In downtown L.A.’s South Park, sites with potential come with large price tags, as the area’s latest big-money deal illustrates.
Parking lot developer L&R Group, operator of Wally Park and Joe’s Auto Parks, has paid $30 million for a 1.5-acre site at Figueroa Street and Venice Boulevard. The roughly 60,000-square-foot lot, just north of the 10 freeway and two blocks from the Staples Center, is home to the Toyota of Downtown L.A. dealership.
At $500 a square foot, the deal was one of the biggest in South Park in the past six months. In comparison, a large site on Hope Street, already entitled for redevelopment as a residential high-rise, sold last month for well above $800 a square foot. And just over a year ago, a Grand Avenue site without entitlements reportedly sold for about $580 a square foot.
The sale of the Toyota site was a great deal for a property with redevelopment potential, said John Eichler, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield Inc. in downtown.
It’s also a sign that downtown land values remain strong.
“In South Park, and in certain areas of the Historic Core, we continue to see increases in the price of land because of the comparable increases in multifamily lease rates and demand for retail and hotel,” he said.
Parking has become scarcer in South Park, particularly as developers of luxury residential towers have snatched up existing lots. That has created an opportunity for L&R, owner of more than 80 downtown parking lots. Among the development options for the Venice-Figueroa property is a multilevel parking lot anchored by ground-floor retail.
“Day in and day out, parking lots are closed, taking valuable parking capacity off line in downtown L.A.,” said Adam Tischer, a Colliers International broker in downtown representing L&R. “L&R has been anticipating this.”
Still, he hinted that while the company intended to build a parking facility at the location, the site could be in play for a larger development.
“Interest from developers might lead to another sale, sooner than expected,” said Tischer.
There would be a few hurdles to clear, however, if a larger project were planned. Tom Lagos, the Colliers broker representing sellers George and Carole McCall, said the site’s zoning is more restrictive than that of a stretch of Figueroa a block north on the other side of Pico Boulevard. There, towers are rising with more than 40 stories.
The McCalls had operated the Toyota dealership for decades before selling it to Downtown L.A. Auto Group in 2012, according to Lagos. The family held on to the property and leased it to the dealership.
Darryl Holter, chief executive of Shammas Group, owner of Downtown L.A. Auto Group, said the dealership would relocate a few blocks away to Figueroa and Washington Boulevard.
Tapping Trends
Architect Clive Wilkinson is widely considered a master at designing office spaces. But when he designed an office for his own West Hollywood home, he rarely ever used it.
That’s because he was always on the go, working on a laptop rather than sitting home at a desk.
Now that home, complete with its little used office, is on the market for $4.5 million from Brentwood-based broker Wendy Gladson of John Aaroe Group.
The 3,300 square-foot residence, across from the Pacific Design Center, has a simple but striking modernist design.
As Wilkinson, 61, prepares to sell, he is working on a new home in West Los Angeles. It won’t have an office at all.
“I’ll have something more like an arts studio,” he said. “Space with great light.”
Wilkinson made his reputation with Culver City-based Clive Wilkinson Architects by recognizing workplace culture shifts, taking on high-profile office design projects such as Google Inc.’s Mountain View offices in 2005. He is now tackling about 10 projects across the country, including a redesign for KCRW-FM (89.9) at Santa Monica College.
The new trend is creating various settings to support collaborative work. Despite some resistance, he thinks the concept will win out. In the past 25 years, technology has made it easier for employees to work anywhere, freed from desktop computers and paperwork.
“A small percentage are freaked out by not having nests, but increasingly, it just isn’t a big issue,” he said. “The typical formats are history.”
Vista Vision
Developer Vantage Property Investors is creating more Playa Vista office space as technology and creative firms flock to Silicon Beach. The Manhattan Beach firm plans to add a 55,000-square-foot building designed by Gensler to its 11-acre Playa Jefferson campus now that it is more than 93 percent leased. Current tenants include ad agencies Omicom and R/GA as well as engineering firm Arup and Regus, a workplace services company.
Daina Beth Solomon can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, etc. 237.
