from 2,375 to 1,900.

Korean Air, the developer of the project, plans to demolish the existing hotel at Wilshire Boulevard and Figueroa Street and replace it with two towers, a 65 story hotel with residences and a 45-story office building.

Wednesday’s vote paves the way for a flurry of other decisions on the project March 29, when council members are scheduled to consider a proposed tax rebate for the hotel and a development agreement for the entire site.

The council must also decide whether to create a sign district to allow various forms of digital advertising.
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LOSANGELESTIMES
 
#179 ·
it's a beautiful tower, and it's great for LA to have another super tall building, but it will be weird to see a skyscraper much taller than library tower.
 
#183 ·
Does this project have finance?
 
#187 ·
Well, since this is approved, looks like I'll have to get some keepsake shots of Los Angeles before this is built. I like this building, I really do. I just prefer the elegant, almost intimidating presence of Library Tower as tallest instead. Still, congratulations, LA!
 
#193 ·
I'm starting to hate smaller hotels. I hope LA ends up getting a taller building than this (1,450 ft) after the Wilshire Grand building gets completed.
 
#198 ·
Right..

It's kinda hard to understand your english this way. You should probably use punctuation and capital letters to make yourself a little bit more understandable.
 
#200 ·
yeah, me too!.. to be honest, i prefer the library tower as the tallest, but it have more than 20 years being the tallest on the west coast, so she needs some competition ;)
 
#202 ·
OMG... it is beautiful ... but it seems like BofA and it's owners are putting their stamps on every city on this planet that does count, are they making a statement? or is it a sign?

I don't know, but I love this one for sure and visiting LA from time to time, being it my most favorite city across North America, I really want to see this one being built.
 
#208 ·
From Curbed LA:



Story updated, 9:48 pm: Less than a week before the City Council is scheduled to vote on the Wilshire Grand hotel and office project, developer Hanjin/Thomas Properties released a rendering showing the nebulous-sounding "architectural lighting," the changing, LED lights planned for the upper portion of the two-tower skyscraper. According to Alix Wisner, project manager for the developer Thomas Properties, the release of the rendering, sent to reporters earlier this week, comes in response to questions from the media about what the architectural lighting will look like. The rendering was also released because of issues raised at last December's Planning Commission meeting (commissioners were stumped by how the architectural lighting would work, and rejected it (a decision that was later overturned).

For now, the "flowering vines" image seen on this rendering, is "just a concept," said Wisner. Yes, the upper part of towers are tentatively cleared for LED images (no logos, text, or advertising are allowed), but nothing is finalized in terms of a design. Might the Wilshire Grand get Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? Lightning bolts? Baby polar bears? Beyond promising that the images would be "artistic," Wisner couldn't say. “The technology is developing so quickly," she said, adding that decisions on graphics and imagery will come later, as will decisions on how the large digital advertising "skin" will play out on the bottom of the skyscraper (one inspiration for the lower advertisements is the Chanel building in Tokyo, says Wisner, but the ad on the Wilshire Grand would be less dense due to the larger spacing of the lights).
 
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