Rihanna’s Hosannas
It’s been a notable year for pop star Robyn Rihanna Fenty, who goes by Rihanna. A year ago, she was named a national hero of Barbados, where she’s from. In July, Forbes declared that Rihanna, at 34, was America’s youngest self-made billionaire with a net worth of $1.4 billion. And last week her El Segundo lingerie company, Savage X Fenty, was named the most funded African American tech company in the United States with $310 million.
That last acknowledgment came from new research by black social commentators That Sister which studied 500 technology companies that have been founded and led by African Americans in the past five years. (It also concluded that California was the second most influential state for African American tech companies. Delaware was first.)
Fenty reportedly has a 30% ownership stake in Savage X Fenty. She also co-owns the cosmetics firm Fenty Beauty with French luxury retailer LVMH.
And it appears her good year will extend into next. Fenty is set to headline the halftime show at the Super Bowl in February.
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If it seems to you that a great number of apartments are being carved out of old office buildings and hotels, you are correct. In fact, Los Angeles leads the country – by far – in this type of project that’s called adaptive reuse.
According to a new report from RentCafe, an apartment-search website, 1,242 apartments from conversions were delivered in the first half of the year in Los Angeles – far more than the No. 2 city, Kissimmee, Florida, which had 705. This year already is the best year in a decade for adaptive reuse in Los Angeles, thanks to the 642 apartments that entered the market through office conversions and 600 through repurposed hotels.
The major office-to-residential projects completed since 2020 are all situated on Wilshire Boulevard and now go by such names as Gemma Ktown, Atlas House and Crosby Apartments.
