A groundbreaking ceremony for the $3 billion Grand Avenue project has been pushed back from March until at least the summer, officials with developer Related Cos. confirmed last week. It marks the third time that the public kickoff for the massive Bunker Hill effort has been postponed, Downtown News reports.
However, Related Cos. President Bill Witte said the development is on track to meet its most recently announced timeline, with phase one slated for completion in 2011. He also maintained that the project’s financing is in order.
“The groundbreaking is more of a symbolic event,” Witte told Los Angeles Downtown News last week. “It has little to do with where we are in the project schedule. We are continuing ahead, and we have the wherewithal to do it.”
Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the 3.6 million-square-foot development – dubbed The Grand – is expected to eventually bring 2,600 housing units, 449,000 square feet of retail, a hotel, a grocery store and a health club to Downtown Los Angeles.
The approximately $1 billion, 1.3 million-square-foot first phase of the development will include a 48-story Mandarin Oriental Hotel & Residences with 295 rooms and 266 for-sale units, a 19-story residential tower with 126 market-rate apartments and 98 affordable units, a 250,000-square-foot retail pavilion and 16-acre civic park. The towers will rise across from Walt Disney Concert Hall on the site of a current multi-level parking lot.
