LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS Volume 37, Number 49
INSIDE
L.A. Live Opens! 6
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Park Fifth trouble, a puppet fundraiser, and other happenings Around Town.
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Mark Ridley-Thomas becomes the first new supervisor in a dozen years.
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December 8, 2008
Rising Buildings, Falling Prices As Once Sky-High Steel Prices Drop, Only Some Downtown Developers Will Benefit by Ryan Vaillancourt staff writer
Cutting the cake at the Roosevelt.
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It’s time to hail a taxi.
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hen the cost of condominiums in Los Angeles and beyond hit their apex in 2005 and 2006, many sellers had a ready rationale for the high price tags: In addition to seemingly insatiable demand, construction costs were through the roof. At the time, numerous Downtown Los Angeles developments had long waiting lists. This occurred as the cost of construction materials was on the rise, not just locally, but worldwide, propelled by extensive building projects in places like Iraq and Beijing, China, as that city prepared for the recent Olympics. That housing boom started to bust as early as late 2006 (though it hit Downtown later), but many construction-related commodity
prices continued to surge. The average price of structural steel hit its peak this past August, but has since started to fall, according to Engineering News Record, a trade publication for the construction industry. That’s bad news for some — from construction material producers at the top, down to those who rely on recycling used metals for extra cash — but for real estate developers, falling construction costs represent a rare silver lining to an otherwise dreary economy. “If you have the money, or if you’re in the public sector, it’s a good time to build,” said Kevin Dow, manager and senior vice president of Turner Construction in Southern California. Turner, a general contractor with offices across the country, is projecting that fourthsee Construction, page 12
photo by Gary Leonard
The Medallion, a $125-million-plus mixed-use project at Fourth and Main streets, will not benefit from falling construction costs.
Brockman Condos Go Rental Dogs make the office a happier place.
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Change, Blamed on Economy, Comes as Downtown Apartment Occupancy Plummets by 11% by Anna Scott staff writer
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The ticket to Holiday Shopping.
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A poet’s Downtown inspiration.
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he developer of the longawaited Brockman Building, recently completed after years of delays, has switched the project’s for-sale units to rentals. The move came after some prospective buyers were unable to secure loans due to the current financial market. “We were just at the point where we realized that with the real estate market where it’s at, with the liquidity markets where they are, trying to sell units is not
beneficial,” said Norman Salter, chairman of developer West Millennium Group, which originally aimed to open the $35 million project in 2005. The development team made the decision to go rental about a month ago, said Salter. Units have not begun leasing yet, but Salter expects them to generate significant interest. “For this rental market, they should be a hot item because we’ve got condo specs and this is an above-average unit for a renter,” he said. see Brockman, page 10
Our Plaxico Moments When It Comes to Shooting Yourself in the Thigh, L.A. Has the Giants’ Receiver Beat by Jon Regardie executive editor
Start planning for New Year’s Eve.
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he greatest news story of the past few weeks, and arguably of the entire millennium, is that of Plaxico Burress, the New York Giants star receiver who, mere months after signing a contract that will pay him $35 million to catch a ball the regardie report
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photo by Gary Leonard
The long-anticipated Brockman Building will open as a rental project, with apartments going for about $2.25 a square foot. The developer had hoped to sell units in the building for up to $1.4 million.
for a living, managed to accidentally shoot himself in the thigh while in a New York City nightclub. Perhaps he feared the Long Island Iced Teas were going to come at him with switchblades. While possibly the most laughable move since the suggestion that Sarah Palin is qualified to be vice president, the Plaxishooting is not that differ-
ent than what has transpired in some Downtown Los Angeles circles recently. No, no one has discharged Plaxico’s weapon of choice, a .40-caliber Glock pistol, in City Hall, thank God, but in a figurative sense several local players, including some politicians, have pulled feats just as boneheaded. Sure, some may consider the Plaxico-Downtown comparison a stretch, but just like the fact that the receiver was having a jolly good time until his Plaxident, nobody can deny that some area figures have displayed a shocking appetite for self-destruction. Whether through financial malfeasance or just dumb decisions, each symbolically stuck a loaded gun down their pants. Plaxico in the School The biggest Plaxico moment concerns the
LAUSD and its dead-man-walking-or-maybe-not Superintendent David Brewer. But in this case, Brewer wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. Rather, he was the gun itself. The set-up for the moment, equivalent to the time Plaxico made the wise decision to stick a pistol in his pants, came in 2006, when the sevenmember Board of Education was battling Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa over, well, just about everything. At the time, Villaraigosa was positioning himself for what would prove to be a failed attempt to seize control of the LAUSD, and was pounding his chest like Donkey Kong at the top of the scaffolding. With barrels flying from every direction and the superintendent’s slot open, the board scrambled to protect its power. With hindsight, an olive branch from AnVil might have avoided today’s murky situation, but when none came, the board pulled a navy admiral out of its hat. Although the district could have used a leader with decades of experience in education, or at least someone who understood the complexities of running something with a zillion moving parts such as ex-governor and LAUSD chief Roy Romer, see Plaxico Moments, page 11
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