Lease on Luxury : High-Style Apartments Come to Low-Rent Area

Travertine marble trims the lobby and its courtyards virtually drip with birds of paradise. Each apartment boasts six phone lines, while Daily Variety and gourmet coffees stock the library.

But perhaps the most startling thing about the new, Spanish-style apartment building is its location: not in Beverly Hills or Brentwood, but along a ratty stretch of Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, a beer can’s throw from convenience stores, cheap motels and auto shops.

L’Estancia, as it is called, is also less than a 10-minute drive to Universal Studios, Warner Bros., CBS and Disney, which explains its $18-million building cost, high style and little luxuries such as a concierge who can arrange the delivery of groceries, send out the dry cleaning and even refurnish an apartment within 24 hours. “The whole concept behind the building is service,” said leasing director Gina Martino.

Normally suspicious local residents, wary of buildings that might add traffic or shadows, could not be more delighted about the eye-catching new addition to their neighborhood, at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Vineland Avenue.

“It’s quite impressive,” said Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Assn. “We really embrace this kind of development. . . . I think this concept is really kind of unique.”

And analysts agree, saying the project by Santa Monica-based Ring Financial represents the first step toward reinvigorating studio-adjacent San Fernando Valley neighborhoods that cater to actors, technicians and executives.

With its attention to details and luxury, L’Estancia may also demonstrate that renting, long shunned in real-estate-obsessed Los Angeles, does not have to be a shameful thing.

“This is the first really bright note for apartments in a long time,” said Harry D. Hartnett, chief economist and research director for the Ernst & Young Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group in Century City.

All the units--which range in size from 500-square-foot studios to 1,300-square-foot penthouses--are accented by countertops of imported granite, wood-burning fireplaces and spacious patios. Some have floor-to-ceiling windows with sweeping views of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Verdugo Hills.

But they don’t come cheap.

Prices start at $825 per month for a studio and go all the way up to $2,400 for a two-bedroom, roughly double the average rent of similarly sized units in the Valley. The average annual income of residents moving in when the building opens this weekend is about $150,000, Martino said.

Just across the street from L’Estancia--or the Mansion in Spanish--two-bedroom apartments in the Studio Colony complex rent for $1,075 to $1,465 per month. Nonetheless, Colony property manager Chris Scroggin said he welcomes the new building as an improvement to the neighborhood.

“It looked real junky before,” Scroggin said of the 1950s-era jumble of apartments that once occupied the site next to a convenience store and a gas station. Neighbors, too, said the new building, which rises to five stories in some spots, will be a critical part of bringing class to a stretch of Ventura dotted with low-rate motels advertising adult movies.

Lucente said nearby residents who generally abhor tall buildings embraced the project in part because of its location next to the Los Angeles River--meaning no single-family homes were dwarfed.

“In this case, with the river, it was really ideal,” he said.

Most of the new tenants, according to Martino, are actors, prop masters and bean counters who work at nearby studios but are loathe to commute. Martino said her office also has received calls from out-of-town businesses looking for apartments to lease and from transplanted New Yorkers who like the idea of a full-service, Manhattan-style building.

She also is negotiating with several of the studios to lease apartments for corporate guests or visiting executives. Despite the price, the monthly rent of units is still cheaper than that of even a mid-level hotel--and they allow residents to feel more at home.

“This is not an Oakwood where you’re getting laminated countertops,” Martino said, referring to a competitor’s chain of corporate apartments.

And while it seems that any apartment complex with a swimming pool or central air calls itself a luxury building, analysts and planners said more truly posh complexes may spring up in the coming years as the entertainment industry expands in the Valley.

Already, CBS has announced plans to expand its facilities in Studio City. Warner Bros. in Burbank is seeking approval of a 20-year growth plan for its studio and ranch lots. And Universal Studios, visible from many of L’Estancia’s units, plans to expand its studio and theme park operations.

“If they are catering to the entertainment industry, I think it’s a smart idea,” Hartnett said of L’Estancia’s developers. “Right now they have minimal competition and there are a lot of people with good incomes who rent. This is their niche.”

High-end, multifamily housing can be a lucrative market that Ring Financial has successfully mined before: The group’s other projects include 555 Barrington in Brentwood, Mariner’s Village in Marina Del Rey and Century Woods in Century City, which was featured in Architectural Digest in 1993.

Now the Ring group has entered the portion of the southern Valley between Burbank and Sherman Oaks that Los Angeles Planning Commissioner Robert Scott believes is perfectly suited to become even more of a residential enclave for the entertainment industry. He pointed to the emergence of the NoHo arts district and the myriad boutiques that line Ventura Boulevard.

“It’s an extremely upscale area, but it’s understated upscale. It’s a little more calm and settled,” Scott said. “This is what I guess you would refer to as natural planning, a natural evolution of an area.”

Part of that evolution is occurring citywide. More than 60% of Los Angeles residents rent, even though renting traditionally has been viewed as inferior to owning and tenants carry considerably less clout than homeowners in city government. Yet, with buildings like L’Estancia, some of the perceived stigma of renting may be removed.

“Renting long-term is a new concept for people out here,” Hartnett said. “A lot of people in other parts of the country rent for much of their lives. I think this is a sign of maturing in Los Angeles.”

Nonetheless, Ben Reznik, immediate past president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said he suspects buildings like L’Estancia will be few and far between and that the desire to own a home will always appeal to most people.

“I really don’t see it as a trend,” he said. “It’s a very niche market they are catering to.”