metropolis project revisited, progress continues
This blog has moved to Twitter! Check out my twitter feed for the latest restaurant, retail, and cultural news in the neighborhood.
IDS Real Estate Group’s plans for a multi-phased high-rise project fronting the 110 Freeway between 8th and James M. Wood streets are closer to reality than ever.
Arquitectonica, the lead design team for Metropolis, has produced new renderings showing a refined 33-story tower containing 351 residential units above a five-story parking podium and 7,500 square-feet of retail — all part of the project’s first phase.
IDS representative Patrick Spillane tells angelenic that his company hopes to start construction on tower one of Metropolis in early 2009, as long as all necessary building permits and documents can be obtained. Spillane explains that IDS already has the lion’s share of financial backing needed to get Metropolis off the ground, and opportunities to secure a construction loan through bank consortiums are promising.
At the moment with entitlements in place and legal disputes with neighboring property owner Mani Brothers resolved, pending market conditions could be the sole determinant of Metropolis’ pulling through its seventeen-year run as nothing more than a missed opportunity of the early-’90s office boom.
Three subsequent phases of the $1 billion Metropolis development are planned over the next twelve years.
Tower Two of Metropolis is slated to include 388 condominiums in a 42-story tower, a structure that would be eclipsed by a 62-story hotel (phase three) with 480 rooms and 88 residential units. A description of the hotel tower by Arquitectonica claims it would be as tall as LA Live’s JW Marriott/Ritz Carlton Hotel under construction a block away.
Metropolis’ fourth and final phase would round out its master mixed-use plan with a 42-story office tower.
Each phase would bring additional stacked parking, and the entire development would create 46,000 square feet of retail on prime Downtown real estate currently serving as parking lots.
-Downtown Development Update (Downtown News)
-Downtown’s Metropolis Could Break Ground Next Year (Curbed LA)
14 comments
5 stories of parking. Exactly what we need in Downtown L.A.
hey i would rather have a 5 story parking structure with hopefully retail on the ground floor over 5 different surface parking lots any day.
Hope this doesn’t turn out to be the head of a dragon, the tail of a snake.
I’ll believe it once I see it break ground maybe in 2012 maybe?
i hope this wont turn into another comparison between surface lots and anything whatsoever! Those arguments always leave me dizzy.
well im glad to see progress with this project. its been far too long for this to hapeen.
5 stories of glory…
Look, this is wonderful news. If anyone has bothered to view the rendering, it is easy to see that the podium is only fronting the grade-separated onramp to the 110, where there is no sidewalk. the podium turns into tower, and includes ground-floor retail right where pedestrians can actually walk. this is a brilliant use of space, and while the amount of parking is excessive, i commend Arquitectonica on the design. Trust me, this isn’t a 717 ninth style parking podium. Besides, from street level, most of the garage will be blocked out by the exit ramp.
I think this project is wonderful! I hope it breaks ground…
No way these guys have a construction loan or will be able to get a loan anytime soon. Nobody is lending right now - not banks, not insurance companies, not pension funds, nobody. There is zero sales velocity for condos downtown right now. I hate to poo-poo the excitement here but I’m in the RE market and it can’t get much worse….
We have seen so many projects in downtown fade away, who knows if this one will ever happen.
Hmm… I remember all the skeptics that were saying 717 and concerto would never be built and LA central, grand ave, and park 5th were sure fire. I’m not saying that it will get built, but look at where we are, look at where downtown will be in 3 yrs. By the way, Hanover Co. is going thru the entitlement phase of building a new 20 story tower at Hollywood & Gower. They must have done something right with their tower downtown.
It’s taken 20 years for this project to be realized…so I don’t think its going down without a fight.
Having above grade parking for condo building makes a lot of scense since the residential units start on a higher floor - 6th in this case - therefore providing even the lowest level with some views (depending on location of course) and issolation from road traffic/noise/dust. It is also cheaper than digging a big hole and potential of ground water issues.