Comments on: $3 billion predicament: grand avenue project delayed

By: ray

ray — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:52:44 +0000

…the developer is a fake, he cries poor in paying his $250,000 monthly vig for late fees. Yet LA city council,Gloria Molina doesn’t give damn. The other nincompoops just gave approval to float a bond for 740 S.Olive at ABOVE the asking price. Geepers in this bomming market with bidding wars for DT L.A. property it was indeed a necessity!

By: LAofAnaheim

LAofAnaheim — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:26:53 +0000

Grand Avenue is still going strong! http://la.curbed.com/

I think the “pushed-back” date is for actual heavy construction (i.e. digging, concrete), which begins in summer at the earliest. But, the demolition of the garage is still scheduled for February.

By: RC

RC — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:08:16 +0000

It is not surprising that this project is delayed. I only hope it does not become another “Disney Hall”, which took 10 years to get built. It can be frustrating seeing so many delays on projects, but when you look at the development over the past 5 years, so much has been completed.

Maybe now it is time to concentrate on filling up the redeveloped historic structures like the Union Lofts, Chapman Flats, El Dorado, Roosevelt, Brockman, Mandel and Coulter etc. this year and support new retail. If 4,000 unit are to be completed this year…that is probably at least 6,000 plus new residents. By the end of this month the Broadway revitalization details will be announced and we could finally see some progress on this important downtown street.

I am sure Related will commence this project in 2008. Too much work has been done to delay it for a long period of time. I also will bet my money on anything Eli Broad wants…he and Riordan finally brought us Disney Hall and Mr. Broad wants The Grand built!

By: JDRCRASH

JDRCRASH — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:59:43 +0000

This is getting ridiculous

By: bc

bc — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:43:12 +0000

jeremy r,
You are absolutely right. LA’s new slogan should “home of the word ‘no’!”

By: Scott Mercer

Scott Mercer — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:15:44 +0000

Well, this project along with a few others will be the capper on finishing the “redevelopment” of Bunker Hill that started, oh, OVER 50 YEARS AGO.

The few others include the new US Courthouse, the new civic park and the new Performing Arts High School. And that will rid the area of all parking lots.

By: Jeremy R

Jeremy R — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:09:31 +0000

“We need monarchy rule in the U.S.”

Nah. We just don’t need to be as strict as SF. SF can withstand rising risk, LA cannot. At least not now.

We don’t need the grand ave anyways. We really dont. We need those adaptive reuse projects to finish, and for residents to fully occupy them. We also need the vacancy rate of our business towers to be lower than the westside. Once that happens, grand ave. project or not, DTLA is on its way.

I really do agree that we should have affordable housing and that we should have developers pay fees. I do feel that we should honor our legal process, and that the other hotels had a legitimate case (unlike the herald examiner project).

Really, I think that over 2008, downtown’s MO should be on forming a decent residential neighorhood.

By: LAofAnaheim

LAofAnaheim — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:54:46 +0000

We need monarchy rule in the U.S.

By: jeremy r

jeremy r — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:53:28 +0000

Well, I want to thank the various hotels that have sued and delay the project. i also want to thank the city council who have fought this project because they wanted more money for the homeless (via fees) and more housing for the poor (20% affordable housing). i would also like to thank those citizens who delayed the project for not having enough public input, the county supervisors who worried way too much about traffic (on the red line and one stop from union station), and the citizens who complained that mega projects and subsidies shouldnt be given out to developers (despite the fact that they were adding 2 million in street improvements and 50 million for the park for free). I would also like to thank the developer for not knowing that developing in LA is a nightmare, and not preparing for it accordingly.

Who knows, maybe this is a good thing. Maybe by 2015, we will find a way to better use the land anyway. Who needs live/work spaces, state of the art commercial space, retail, residences, 5 star hotels, restaurants, a huge civic park, and iconic towers clustered around a subway stop anyway? Who needs a 5 star hotel or a grand park near a cultural landmark like the music center?

Once again, I want to thank everyone who delayed this project 18 months. Just enough to make sure it will never happen.