Asked a year ago to guess the location of a competition billed as “Southern California’s biggest investor pitch event,” most would have picked a hotel in Santa Monica, perhaps Bungalow or Shutters on the Beach.
Yet, it was surprising to no one that Reach NeXT, which cost $1,500 to enter, was hosted on Spring Street at a former stock exchange-turned-nightclub called Exchange LA. The event pulled in 30 tech investment firms, including Greycroft Partners, Amplify.LA and Techstars, whose combined funds total more than $2 billion.
“It just shows that people aren’t frightened of crossing the 110 (freeway) anymore,” said Cauri Jaye, chief executive of rhubarb studios, a West Fifth Street venture studio that organized the event. Downtown Los Angeles is “a great center to be in and it’s the perfect place for technology to develop.”
Downtown was once a ghost town after 7 p.m., but rhubarb, which opened its 14,000-square-foot-space in January, has had no trouble attracting people to hackathon and startup events all summer. It has also had no trouble pulling in the region’s top investors, who are keen to get a jump on the flow of startups.
“Smart investors don’t want to be behind the wave. They want to be in front of it,” Jaye said. “Waves move inland.”
Old Name, New Look
A surge of new restaurants continues to saturate downtown Los Angeles, but one of the area’s high-end steakhouses has unveiled a fresh look.
Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse in Bunker Hill reopened last week featuring a new menu and more modern interior.
Its owner, Patina Restaurant Group, closed the restaurant in May to take on an extensive renovation to refresh the space, which now looks less like a steakhouse and more like a swanky lounge.
The new menu offers diners an expanded prime steak offering, eastern and Pacific oysters and more than 500 wine labels.
There is even a curated water menu with eight different waters from around the world, including New Zealand’s Antipodes and France’s sparkling mineral water Badoit.
Christian Schnyder, owner and principal at L.A. interior design firm Beleco, designed the space. The textured walls are covered with an abstract print in a midnight blue shade. A private dining room is home to gold-accented walls. The dark wooden chairs and leather booths populating the old dining room have been swapped out in favor of mocha tweed chairs with gold metal legs.
Joachim Splichal, chef and founder of Patina, opened the steakhouse in 1998.
Southern Exposure
Angelenos can’t help but notice the transformation of USC’s campus and surrounding neighborhood under the tenure of President C.L. Max Nikias. Now, an iconic New York philanthropic organization has taken note.
Late last month, Carnegie Corp. honored Nikias with its Academic Leadership Award, making him the organization’s first-ever awardee in Southern California.
The foundation, established in 1911 by industrialist Andrew Carnegie, bestows the accolade every other year. It comes with a $500,000 grant, which Nikias has pledged for undergraduate scholarships for low-income students, in addition to contributions to some of the school’s existing programs.
Since becoming president in 2010, Nikias has led the Campaign for the University of Southern California, one of the largest fundraising efforts in the history of higher education. That has allowed the university to expand its merit- and need-based aid program to $300 million annually.
Nikias’ ability to bring in donations and sponsorships did not escape Carnegie President Vartan Gregorian.
“What has impressed me as a former provost and president is that he has been able, in a relatively brief period, to establish 77 endowed faculty chairs,” Gregorian said.
In addition to bolstering its teaching corps, the school has finished or is in the midst of a dozen major construction projects, including the $700 million, 15-acre USC Village, which will feature 2,700 undergraduate housing units as well as retailers including Trader Joe’s and TargetExpress.
Nikias told the Business Journal last month that the project will allow the school to reposition some current housing for graduate students, which he said is a big deal for the school’s heavily international student body.
“Many of the students are international or come from out of town,” he said. “That first year, it’s extremely important for them to be part of the residential life of the community.”
Staff reporters Garrett Reim, Subrina Hudson and Matt Pressberg contributed to this column. #DTLA is compiled by Senior Managing Editor Jonathan Diamond. He can be reached at [email protected].
