A GROWING WILSHIRE CENTER

Wilshire Center, the newest urban village, goes upscale
By Laura Eversz, Larchmont Chronicle, 9/07

If the appearance of construction cranes towering above streets lined with Korean restaurants, mom-and-pop shops, office and small-to-medium sized apartment buildings is any indication, the face of Wilshire Center is about to change.

More than $1 billion is being spent over the next three years on redevelop-ment in the five-square-mile district from Third to Eighth streets between Wilton Pl. and Hoover St.

Included in what commercial real estate broker Mark Hong of CB Richard Ellis describes as a renaissance are 2,000 new luxury condominiums as well as entertainment and shopping complexes.

Among new construction is the Wilshire Vermont Station. The development surrounding the station, is being billed as a “transit village,” with marketers urging prospective tenants to “Live on the Line.”  Urban Partners re-cently completed construction of the first phase of the project a 450-residential complex with 35,000 square feet of commercial space on seven acres.

Two other projects are slated for Wilshire and Vermont. On the southeast corner, demolition of office buildings recently began to clear the way for the Wilshire and Vermont Residential Towers. The project, by Gerding Edlen De-velopment, features 464 residential con-dos with 41,000 square feet of com-mercial/retail space housed in two tow-ers.

Plans are also in the works for a Korean Cultural Center, Korean American Museum and a new South Korean Consu-late.  The projects, a joint development between the city’s Community Redevelop-ment Agency and the Korean government, is designed to pro-mote U.S.-Korean trade. Preliminary plans also include public open green space, a performing arts cen-ter, and a 31-story building that would be financed by gov-ernment bonds and future tax in-creases. 

Bringing another high-rise to the so-called transit vil-lage is a 180-unit tower being con-structed at the in-tersection of Wil-shire Blvd. and Virgil Ave. Circa, an 18-story modern-istic building, will include 5,500 square feet of retail frontage in a five-story base on Virgil.

The area’s upscale development can also be seen at the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Western Ave., where con-struction continues on the Courtyard Ma Dang dining and en-tertainment complex. The structure will feature Korean res-taurants, shops and a three screen movie theatre that will show Korean and U.S. films.

Across the street at the northeast corner of Wilshire and Western, the 22-story Solair Wil-shire is being built on top of the Wil-shire/Western Metro station. Slated to be complete by the end of 2008, the contemporary glass-walled building will house 186 condos and include 40,000 square feet of com-mercial/retail space.  Units will range from 1,300 to 2,666 square feet, with prices ranging from $700,000 to $2 mil-lion. The development will include common areas for the public, a subterra-nean parking garage and 12-space bus layover zone.
The KOAR Wilshire Western LLC project is part of the Metro’s Joint Development Program, which seeks to help reduce auto use and congestion by en-couraging transit-linked development.

On the opposite corner, Forest City Residential Development converted the former Getty Build-ing to the 23-story Mercury Rising. The building houses 246 units ranging from studios of 740 square feet to 3,000 square foot pent-houses. Prices range from $400,000 to more than $1 million.  In addition to a bank, the bottom two floors with 22,000 square feet have a Jamba Juice, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and two restaurants. A rooftop area fea-tures a cinema, pool and fitness center, and a lawn area.

The big daddy of them all with be a 40-story structure at 3670 Wilshire. The building, a joint venture be-tween Millenium En-terprises and the Shin Young development group of South Korea, will front the entire length of Hobart St. between Wilshire and 7th St. Plans are for 378 condos and 8,000 square feet of re-tail space, as well as a roof-top thea-tre, fitness center, pools, fountains and outdoor barbecues.

To the west, the six-story Chandler Partners’ Gardens at Wilshire Center will include 158 luxury apartments and 7,000 square feet of retail.

For those who simply want to visit Wilshire Center, Ceiland Coast is proposing to build a two-tower hotel com-plex on Hobart St. at Wilshire. The project would include 6,000 square feet or retail space, a 40,000 square foot health club and 18,000 square feet of of-fice space. Patrons of the 242-room hotel will be able to choose from eight to 10 restaurants, a karaoke bar, two cocktail bars and a nightclub.

LA Business Journal, Booyeon Lee, 4/07

If all goes as planned, it will be transformed from a teeming ethnic enclave of restaurants and small businesses to an upscale destination with million dollar condos that will dramatically upgrade the community and redraw the L.A. skyline.

Over the next three years, the five-square-mile district will see at least 2,000 new luxury condominiums, mostly in towering high rises, and several shopping and entertainment complexes roughly clustered around Wilshire Boulevard between Western and Vermont avenues.

