There is only one way Amir Kalantari can prove he is actually going to build his Glass Tower condo project: evidence of construction in progress.

Skepticism has grown because the developer’s company, Kalantari Group, purchased the site at 11th Street and Grand Avenue in 2004, got it entitled in 2005 and then let it sit vacant amid the boom in downtown condo construction.

Kalantari says he understands real estate industry naysayers, but still vows to build the 23-story, 192,000-square-foot tower, which he said is being financed entirely by company cash flow. Groundbreaking is now scheduled for April with construction expected to take 24 months.

“Speculation doesn’t bother me. When you entitle a building with this much publicity and don’t get in the ground, people scratch their heads,” Kalantari said. “I have way too much personal cash and time in this to not build.”

Speculation about the project, with its striking glass fa & #231;ade, has accelerated in recent months, especially given the slowdown in the downtown housing market, where at least one developer has publicly declared he won’t build one of his condo towers.

There was also Kalantari’s decision in February 2006 to put the property on the market. He called the decision an “exercise more than anything” to test its value, adding that he received offers for the parcel but “none were even looked at.”

Even Calvin Abe, president of Ah’b & #233; Landscape Architects, who worked on some preliminary landscape work, said he thinks Kalantari will sell the fully entitled project before building it. “They take it through entitlements and then the value goes up,” Abe said.

But Kalantari said a rise in construction costs slowed the project, requiring it to be redesigned by DeStefano and Partners Ltd., which replaced Nadel Architects Inc. last summer.

The DeStefano redesign stripped the building of much of its expensive glass fa & #231;ade, though one corner of the 128-unit building will still feature elaborate glasswork.

The building’s sixth-story pool deck is also a feature often discussed by downtown real estate denizens, who question its design. The pool will be built on the northwest side of the building and will not receive direct sunlight for parts of the day.

“We did studies; it gets afternoon sun, it doesn’t get morning sun,” said Hanson, adding that he could not change the placement because the building’s footprint was finalized in the entitlement process. The pool deck had been designed foremost to offer a view of the downtown skyline.

Wilshire Corridor Sale

A group of private investors has purchased a prime development site on Westwood’s Wilshire Corridor. The group, 10777 Wilshire LLC, bought two neighboring parcels from two private sellers for $18.4 million in a deal that closed Feb. 20.

The buyers plan to build a six-story, 60-unit luxury condo on the site at 10763 and 10777 Wilshire Blvd., said Clark Everitt, vice president at Investment Real Estate Associates, who represented both sides of the deal.

The 26,400-square-foot property is occupied by two apartment buildings, which will be razed to make way for the new condos. There is no timeline for the development, which is yet to receive entitlements.

The product will fill a niche on the corridor luxury condos in a non-high rise setting. “They will be offering high-end luxury condos for people who don’t want to be in a high rise for one of two reasons the post-9/11 high-rise scare or because you can have the same luxury and save thousands of dollars on homeowners’ association dues.”

Staff reporter Daniel Miller can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 263, or

[email protected]

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