Trical Construction Building More Apartments in Marina Del Rey

4108 Del Rey Avenue

Back in Marina Del Rey, developer Trical Construction is nearing completion on a 77-unit apartment complex located at 4108 Del Rey Avenue.  The five-story development, designed by Keith Dover Associates, is known as Tribeca Urban, a somewhat ironic name given the project's deliberate isolation from the street.  Tribeca Urban will consist of 1-3 bedroom apartments and provide "resort-style amenities," including a fitness center, an outdoor fireplace, and a spa.  The building is scheduled to open late this year.

Although Tribeca Urban has yet to finish construction, expansion plans already appear to be in the works.  Last month, Trical submitted plans to the Department of City Planning to add an extra 51-units next door at 4090 Del Rey Avenue as part of a "unified development project."

• Tribeca Urban (Official Website)

Metropolis Rendered in the LA Skyline

Images from Kilograph

When IDS Realty put the long stalled Metropolis development on the market earlier this year, they commissioned a series of renderings showing the approximate size and scope of the project's full build out.  The 6.3 acre site is entitled for a total of 1.65 million square feet of hotel, residential, office and retail uses divided between five towers.  The completed development would include roughly 400,000 square feet of office space and up to 1,676 hotel rooms.  Entitlements also allow for some of those hotel rooms to be replaced with as many as 555 residential units.  The towers could stand as tall as 456-feet above grade.

Viewed from across the 110 freeway.  Image from Kilograph

As reported by the LA Times, IDS recently entered into discussions with Chinese based Greenland Holdings Group about a potential purchase of the site.  The exact price of the land was unclear, but a press release from Greenland indicated that the project could cost up to $1 billion to complete.  With entitlements already in place, construction would begin relatively soon after completion of the deal.

The Metropolis project is critical to the proposed "Avenue of the Angels," which seeks to transform Francisco Street into a active pedestrian corridor linking the Financial District to the Sports and Entertainment District.  Developer AEG envisions a similar atmosphere to that of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, book ended by the Wilshire Grand Tower in the north and LA Live in the south.

Artists concept of the "Avenue of the Angels."  Image from Metropolis.

• Metropolis (Official Website)
• Downtown LA 'Metropolis' Deal Under Negotiation (Los Angeles Times)
• Plans for "LA's French Quarter" Between South Park and FiDi (Curbed LA)

UCLA Getting 6-Stories of TLC

Teaching and Learning Center of Health for Health Sciences.  All images from UCLA.

In late September, UCLA broke ground on a $120 million expansion of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the corner of Le Conte and Tiverton.  The Teaching and Learning Center for Health Sciences, which the administration gleefully refers to as TLC, will stand six-stories and span 110,000 square feet.  The project was paid for using a combination of cash reserves and philanthropic donations.  TLC will allow UCLA to consolidate a significant portion of the medical school's classroom space, which is currently spread between 11 different buildings.  It also includes teaching labs, study space, administrative offices and a clinical skills center.  The Skidmore, Owings and Merrill designed project is expected to wrap up in 2016.

Interior courtyard of TLC

View of TLC's eastern elevation

Close up on TLC's southern elevation

• Geffen School of Medicine Gets Some 'TLC' as Campus Breaks Ground on Innovative Center (UCLA)

K2LA Building 1: Topped Out

Just west of J.H. Snyder's Vermont Towers and their massive parking podium, Century West Partners are well into the construction process on the first building of their K2LA development.  The project replaces three surface parking lots on a site bounded by Berendo Street, New Hampshire Avenue and 7th Street.  When completed, K2LA will add 476-apartments just a short walk from the busy Wilshire/Vermont subway station.  The project also includes two additional seven-story buildings that do not appear to have broken ground yet.

• K2LA (Century West Partners)

Watch the Feds Build Downtown LA's New Courthouse

Back in July, the Los Angeles Times announced that Downtown's long awaited Federal Courthouse had finally broken ground.  The 10-story edifice, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), will rise from the corner of 1st and Broadway.  SOM and Clark Construction want to make sure that everyone can see the $400 million project under construction, so they installed a webcam across the street.  There's not much to see yet, but the lot will eventually be home to 24 courtrooms and 32 judge's chambers.  Completion is scheduled for 2016.

