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By Bianca Barragan for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

Downtown LA’s U.S. Bank Tower, the second-tallest building west of the Mississippi by a spire, is for sale.

The asking price is reportedly $500 per square foot, or approximately $700 million, says commercial real estate publication Real Estate Finance & Investment, which was the first to report the news.

The seller, Singapore-based OUE Ltd., purchased the tower on the border of the Financial District and Bunker Hill in 2013 for $367.5 million.

Beginning in 2015, OUE performed a $50 million round of upgrades to the building, revamping the building’s Fifth Street frontage, and adding an observation deck, that famed glass slide, and a giant LED screen inside the building’s glass-fronted ground-floor lobby.

“We’ve put a lot of money into it,” Peter Johnston, senior vice president with OUE USA Services Corp., told the Downtown News. Johnston noted that under OUE, the tower has gone from being roughly half empty to almost 85 percent leased.

“I just think we’re interested in testing the market,” said Johnston.

It would be a big test. A recent comparable sale, of Bunker Hill’s One California Plaza, yielded $460 a square foot, for a total of $465 million, notes the News.

Downtown’s office market is on the rise, with vacancy rates for the most in-demand and up-to-date office space dropping to 16.5 percent vacant last quarter compared to 17.6 vacant a year ago, according to the Los Angeles Times. Rental prices for that same type of office space have gone up slightly too.

A large contributor to the heightened demand comes from the increase in new residential projects Downtown and in entertainment and food options in the area, JLL real estate broker and office sales expert Tom Bohlinger told the Times.

“We have a demographic now that loves the urban environment,” Bohlinger said.

By Bianca Barragan for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

New renderings presented to the Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council offer a look at two new towers proposed for Koreatown—one of many projects in the neighborhood from landlord and developer Jamison Services.

First proposed in 2016, this project at 3600 Wilshire would take the form of two 23-story buildings with 760 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments and about 6,000 square feet of commercial space.

The new project would replace an existing parking garage bounded by Seventh Street, Harvard Boulevard, and Kingsley Drive.

The Perkins+Will-designed project would also include new landscaping along its borders. Renderings and plans for the project show it would include a pool deck on each building and private balconies.

The towers would sit on a podium of parking and retail. The project would include about 1500 parking spaces.

The timeline for the project is unclear.

Jamison has a number of projects in the works in Koreatown, including plans to convert a 13-story office building nearby into apartments.

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

Elon Musk has some serious competition in his plans to get Dodger fans to and from games.

Metro CEO Phil Washington announced Thursday that the agency had signed a letter of intent with a company called Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies that plans to build an aerial tram running between Union Station and the stadium.

The letter will allow the agency to begin negotiations with the company in order to allow the proposal to move forward.

ARTT is led by Drew McCourt, the son of former Dodgers own Frank McCourt. The company revealed plans for the project in April, estimating it would cost about $125 million to build.

According to Martha Welborne, project manager for the ARTT system, the tram will “have the capacity to move thousands of people every hour.”

Welborne said that, if all goes according to plan, the project is on track to open by 2022.

The tram would be privately funded and privately operated, but the company has asked Metro to “take the lead role in the procedural requirements for route selection and right of way,” according to a statement from ARTT issued earlier this year.

Meanwhile, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed ambitions in August to build an underground transit line to the stadium that would carry riders between the venue and a nearby Metro station on game days. The project is undergoing environmental review.

Metro already offers free shuttle service before and after games between the stadium and Union Station, as well as the Harbor Gateway Transit Center.

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

A tax on scooters and tolls for drivers on the road during rush hour are two possible sources of funding that Metro could use to pay for an ambitious plan to complete 28 projects in time for the 2028 Olympics.

The agency’s board of directors will consider a report this week that outlines how the agency could carry out Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “Twenty-eight by ’28” initiative without compromising service or going deep into debt.

Most of the projects included in the initiative were already scheduled to wrap up before 2028. But eight projects—including a transit line through the Sepulveda Pass, an extension of the southern leg of the Gold Line to Whittier, and a new light rail route between Artesia and Downtown LA—would open far ahead of schedule.

The simplest of the potential fundraising measures is an increase in fares on trains and buses. A 10 percent fare hike could generate $303 million over the next 10 years, while a 25 percent uptick could produce $757 million.

But that’s far from the $26.2 billion needed to carry out the Twenty-eight by ’28 plan—and a major fare increase could drive some riders away from public transportation.

Some of the most potentially lucrative options are new fees on drivers. One of these is congestion pricing, a system in which drivers are charged when passing through particularly traffic-clogged areas during peak hours.

Another is a toll system called VMT pricing, in which drivers are charged based on how far they drive (or vehicle miles traveled) in a given time period. Levies like these are usually proposed as alternatives to a gas tax.

Congestion or VMT pricing could produce between $12 billion and $104 billion over the next decade, according to the report. But imposing new taxes like these could be politically tricky, since LA voters already agreed to bumps in sales tax when they approved Measure R in 2008 and Measure M in 2016.