“Koreatown is going through a renaissance,” said Mark Hong of CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate broker of 18 years who has focused on the area.

Koreatown traces its origins back to the early 1970s when a Korean immigrant opened a small grocery on the corner of Olympic and Harvard boulevards and began importing food from South Korea. Today, the district is a sprawling neighborhood of Korean-owned restaurants and mom-and-pop shops along Olympic and its side streets and office buildings along Wilshire.

“We’re experiencing a fundamental shift in the expansion and the type of development taking place in Koreatown to something more upscale and cosmopolitan,” said Christopher Pak. He is the architect and managing partner for the $160 million Solair Wilshire condo development, which will stand 22 stories tall on the northeast corner of Wilshire and Western when it is completed late next year.

Across the street on Western, South Korea’s largest entertainment company will bring a multi-screen movie theater to showcase Korean and U.S. films with subtitles.

Both developments will be dwarfed by a 40-story residential skyscraper a few blocks down Wilshire on Hobart Boulevard, which is being built by South Korea’s top real estate developer, Shin Young Corp. That’s scheduled for completion at the end of next year, too.

On Wilshire and Vermont, demolition of office buildings began last week to make way for a $318 million two-tower residential project by Gerding Edlen Development. Across the street, there are plans for a new South Korean Consulate, a Korean American Museum and Korean Cultural Center, in a joint partnership between the city’s redevelopment agency and Koreatown developers.
Why now?

More than $1 billion is to be spent in the next three years redeveloping the largest Korean community in the world outside of Korea. The local boom is driven by foreign investment and an increasingly affluent immigrant population.

The 14 residential and commercial projects in the works are targeting mostly the Korean and Korean-American population. Several are being developed by national companies, such as Gerding Edlen, Forest City Enterprises Inc. and Urban Partners LLC. They are joined by Shin Young, which is building the $250 million residential skyscraper here and another in China.

These developers are benefiting from the swelling flow of real estate investment from South Korea that spiked when the Korean government lifted its overseas investment cap last May. Previously, individuals could invest up to $300,000 on foreign residential property. Now, they can spend up to $1 million on real estate overseas. As a result, Koreans reportedly could spend $4 billion worldwide on overseas condos and homes this year, up from $1.27 billion in 2005.

Eighty-five percent, for example, of the buyers of Forest City’s 238-unit Mercury condominiums on the southwest corner of Wilshire and Western, have been Koreans or Korean-Americans, according to the company. About a third of the high-rise condos in the building, once home to the Getty Oil Co. headquarters, have been sold so far.

In addition to overseas investments, Korean families who fled Koreatown after watching it burn during the deadly 1992 race riots are looking to return. The riots ignited when an all-white jury acquitted four white police officers accused of beating Rodney King, who is black.

“What’s coming back to Koreatown is an affluent population. They’re empty nesters from the Palisades and other areas of L.A. who moved away for safety and better school districts,” Hong said. “They’re now selling their 5,000-square-foot homes to live in luxurious condominiums with a view, where they can walk to their favorite restaurants.”

Koreatown’s mostly steel-framed condos will be expensive. Most are priced at $650 to $1,000 per square foot, which means many will be marketed at $1 million or more. Units in the tallest high-rise, 3670 Wilshire, range from 1,300 to 3,700 square feet, with two to four bedrooms.
Developers are also targeting second-generation Korean-American professionals who work downtown and executives of Korean-owned firms that replaced some of the American companies on Mid-Wilshire in the early 1990s. Now, about 80 percent of the Wilshire office units are owned by Korean American real estate investment group Jamison Services Inc., according to CB Richard Ellis.

Traffic issues
“We are finding that there is an insatiable appetite from the Korean community the more sophisticated, the more prominent and taller the project is,” said Gerden Edlen principal Tom Cody. Gerding Edlen is developing two 18-floor and 10-floor condo buildings on Wilshire and Vermont.

“All the building blocks are there for an upscale high-rise development in Koreatown. Unlike downtown, there’s dynamic retail. Unlike downtown, there’s a critical mass of existing density that can drive a compelling neighborhood environment,” Cody said.

Traffic considerations are drawing residents to Koreatown, too. What was a one-hour commute from the suburbs to downtown a decade ago has become a frustrating two-hour drive. Families are more willing to trade in a single-family home with a backyard for a high-rise condo, said Pak of Solair Wilshire, which is a joint venture with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and backs a stop for the Metro Red Line.

“Lifestyles have changed. Kids no longer use the backyard. Parents are chauffeuring them around to basketball clubs and other activities,” Pak said. “People are looking for more convenience.”

