L.A. Tower Gaining Condos
The top half of a 1980s Los Angeles office tower is being converted to condominiums, creating the first hybrid high-rise downtown.
A $40-million renovation is underway at 801 S. Grand Ave. that will convert 11 floors of office space into 132 condos. Office towers that include residences are common in urban centers like Chicago and San Francisco but not Los Angeles -- until now.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. May 18, 2005 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday May 18, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 61 words Type of Material: Correction
Hybrid office building -- A May 12 article in the Business section about the conversion of half an office building at 801 S. Grand Ave. to condominiums said it was the first such office-residential high-rise building in downtown Los Angeles. In fact, Bunker Hill Tower, a condominium tower at 800 W. 1st St. built in 1968, has office and retail space.
The first condos will be complete by the end of the year, said developer Jeff Lee. Units will range in size from 1,000 square feet to 2,100 square feet and prices will run from the mid-$500,000s to $1.3 million, he said.
Lee’s company, Lee Group, was one of the pioneers of for-sale housing in downtown’s latest residential boom and grabbed the attention of other developers when 91 units in his Flower Street lofts sold quickly in 2003.
The company is developing the Grand Avenue condos with the building’s owner, Hollywood-based landlord and developer CIM Group.
The 474,000-square-foot, 22-story building was completed in 1986 and was originally known as Chase Plaza. But at the northwest corner of Grand and 8th Street, the tower is slightly removed from the core of the financial district and struggled to sign office tenants in recent years, even though the nearby residential market was stirring.
CIM Group principal partner Shaul Kuba, who bought the property in 2003, said he didn’t have to think hard about the conversion. “Should I sell condos for $500 a foot or lease office space at $18 or $20” per foot per year, he asked. “It doesn’t take a genius.”
The developers are adding a separate entrance for residents, along with a gym and lounge. They hope to rent ground-floor retail space to restaurants and a coffeehouse.
Although the high-rise hybrid is new to what is now called South Park, the area was once a residential district -- around the turn of the last century, said Los Angeles historian Greg Fisher.
South Park, which is near Staples Center, has seen a burst of construction in the last two years, with CIM Group and Lee Group planning or having completed more than 1,600 housing units. They are constructing the second phase of South Village, 267 condos over a Ralphs grocery store and other street retail shops.