Image from SOM

The Federal Courthouse is just one of several projects seeking to reinvent the Civic Center.  On the opposite side of 1st Street, the LA Downtown News reports that the city recently purchased a long vacant parcel from the State of California, with the intention of converting it into park space.  According to the LA Times, the General Services Administration has plans to trade the existing Spring Street Courthouse to a developer who would, in exchange, build an Federal office building next-door to the new courthouse.  Finally, the perpetually stalled Grand Avenue Project is intended to rise on the parking lots to the west of the new courthouse.  However, that project was recently dealt yet another setback, when the Grand Avenue Authority unanimously rejected developer Related California's revised plans.

• New United States Courthouse (Construction Camera)
• New Federal Courthouse for Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles Times)
• Downtown Los Angeles Federal Courthouse Starting to Push Dirt? (Building Los Angeles)

Jamison Services Bringing Apartments to K-Town Parking Lot

626 S. St. Andrews Place; Image from Corbel Architects.

Koreatown has seen a boom in residential construction during the past calendar year, and that trend looks to continue on a parking lot just north of Wilshire Boulevard.  Jamison Services Incorporated, one of Koreatown's largest commercial landlords, has plans to build an 84-unit apartment building next to the Wilshire Professional Building.  The project at 626 St. Andrews Place will stand six-stories, with design work from Corbel Architects.  Despite the nearby Wilshire/Western subway station, 626 St. Andrews will include 203 parking spaces in a three level garage.

According to Businessweek, vacancy rates at Jamison Services' office properties have tripled over the past four years to an average of 25%.  Unfavorable economic conditions may have reduced demand for office space in Los Angeles, but they have also fueled a resurgence in the market for multi-family residential buildings.  Thus, Jamison Services is in the process of converting five of their office properties into apartments.  They have also started venturing into ground up construction, meaning that 626 St. Andrews Place may just be the first new building that the company has planned.

• L.A. King of Down-Market Offices Bets on Apartments (Businessweek)

Ambitious Fantasy Map for Metro Rail

Reddit user Nandert recently drew up a future map for Metro, showing Los Angeles County crisscrossed by hundreds of miles of light and heavy rail in the year 2040.  This grand vision would bring tears of joy to many traffic choked Angelenos, although such a vast network would likely carry a price tag close to $100 billion (that's billion, with a "B").  Considering that the Federal government just went into shutdown mode this morning, perhaps now isn't the time to get optimistic about additional infrastructure spending out of Washington.

Still, it's fun to imagine the possibilities beyond the upcoming Measure R projects.  While I wouldn't bet on the chances of some of these projects, the hypothetical expansions on this map include:

• Sepulveda Line running from the Sylmar Metrolink Station to the LAX Intermodal Transporation Center.
• Purple Line extension west from the VA Hospital in Westwood to Downtown Santa Monica.
• Crenshaw Line extension north to Hollywood/Highland via West Hollywood and south to Cal State Long Beach.
• Green Line extension west from LAX to Downtown Santa Monica and east to the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Metrolink Station.
• Slauson Line from LAX to Downtown Los Angeles via the Harbor Subdivision, then north to Glendale via Brand Boulevard.
• Vermont subway from the Vermont/Athens Station up to Westlake/McArthur Park Station, then north to Glendale via Echo Park and Brand Boulevard.
• Silver Line from Vermont/Sunset station traveling east through Union Station to the City of La Puente.
• Orange Line from North Hollywood Station through Burbank down to Union Station, where it would merge with the planned Santa Ana Line.
• Red Line extension north to Burbank Airport.
• Revival of the cancelled Eastside Red Line extension, running from Union Station to the City of Whitter via Whittier Boulevard.
• An Eastern Line running from north/south from Pasadena to Whittier Boulevard.
• Blue Line extension east to Ontario International Airport.
• Express rail service from LAX to Union Station via the Harbor Subdivision.