The Moinian Group, one of New York’s largest landowners, is buying a prominent downtown property near the Staples Center.
Moinian has built several high-rise projects in Manhattan and the firm has recently begun buying property in downtown L.A.
Daphne Viders, a Moinian spokeswoman, confirmed there are negotiations but declined to provide further information on the pending transaction. Anschutz Entertainment Group, the majority owner of the Staples Center, is selling the land. AEG spokesman Michael Roth declined to comment.
Even so, people familiar with the deal say Moinian is paying close to $75 million for a 4-acre surface parking lot bounded by Figueroa, Flower, 11th and 12th streets. The site already has approvals for a residential and retail project. The transaction is expected to go non-refundable next month, the sources said.
Moinian isn’t the first developer to want the site and its towering project entitlements.
LNR Property Corp., a well-heeled commercial builder, fell out of contract to buy the parcel a few months ago. LNR had teamed-up with homebuilders Lennar Corp. and KB Home to build three condominium towers and a 250,000-square-foot retail center.
That deal fell apart after KB Home opted instead to build 216 condos on top of the forth-coming 1,000-room convention center hotel, which will be flagged by Marriott Marquis and Ritz Carlton.
Moinian plans only minor changes to the project that would have been undertaken by LNR, the sources said.
While the 4-acre site is Moinian’s most ambitious L.A. project yet, the developer has already picked up another large downtown L.A. parcel.
In March, Moinian paid about $26 million to buy a 770-space parking garage on South Olive Street from Maguire Properties Inc. Moinian hasn’t yet revealed plans for the property, but like its more recent purchase, the firm is expected to build residential towers at the site.
Sources said O’Donnell/Atkins Co.’s Rich Mayo is representing Moinian on the deal. Mayo declined comment.
Residential Prescription
G.H. Palmer Associates is under contract to buy a nearly 10-acre plot of land from Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital for $70.5 million.
Calls to Palmer seeking comment weren’t returned, but a member of the hospital’s board of directors confirmed the residential developer is buying the land.
Christopher Martin, chief executive of architecture firm A.C. Martin and a member of the hospital’s board, said the hospital will add the money to its foundation, which pays for providing orthopedic medical care to the poor.
“This is a wonderful win for Los Angeles,” Martin said. “This will provide additional funds that will go toward the core mission of providing charity services.”
Martin declined to comment further on the transaction, but sources close to the deal confirmed the sales price and said Palmer is expected to close on the property by early July.
Palmer has built or has under construction more than a thousand apartment units in downtown L.A. Some of Palmer’s downtown apartment buildings include the Medici, the Orsini and the Piero.
At one point, a partnership of Rothbart Development Corp., a developer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. big box stores, and the Martin Group Inc., a Santa Monica residential developer, were negotiating to buy the land.
The partnership walked away, however, after being out bid by residential developers, including Palmer and Casden Properties LLC, which declined to comment.
There was also a complication with the hospital’s land, which is zoned for use as a hospital site. Any non-hospital use of the property will require approval from the Los Angeles City Council, which hasn’t viewed Wal-Mart favorably due to the retailer’s resistance to unions.
Palmer could also face resistance from public officials, even for a residential project. Already, Councilwoman Jan Perry has said 20 percent of the site’s residential units would have to be reserved for affordable housing.
Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital is selling the property because next year the surgical and inpatient care units are moving to a new facility in Santa Monica that it will share with UCLA.
Orthopaedic Hospital’s outpatient clinic will remain at the downtown campus, which also contains the Orthopaedic Hospital Medical Magnet High School, a public school that trains students for healthcare careers.
A decade ago, the City Council voted to create a nearly 3,000-acre area including the Orthopaedic Hospital site where subsidies could be used by the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles to attract new investment.
But developers have only recently begun to take notice of areas south of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway.
Even so, the site is only about a mile from where thousands of new condominiums and apartments are being built and close to a proposed Exposition Line train station with access to the Harbor (110) Freeway. It’s also only 2 miles from the University of Southern California, which is slated to have its own Exposition stop.
Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s Richard Plummer, Andrew Harper and Dwight Hotchkiss had the listing. Plummer declined comment.
