New York-Based Hotelier Setting Up Shop Near Staples

Staples Center and its surrounding environs.

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.  The as-of-yet undisclosed location would be their second in Los Angeles, following the upcoming Dream Hollywood Hotel.

One potential home could be the $1 billion Metropolis development, which will feature a 350-room hotel at the intersection of 9th and Francisco Streets.  Although city documents had previously pointed to IHG's Hotel Indigo as the likely operator of the 19-story tower, developer Greenland USA has yet to give official word.  Other proposed developments from Mack Urban and the Oceanwide Group also call for substantial hotel components, but have yet to announce operators.

• HOTELS Interview: Danziger's Dreams for Hampshire (HOTELS Magazine)

Low-Rise Mixed-User to Sprout on Reseda Boulevard

The WaterMark (Images courtesy of the Albert Group Architects

One of the San Fernando Valley's countless auto repair shops is about to make way for a new mixed-use development.  The WaterMark, a residential-retail complex from the Los Angeles-based Metric Holdings Corporation, is slated for an approximately 2.5-acre site at the crossing of Reseda Boulevard and the Los Angeles River.  The low-rise project, designed by the Albert Group Architects, will contain 254 one, two and three-bedroom apartment units above slightly less than 7,700 square feet of ground-level commercial space.

Plans call for a six-story structure along Reseda Boulevard which would gradually step down in height as as it approaches the single-family zone to the west.  A glass clad tower highlights the WaterMark's design, inviting cyclists and joggers to enjoy the neighborhood-serving stores and eateries which will stretch north from Kittridge Street.  The low-rise project, which is to be located less than one mile from an Orange Line Station, will offer parking accommodations for up to 436 automobiles and 287 bicycles.

Like many new river-adjacent developments, Metric Holdings' project reverses the long-standing trend of shunning the maligned waterway.  Instead, the WaterMark will embrace an eventually revitalized LA river through common green space and bicycle parking on its southern edge.  The green space will wrap around to the eastern side of the property, where it shall provide additional landscaping as a buffer between the apartments and nearby single-family homes.  Further open space is provided via private balconies and upper-level terraces.

The Ultimate Measure R2 Fantasy Map

Image Credit: Move LA

Transportation advocacy group Move LA, one of the driving forces behind the transformative Measure R, has cooked up a mouth watering fantasy map for a sequel ballot initiative in 2016.  Measure R2, as per its most recent draft proposal, could fund a slew of transportation improvements throughout Los Angeles County via a 45-year, half-cent sales tax.  As reported this past April by Streetsblog LA, the tentative plan allots revenue as follows:

• 30% for new Metro Rail and BRT Capital
• 20% for Transit Operations
• 20% for Highways
• 15% for Local Return
• 6% for Clean Goods Movement
• 5% for Metrolink Capital
• 4% for Active Transportation

Fancy Senior Housing Complex Breaks Ground in Playa Vista

Image credit: Kilograph

Feast your eyes on the latest shiny object to sprout from the ashes of Howard Hughes's once expansive empire.  According to multiple sources, the Los Angeles Jewish Home has officially broken ground on the Fountainview at Gonda Westside, an upscale senior housing development in the Playa Vista neighborhood.  The $100 million complex will feature a series of low-rise structures, offering a total of 175 independent living units and 24 assisted living/memory care units.  Plans call for a wide battery of residential amenities, including a fitness center, library, screening room and a ground-floor cafe.  In addition, an accessible rooftop deck will offer both a swimming pool and a spa.  Completion is currently scheduled for sometime in 2016.

Plans from architectural firm Gensler call for a complex of six-story buildings, incorporating the sloping rooflines and wood paneling frequently seen on other Westside developments. The project's design  ingratiates itself heavily to the outdoors, both through its rooftop amenity deck and its expansive balconies.  Lush landscaping will surround the perimeter of the residential community and permeate into an internal courtyard.

Long Beach's Newest Tower Now Pushing Dirt

Six months after its nominal groundbreaking, Long Beach's first post-recession high-rise finally has non-ceremonial shovels in the dirt.  Construction of the Current, a 17-story mixed-use tower, is visibly underway at the northwest corner of Lime Avenue and Ocean Boulevard.  The $70 million project - formerly known as Shoreline Gateway - will offer a mixture of 223 studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and penthouse apartments.  Ground-level commercial stalls will encompass a total of 6,750 square feet, divided between retail and restaurant uses.

The tower's design, created by San Francisco-based BAR Architects, takes inspiration from the work of early Southern California modernists such as Richard Neutra and R.M. Schindler.  Due to its location just blocks from the ocean, the Current places a strong emphasis on quality outdoor amenities.  The design incorporates expansive terraces and a roofdeck pool, offering views of both the waterfront and the surrounding cityscape.  In addition, the building's main entrance will feed directly into a 25,000 square foot plaza, to be built over a closed-off section of Lime Avenue.

Construction of the Current is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2016.  After that point, developer Anderson Pacific, LLC is expected to embark on a more grandiose second phase of the project: a 35-story condominium building.  That tower, to be located catacorner from the iconic Villa Riviera Apartments, would likely become the tallest residential building in Downtown Long Beach.

Image Credit: The Current Living

Big Sunset Bronson Studios Expansion to Break Ground Next Week

Icon at SBS (Image credit: Hudson Pacific Properties)

Hollywood's well documented construction boom continues to surge, as yet another skyline altering project prepares to break ground near the 101 Freeway.  According to Bisnow, local landlord Hudson Pacific Properties (HPP) plans to begin work next week on a long-awaited expansion of Sunset Bronson Studios (SBS).  The $150 million development, designed by architectural firm Gensler, will retool the eastern side of the SBS campus with a new parking garage and approximately 400,000 square feet of office and production space.

HPP's expansion project is highlighted by Icon, a 14-story office tower slated for the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue.  The 315,000 square foot structure will stand roughly 200 feet tall, creating a commanding presence above the nearby freeway trench.  An August piece from the Architect's Newspaper describes the building as featuring "five rectangular, stacked volumes, offset horizontally to create exterior terraces."  Facade elements will variate between precast panels and a glass curtain wall, breaking down the tower's broad, imposing scale.

Moving south from Sunset Boulevard, the project will include two new buildings of a lower height profile.  The first, a five-story production building, will contain 90,000 square feet of production office space and a ground-level cafe.  The second, a seven-story garage, will rise adjacent to the production building and offer parking accommodations for 1,600 vehicles.

Hollywood's Lexington Development Redesigned and Downsized

Viewed from the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Las Palmas Avenue

Five years after stalling out with developer DS Ventures, Central Hollywood's massive Lexington project is somehow alive and kicking.  The mixed-use development, proposed for a 5.9-acre site at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Las Palmas Avenue, would create a series of low-rise buildings featuring apartments and/or condominiums above ground-level commercial space.  A recently released FEIR casts some light on the updated, and slightly reduced development program.

Revised plans for the Lexington were designed by Santa Monica-based VTBS Architects, and call for six buildings, ranging from five-to-seven stories in height.  The low-rise structures will contain a total of 695 studio, one and two-bedroom units.  This represents a sharp decrease from the 786 dwelling units proposed under the former development program.  Conversely, the new plans call for just under 25,000 square feet of ground-level retail and restaurant space, a slight increase from the original proposal.  The project will also offer parking accommodations for nearly 1,400 vehicles, to be located in a three-level, partially-underground garage.