South Park WELCOME HOME

When the Shanghai based Greenland Group announced their intent to purchase the long delayed Metropolis development in June 2013, many details from the press release were muddled in the Mandarin-to-English translation. IDS Realty quickly stepped in to put the kibosh on the rumored sales price of $1 billion, but all parties involved have remained adamant that the project would be going vertical as soon as possible. It appears that the Chinese developer remains true to its word, with the project’s first buildings set to be a 19-story hotel at 899 Francisco Street and a 38-story apartment tower next door at 889 Francisco.

A pair of CRA/LA documents have (re) revealed renderings of Onyx, a mixed-use development planned by Fashion District landlord Jade Enterprises. The two-building project would rise on surface parking lots southeast of Metro’s Pico Station, combining to create 410 apartment units and over 30,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space. Both building would stand seven-stories, with design work from Downtown-based TCA Architects. Jade Enterprises has used Onyx’s transit adjacency to substantially reduce the project’s parking component, containing just 44% of what would normally be required by code.

Passengers on the Blue and Expo Lines should enjoy Pico Station’s unobstructed view of Staples Center while it lasts, because skyscrapers are coming. The Los Angeles Times reports that a group spearheaded by Jamison Services has agreed to purchase the 2.7 acre parcel at 1200 Figueroa Street, with the intention of building a residential-retail complex. Although an exact sales price is unknown, the new owners reportedly shelled out more than twice the $31 million that L&R Parking paid for the property in 2010.

For decades, the Los Angeles Convention Center was neighbored by sprawling surface parking lots and decrepit commercial structures. Now, the explosive growth of the South Park district is quickly transforming previously desolate blocks into a thriving mixed-use community. The latest addition to the development pipeline is a low-rise residential-retail complex, proposed for an approximately half-acre parking lot at 1400 S. Figueroa Street. Check out the details, via a document from DLANC’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee.

Nine months after revealing plans for a new residential tower in South Park, Carmel Partners is switching up the playbook. According to a memo issued earlier this month by the Department of City Planning, the San Francisco-based developer’s proposed high-rise building at 801 Olive Street has been redesigned by a new, unspecified architect. Although the fundamentals of the project remain the same (363 apartments above 10,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a four-level parking podium), the retooled development plan calls for a tower that is both taller and slimmer than previously approved.

Nine months after purchasing the comatose Fig Central development for $200 million, Oceanwide Real Estate Group is finally taking the plunge in South Park. Last week, the Beijing-based developer issued $320 million in bonds that will reportedly be used to finance the construction of the mixed-use complex. Simultaneously, the developer has applied for the first in a series of LADBS approvals that will allow the long-delayed project to move forward. The recent LADBS filing describes Fig Central as a two-building development, offering a mixture of apartments and hotel rooms above ground-level commercial space and a health club.

Your eyes do not deceive you: the surface parking lot at the corner of 9th and Francisco Streets is no more. With a $39 million taxpayer subsidy in hand, Shanghai’s Greenland Real Estate Group has officially commenced work on the first half of the long-awaited Metropolis development. A skeleton crew quietly kicked off on the $1 billion project yesterday morning, stripping asphalt from the phase one site. The dirt lot seen above will eventually birth high-rise towers of 19 and 38 stories, creating 350 hotel rooms and 308 condominium units above street-level retail space.

Representatives of the Wilshire Grand development ended months of speculation earlier today, announcing that Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts will operate the 73-story tower’s 900-room luxury inn. Surprisingly, that’s not the only hotel buzz emanating from Downtown Los Angeles at the moment. According to an interview with HOTELS Magazine, New York-based Hampshire Hotels Management is planning to open a new location in close vicinity to Staples Center and LA Live. CEO Eric Danziger states that the company is considering either the Time Hotel or another 3-star brand for their South Park outpost.

As South Park’s latest mixed-use development starts work on Olympic Boulevard, why not head a few blocks south to check in on an earlier arrival to the Downtown development party? Directly across the street from the LA Convention Center, construction on the second and final phase of the $170 million Avant Apartments has now progressed to the fifth floor above ground. Located at 1500 South Figueroa Street, the mixed-use development from Century West Partners will top out at seven stories, containing 193 market rate apartments above 9,500 square feet of street level retail space.

When we last stopped by 888 Olive Street in September 2013, construction on the Onni Group’s 32-story mixed-use development had only progressed to the third level above ground. Fast forward to mid-2014, and the building has already become a dominant presence in South Park, rising 27 stories above the intersection of 9th and Olive Streets. Expected to open in early 2015, the tower will offer 283 luxury apartment dwellings and 11,000 square feet of street level retail and restaurant space.