All eight of the projects Metro aims to expedite are set to receive funding from Measure M, and because of that, speeding up the projects is tricky.

Measure M has a strict funding schedule that can’t be altered without guarantees that other projects won’t be slowed down or lose out on funding as a result.

Since Metro can’t simply re-order the project list, the agency will have to pay for all those new projects in advance. That's where the $26.2 billion figure comes from.

Other possible sources for that money include grants from the federal government, expansion of sponsorship and advertising opportunities, a tax on shared scooters and bicycles, and new levies on ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft.

Metro officials have expressed optimism about the potential of public-private partnerships to speed up certain projects, and the agency has already received proposals from private firms that could allow the Sepulveda Pass corridor and the light rail between Downtown and Artesia to materialize ahead of schedule.

But private proposals aren’t an option for all of the eight projects in line for acceleration, and Metro would still need to bring plenty of funding to the table as part of these agreements.

Unmentioned in the report is another potential obstacle: escalating construction costs.

Last month, the agency overseeing construction of Metro’s Gold Line extension to Montclair announced a plan to break the project up into two segments due to “a significant unfavorable shift in market conditions.” The projected budget for the 12.3-mile extension has also ballooned more than 35 percent, to $2.1 billion.

Kenneth Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, wrote a white paper on the project in which he argues that the Gold Line’s escalating costs are part of a broader trend affecting transit projects nationwide.

Simonson says that a shortage of laborers qualified to work on these projects and the impact of new tariffs on building materials are driving up prices needed to complete major infrastructure developments.

“The baseline has certainly changed,” he tells Curbed.

If more projects go over budget, that will make it even more difficult for Metro to ensure that every item on the Twenty-eight by ’28 list wraps up on time.

“We are aware of the upward trend in construction costs that the market is experiencing and we continue to monitor the situation,” Metro spokesperson Dave Sotero said in a statement given to Curbed. “Every project is unique and has unique benefits and challenges. We’re already working to mitigate the risk on all of our projects.”

Denny Zane, director of the Move LA coalition, which led the campaign for Measure M tells Curbed that it's too early to write off the Twenty-eight by ’28 objectives.

“Of course we’re concerned,” he says. “But it’s a mistake to say ‘We can’t do it.’”

By Bianca Barragan for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

Ownership of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center could be changing. The Real Deal reports that owner CIM Group and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have listed the roughly 450,000-square-foot tourist magnet for sale.

Sources tell The Real Deal a sale could bring in as much as $300 million.

Located along the Walk of Fame, Hollywood and Highland stands out, perhaps in large part because of it unusual design, inspired by a Babylonian film set from a 1916 epic directed by Birth of a Nation’s D.W. Griffith.

The retail center opened in 2001 and has been owned by CIM since 2004. Hollywood and Highland holds a Sephora, a Forever 21, and a fancy bowling alley. Rascal Flatts was supposed to have a restaurant in the mall, but the country music trio was later sued by their partner in the restaurant deal (the partner claimed the musicians pocketed the money instead of using it to build the eatery).

The shopping center sits above Metro’s Hollywood/Highland subway station, and its namesake intersection received a scramble crosswalk two years ago.

The sale would not include the neighboring Dolby Theatre, which hosts the Oscars and is owned by the city. (CIM is the operator of the theater.)

Head over to The Real Deal for the full story.

By Bianca Barragan for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

A highly anticipated apartment, hotel, and shopping complex designed by Frank Gehry atop Bunker Hill takes a big step forward today. Developers for The Grand (formerly the Grand Avenue Project) announced they have secured $630 million in construction financing for the $1 billion project.

Pre-construction work, including demolition on a parking structure on the property, will begin this month on the Grand Avenue site. The property sits just east of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, as new renderings show.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for sometime in the “upcoming months,” say developers Related Companies and the China-based CORE US, a partnership between China Harbour Engineering Company and CCCG Overseas Real Estate. Related has long said it plans to break ground on the project in 2018.

When complete, The Grand will include a 20-story hotel, retail and entertainment, and a 39-story residential tower with 128 condos, 214 market-rate apartments, and 86 affordable housing units. The Grand’s two towers will rise on a parking lot just east of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Any forward movement on the project will likely be welcomed by boosters who’ve waited for over a decade to see the bulk of the project come to fruition. (Related once hoped to get the project underway in 2007.)

Other elements of the Grand Avenue project have already been built, including the Emerson apartment tower and Grand Park.

Bunker Hill is on an upswing, development-wise. A major project planned at the corner of Fourth and Hill would bring an 88-story tower, hundreds of hotel rooms and condos, retail space, and an elementary school to the neighborhood.

At the site of a former Marriott on Figueroa near Third Street, a 77-story tower is planned that would be taller than the Wilshire Grand. And at the site of the World Trade Center on Figueroa and Fourth, prolific landlord and developer Jamison plans to put in a 41-story tower with 750 residential units.