There are indicators that the traffic crunch could come with them, however, as thousands of new residents settle along the already clogged Wilshire Corridor. Traffic through downtown, Wilshire and Olympic boulevards is so bad that Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has proposed making Olympic and Pico boulevards one-way.

“If you look at these major corridors, we don’t have any more room to widen the streets. You don’t have to be an expert to tell that huge developments, like the ones on Wilshire and Western, will increase traffic congestion,” said Brian Chun, a contractor of 15 years and president of the Korean Contractor’s Association.

Nonetheless, luring people to live, work, and play in the same area to reduce traffic and pollution – what officials call “smart growth” – has been a consideration on a number of the developments that adjoin Metropolitan Transit Authority-owned land. The agency has worked closely with the developers of the Solair Wilshire complex and a $155 million apartment and retail complex at the Wilshire and Vermont Avenue subway station.

The concept of smart growth is expected to work particularly well on Mid-Wilshire because there’s already plenty of foot traffic in the area, with restaurants, entertainment and dry cleaners all in walking distance. Koreatown is the most densely populated district in the country outside of Manhattan in New York, with roughly 250,000 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2000. That density is a plus for the retailers that developers hope will take up the ground floor of most of these new high rises.

Adding aesthetics
Koreatown is well known for the delectable food in its numerous restaurants and pulsating nightclub scene. It is not, however, known for its aesthetics. Several developers want to change that.

“With so much beauty to be shared about the Korean culture, why are so many of our restaurants untidy and smelly?” said Diana Kim, chief financial officer of Realtyland Co. Inc. “We want to build an entertainment, cultural center that we can be proud of, that showcases our heritage.”

The company is developing a three-story theater complex on Western near Wilshire that will include 45 stores and Woo Rae Oak, an upscale Korean restaurant franchise with locations in Manhattan and Beverly Hills. CJ Entertainment, a leading entertainment company in South Korea, will bring CGV Theater, its theater chain.

Kim said the $40 million Madang (“courtyard” in English) development hopes to become a landmark entertainment center where families can shop, dine, watch Korean movies and enjoy the ambiance of traditional Korean architecture.

The district already has two hugely popular shopping centers – Koreatown Galleria, with a grocery and 70 stores on the southeast corner of Wilshire and Vermont, and Koreatown Plaza on Vermont, which has a market and 80 stores, less than a block away.

Two more shopping centers, similar in scope, are under construction with two additional ones in the pipeline. Most of the blueprints resemble a mall with a food court and no anchor stores except a sizable market.

How many of these shopping centers can Koreatown support?

“There’s definitely a pent-up demand,” said Kathy Lee, vice president of California Market. “There are hundreds of thousands of Korean residents in the L.A. area. That’s a medium-sized city, and more are coming.”

California Market plans to raze its 20-year-old full-service grocery on Western and Fifth Avenue that already enjoys 4,000 people a day foot-traffic. In its place, the company will build a three-story shopping center with a 45,000-square-foot California Market, 60 stores, a bank, and possibly a small aquarium for children, Lee said. She hopes to bring in more mainstream stores that cater to a diverse population.

“You look around and it’s not just Koreans living here anymore,” said Lee. “With the new train line coming into this part of town, the time of caring for just one population is over.”

Designed by Gruen Associates, the architects that designed the Los Angeles Convention Center, the futuristic, modern look of the $30 million building will be a far cry from the dilapidated grocery store that stands there today, Lee said.
Lee’s brother, Jeff Oh, is the president of the California Market, a grocery franchise that has five other locations in Los Angeles and Orange County. Oh recalls standing on the roof of the Koreatown grocery store with an AK47 on April 29, 1992, watching the swarming gang of looters torch a 7-Eleven store several blocks away.

“We’ve come such a long way since that day,” Oh said. “We were pioneers in creating one of the first full-service Korean grocery stores in the area. Now we want to take another leap of faith and build something that will revitalize the community.”

For Pak, an architect who has designed skyscrapers in Jakarta, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, building a high rise on Wilshire and Western also holds a special meaning. That location is literally where his family started its immigrant life years ago. His father took on his first job as a lab technician on the fourth floor of the Wiltern Theater, from where he would often gaze down across the street where a strip mall used to stand.

“Years later, here we were at the groundbreaking, right across from where my father used to work, and realized that it was 36 years to the day we immigrated to the U.S., on July 26, 1970,” Pak said. “We had come full circle.”

Los Angeles Business Journal, Copyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved.

