LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
40
C
NEWS Volume 42, Number 11
EBRATING EL
March 18, 2013
Leiweke Leaves AEG
All About Downtown Living
8
13-23
YEARS
Since 1972
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
Taking an Equity Stake in Downtown The Country’s Biggest Apartment Building Owner Quietly Becomes a Huge Local Player
photo by Gary Leonard
Tony Duplisse is the Equity Residential executive in charge of acquisitions in the Southwestern United States. In the past two years, the company has purchased eight Downtown properties, paying a total of nearly $500 million. They include the Pegasus Lofts. by Ryan VaillancouRt staff wRiteR
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he past two years have seen a rush of investment in Downtown residential buildings, with a slew of national companies paying big money to acquire Central City apartment complexes. During that period, no entity has spent more than Chicago-based real estate behemoth Equity Residential. The firm, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, or
REIT, has quickly grown into one of the area’s biggest housing players. In 2011, Equity acquired seven Downtown properties, paying a total of $461.3 million, according to company financial records. In 2012, Equity spent another $35.5 million to add the 99-unit Milano Lofts to its Downtown roster. It is also building a major Chinatown project. Equity’s holdings make it Downtown’s second-largest market-rate residential landlord, with 1,650 apartments (including the under construction 280-unit Jia Apartments
Town Hall Turns the Page A New Leader for the Downtown Speaker Series by Ryan VaillancouRt staff wRiteR
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own Hall Los Angeles, the 75-year-old public speaker forum that has hosted past presidents, key business leaders and cultural icons, has a new vision maker. Jon Goodman, the Downtown-based nonprofit’s president for the past seven years, is stepping down from the post to return to the private sector. On April 1, Goodman is set to be replaced by Kim McCleary, who recently resigned from her post as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer at the nonprofit
New Visions Foundation, which supports charter schools and other educational programs for underserved youth. McCleary previously held executive positions at the Los Angeles Times from 2001-2009. From the outside, Town Hall may seem like an easy operation to run: Staffers send speaker invitations to people such as Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten or John Williams, CEO of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank (both are slated to speak in April). Then they reserve an event space, sell tickets and repeat. But behind the curtain is a complex operation that requires careful stewardship,
in Chinatown). Only Geoff Palmer, whose GH Palmer Associates has created more than 2,000 apartments, most of which are housed in his Italian Renaissance-inspired buildings west of the Harbor (110) Freeway, owns more. Equity’s purchases run the gamut in style and location. It has units in older buildings in the heart of the urban core such as the Milano Lofts and the Pegasus Apartments, and it also picked up newer properties, among them the Glo see Equity, page 10
Goodman said. “Although on the face what we do looks very simple, in fact there’s a fairly involved infrastructure,” said Goodman, who is moving to a company that provides businesses with expansion capital. She could not identify the company because of a nondisclosure agreement. She will retake her previous seat on Town Hall’s board. At any given time, Goodman said, Town Hall is interacting with some 100 possible speakers. The process is highly selective, she said. Now, it is up to McCleary to oversee all aspects of the operation that has a staff of five and annually secures about 40 highprofile speakers. Most events take place in Downtown Los Angeles venues. Perhaps McCleary’s most important charge will be simply maintaining Town Hall’s role in the community. In a city that has expesee Town Hall, page 11
Kim McCleary, a former Los Angeles Times executive, has been tapped to take over as president of the public forum presenter Town Hall-Los Angeles. She replaces Jon Goodman.