Tall & Urban News

Since Related Companies first got the contract in 2004 to build the massive Grand Avenue project, there’s been a housing boom and bust, a financial crisis and a new explosion of residential construction downtown. 
 
Yet throughout that period, the $1 billion complex, designed by architect Frank Gehry, has failed to materialize at its coveted site across from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. 
 
On November 5, the New York developer took a giant step to finally kick off the project, considered by many to be the last large piece of the redevelopment puzzle that is the Bunker Hill sector. 
 
The developer said it has $630 million in construction financing from German lender Deutsche Bank in hand, and work on the project will begin in November. 
 
“The last major hurdle has been crossed,” said Rick Vogel, a senior vice president at Related. “We now know that this project is going to get built.” 
 
The complex, scheduled to be completed by 2021, has long been viewed as a potentially transformational addition to the neighborhood, which has lagged behind in the nearly two-decade renaissance that has rejuvenated much of downtown. 
 
The open-air complex of apartments, condominiums, movie theaters, restaurants and shops is expected to enliven a city block that has been mostly dead for half a century. It will replace an aging parking structure located between 1st and 2nd streets along Grand Avenue. 
 
The development will have a mix of shops and restaurants spread among a series of landscaped open terraces, along with a roughly 430-seat cinema complex on the east side above Olive Street. There will be a 20-story Equinox hotel with 309 rooms, and a 39-story residential tower with 113 condos and 323 apartments. The developer will offer subsidized rents to low-income tenants for 20 percent of the apartments. 
 
The project got a financing boost last year when a Chinese company infused the project with $290 million of capital, but there were doubts about its viability amid repeated postponements and massive residential, retail and hotel construction downtown in the years since the project was first approved. 
 
The project is a joint venture between the developer and its partner Core USA, a partnership of China Harbour Engineering Co. and CCCG Overseas Real Estate. CCCG Overseas is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Group, one of China's largest state-owned companies. 
 
The architecture firm released new renderings of the project in January. 
 
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis and City Councilman Jose Huizar, who represent the Bunker Hill neighborhood, both released statements of support on November 5 for the long-planned project. 
 
Other projects built though the authority since the Grand’s approval include the 12-acre (4.85-hectare) Grand Park, the Broad art museum and the 19-story Emerson apartment tower next to the Broad Museum. 
 
With financing, plans and permits now in place, the developer said work on the complex will get underway soon, starting with preparations to demolish the site’s existing garage. 
 
It will take about a year to knock down the parking garage, dig a hole deep enough for a five-level underground parking garage and bring the foundation of the development level to Grand Avenue, Related’s Vogel said. Another year will be spent topping out the tallest tower at 39 stories, and the year after that completing the interior work on the project. 
 
For more on this story, go to The Los Angeles Times.