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Koar Wilshire Western, LLC Breaks Ground on New Metro Joint Development

at Wilshire / Western Metro Red Line Station

$160 million mixed-use joint development project, the first of its kind in Koreatown / Wilshire Center, scheduled to open in 2008.  Koar Wilshire Western, LLC and Metro today announced the start of construction for a major new joint development project on the Metro Red Line at Wilshire/Western, a development that signifies a new day for truly urban, transit-centered living in Los Angeles.

Scheduled to open in 2008, the $160 million “Solair Wilshire” project will be a 22-story, contemporary glass-walled building that will contain a mix of uses, including 186 for-sale condominium units, 40,000 square feet of commercial/retail space, common areas for the public, subterranean parking garage and 12-space bus layover zone.

At 2.6 acres, it is the first mixed-use high-rise development to be built for the Koreatown / Wilshire Center community since the Metro Red Line opened in 2000.

“The Solair development will be the realization of a new urban, transit-based lifestyle that public officials, agency planners, developers and others have long envisioned for the communities along the Metro Red Line,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metro Board Chair Gloria Molina. “We’re now seeing developments that are bigger, grander and more pronounced on Metro Rail, a trend that is steadily reshaping urban life near transit in Los Angeles County.”

The project is expected to generate more than 200 new construction-related jobs and increase useage of both Metro Rail and Metro Bus lines serving the area.

“Consistent with the mayor’s vision of creating a transit-oriented, mixed-use lifestyle and meeting the community’s desire for a significant development in the heart of the Wilshire Center, this project will be the proud cornerstone that will spawn growth and the continued revitalization of the area,” said Developer Bruce Rothman of KOAR Wilshire Western, LLC.

In an effort to increase the supply of affordable housing in the project area, Koar Wilshire Western, LLC has volunteered to contribute $900,000 to the City’s Real Property Trust Fund No. 692 entitled “Affordable Housing and Community Amenities in CD-10.”

The structure will feature floor-to-ceiling glass windows and large terraces on most units. The residential tower will house 168 two- and three-bedroom units, six loft style units and 12 penthouses. Sizes will range from 1,330 to 2,666 square feet. Unit interiors will feature designer kitchens, hardwood flooring, walk-in closets, oversized master bathrooms and centralized telephone, data and cable.

Solair Wilshire was designed by the Archeon Group, a Los Angeles-based architecture firm.

The development’s common areas were designed by Super Potato, an internationally acclaimed interior design group from Tokyo, Japan. The contemporary design makes extensive use of wood, stone and water and will contain a seventh floor amenity deck with pool, spa, work-out room, barbeque areas, zen garden and kitchen equipped meeting room.

The retail portion of the project is designed to accommodate restaurant uses, neighborhood retail stores as well as major businesses. Retail spaces will be available from 1,100 and 20,000 square feet and served by a subterranean parking garage for the retail tenants, patrons and city parkers.

Corus Bank NA and the Genesis Real Estate Funds have committed the financing for the project which is being built by general contractor BOVIS Lend Lease, Inc.

The joint development was made possible through an exclusive ground lease agreement with Metro in 2003. Metro should receive $350,000 annually and periodic rent escalations.

Solair Wilshire is the latest development within Metro’s Joint Development Program, which seeks to provide the most appropriate private and/or public sector development on Metro-owned property at, and adjacent to, transit stations and corridors. The program, which also seeks to help reduce auto use and congestion by encouraging transit-linked development, has to date been involved in more than $1.4 billion in joint development projects throughout Los Angeles County. Other joint development projects now planned or under construction on the Metro Red Line include Wilshire/Vermont, Westlake/MacArthur Park and Hollywood/Vine.

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Where There's a Wilshire, There's a Way
Business Corridor Gears Up for Half a Billion Dollars in Development

By Jason Mandell, Staff Report with Los Angeles Downtown News, Feb. 23, 04

As Downtown's Central Business District enjoys new housing projects and steady occupancy in its office towers, its neighbor to the west is set for a development boost as well. Wilshire Center, the two-mile business, retail and housing corridor bounded by Third, Eighth, Hoover and Wilton, is slated to undergo some major residential and commercial growth.

This year, construction is planned to start on at least half a dozen projects worth half a billion dollars. While the ventures will add to Wilshire Center's existing retail, they will also bring hundreds of new housing units. Area stakeholders say they hope the developments will attract new businesses, shoppers and residents from all over the city.

Gary Russell, an architect who is executive director of the Wilshire Center Business Improvement Corporation (BIC), said at least six large-scale projects will open in the next five years, marking a new era for the area.

"There's some movement here that we didn't see in the '90s," Russell said. "It's a very exciting time."

