Historic Core WELCOME HOME

Take a photo tour of the Merritt Building in Downtown Los Angeles, courtesy of architectural photographer Hunter Kerhart. The nine-story building, located at 8th Street and Broadway, was originally developed as commercial offices by real estate and railroad magnate Hulett C. Merritt. Designed in the Beaux Arts style by the Reid Brothers, a San Francisco-based architecture firm, the Merritt Building is highlighted by the collection of four-story columns which wrap the building’s upper levels.

Developer Trammell Crow Residential (TCR) and architecture firm CallisonRTKL have released a flyover video for the Alexan, a proposed high-rise development in Downtown Los Angeles. The mixed-use project, planned at the site of a parking lot at 9th and Hill Streets, would take the form of a 27-story featuring 305 apartments, 6,200 square feet of retail space, and amenities such as a bike kitchen, a swimming pool and a fitness center.

The Los Angeles Times has unveiled a rendering for 5th and Hill, the proposed hotel and condo tower that would soar high above Pershing Square. Slated for a narrow, L-shaped lot flanking the Pershing Square Building, could move forward under two different plans. One scenario calls for a 57-story structure featuring 142 condominiums and 25,000 square feet of retail space, while an alternate plan would create a 55-story building with 100 condos, 200 hotel rooms and 27,500 square feet of shops and restaurants.

A parking lot in the Historic Core could be the latest property swallowed up by the Downtown development wave. Yesterday, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles to construct a mixed-use complex at 433 S. Main Street. Although details such as the proposed development’s height are currently unclear, the project would include 196 apartments and 6,344 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Similar projects slated for the Main Street corridor include the second phase of the Medallion and a 38-story tower from prominent Historic Core landlord Barry Shy.

While the city moves forward with plans for a $50-million redesign of Pershing Square, a property across the street is lining up for an even more aggressive makeover. Last week, JMF Development Co. filed plans with the City of Los Angeles to construct a mixed-use complex at northeast corner of 5th and Hill Streets. The project, as described in a case filing from the Department of City Planning, would consist of a 55-to-57-story building which could move forward under two alternate schemes.

Yesterday, we reported that Barry Shy was planning a condo conversion for SB Tower, one of his numerous properties in Downtown Los Angeles. A representative of the developer has notified us that the plans filed with the City of Los Angeles do not reflect any imminent plans, but rather an extension of the sunset provisions for previously approved entitlements. The building will remain as apartments. We regret the error.

Note: A representative of the developer has notified us that SB Tower is not being converted into condominiums. The plans filed with the City of Los Angeles were to extend the sunset provision of previously approved entitlements. We regret the error. Nearly three years after being rebuffed in his attempt to convert two Historic Core buildings into condominiums, developer Barry Shy will hope for better luck with another of his numerous Downtown properties.

Over ten years after stalling out, then substantially downsizing, plans for a large mixed-use complex across the street from Pershing Square are finally being realized. Last week, MacFarlane Partners quietly began work for the first phase of the Park Fifth development, with the demolition of a small parking garage adjacent to the historic Subway Terminal Building. In its place, the San Francisco-based real estate firm intends to construct a seven-story building which will span between Olive and Hill Streets.

SCG America, the U.S. arm of a major Chinese real estate firm, has announced the acquisition of a .8-acre development site in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles. The property, located at the intersection of 4th Street and Broadway, is slated for a 34-story high-rise building which would feature 450 residential units and approximately 7,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. A groundbreaking for the proposed tower is scheduled for October 2016, with completion expected by 2020.

Last week, developer Trammell Crow Residential received welcome news from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning (LADCP), which has approved the Texas-based company’s proposal to build a residential tower in Downtown’s Historic Core. The project, known as the Alexan, would replace a surface parking lot at 9th and Hill Streets with a 27-story building featuring 305 residential units above approximately 6,200 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Plans also call for a landscaped roof deck, a swimming pool and a fitness center.