The corner of Wilshire and Western, already a buzzing intersection with the Wiltern Theatre and a Red Line subway stop, is the hottest spot in the district, with two major housing projects and 175,000 square feet of retail in the works. The former Getty Oil Company headquarters, built in 1963, is undergoing a $52 million conversion into 260 luxury residential units. Upside Investments, which owns multiple properties in the area, is developing the 22-story tower, whose apartments will contain 11-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, granite kitchen countertops and hotel-style limestone bathrooms. The rooftop on an added 23rd floor will feature a pool, spa, sauna, fitness center, garden, two conference rooms and a martini bar. The project will also include 25,000 square feet of retail space on two floors.

Gary Simons, CEO of Upside, said the building, dubbed the Wilshire at Western, is scheduled to open June 1, although pre-leasing is underway. Studios will start at $1,200, one?bedrooms at $1,500, and two-bedrooms at $2,000, said Simons.

Architecture and development firm Archeon Group is finalizing plans for another project at Wilshire and Western, a $55 million mixed-use development with housing, retail and public transportation. Firm president Christopher Pak said the project will include a new mid?rise building with 200 market rate apartments and 40 units designated as affordable housing.

Also planned are 50,000 square feet of retail. Pak said he hopes to lure national chains such as Jamba Juice and Pete's Coffee, as well as more of the small businesses run by immigrants from Mexico and Korea that are already prevalent in the Wilshire Center area.

"We think it'll be a good idea to be able to mix the two," said Pak.

The third element of the development is transportation. Pak said he has an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to build a multi-modal transit center with 12 bus layovers, drop-off spots for buses, shuttles and taxis, and a plaza. Pak said the aim is to create a facility that benefits the surrounding neighborhood.

"We're trying to create public transportation, but also an urban complex that fits into the context of the area and provides for the needs of the community," Pak said.

The development will be privately funded, except for a $1.2 million MTA and Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) grant that will be used for transit amenities. Pak said his firm is finalizing an agreement with the CRA to break ground on the project. He said construction could start this summer, and will last 18 months.

Cultural Kick

A 100,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex is also planned for Wilshire and Western. Young Choi, who owns the Woo Lae Oak restaurant chain, plans to develop a four-story project that could include one of her restaurants, a Japanese or Chinese bistro, bookstores and a three-screen movie theater, according to the Wilshire Center BIC's website. Russell said construction should start this year.

Two blocks down the street, at Wilshire and Hobart, planning is underway on another retail center. The site currently houses a five-story office building and parking structure, but development firm Accord Interests hopes to tear that down to build a two-story, 182,000-square-foot shopping complex. Karl Sternbaum, a principal at Accord, said he plans to infuse economic vitality into the area with big name businesses such as Target or Best Buy.

"We hope to attract national retailers back to the Wilshire Center, which they have abandoned for a number of decades," Sternbaum said. "We think that's what's missing in the market."

Sternbaum said the project has not yet received its entitlements. The first public hearing is set for March, and Sternbaum said he expects final approval in early fall. He said construction would start soon after and could finish by late 2005.

Jamison Properties, a major land owner in the Wilshire business district as well as Downtown, is undertaking a $22 million project on the northern portion of the block bounded by Sixth, Wilshire, Alexandria and Mariposa. Construction is slated to start in April on a 160,000-square-foot retail and restaurant complex, said Larry Schlossberg, a partner at Gruen Associates, which is designing the project. The development, dubbed Equitable City Center, will rise next to the Equitable office tower and will include 437 parking spots. Schlossberg said the three-story facility will feature soaring glass skylights and a multi?layered exterior. He said it could open in fall 2005.

The corner of Wilshire and Vermont is also slated for a major enhancement. Urban Partners, which is developing the new Caltrans headquarters and First and Main in Downtown, is building 450 housing units on a 7-acre property surrounding the existing subway stop. Dan Rosenfeld, a principal at the firm, said 20% of the units will be designated as affordable housing. Arquitectonica designed the project, which will also include 35,000 square feet of commercial space. Construction is underway and will finish in late 2006, said Rosenfeld. Also planned for the site is a new school to be developed by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

The historic Ambassador Hotel, a portion of which will be converted into at least two schools, could also include housing and retail. The LAUSD last year released five proposals for the construction of a high school, middle school and possibly an elementary school on the site, but the Los Angeles Conservancy is also pushing for up to 350 units of housing, commercial space and a memorial park for Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated at the site. Several community groups, including the Wilshire Center BIC, have also called for a park.

A decision on the entire development was expected last year, but now LAUSD officials say a plan will be released in the coming months.

Russell said a conference in October will provide a forum for community members, property owners and other stakeholders to discuss and plan future development in Wilshire Center.