Eric, Phil and I decided to work from East to West knowing that most people would do the buildings in order as listed on the map. Plus, we were mostly interested in the Molino Street Lofts which is essentially in the Warehouse District. Molino Street Lofts have been a Live/Work rental building for many years, now a big fancy development group has bought the building and is adding units and selling them. The unit we viewed was on the ground floor, consisted on about 1400 SQ FT and will most likely sell for $300K+. This building was one of my favorites because it was so open and airy and had a gas range. I can't tell you how much I despise cooking on an electric stove. I am a child of the 70's and we had that standard olive green electric stove and if I have any say in the matter, will never live in a place with one of those ever again.
Next up was the Pacific Electric Lofts. I don't have my notes with me as I type this so I must go on memory alone. We saw 2 units, a 1300 SQ FT that rented for an insane amount and a 760 SQ FT that rented for $1650. Can you say DAMN? Granted the building has some sweet features but, lets get real people. I wish them luck in their endeavors.
Santa Fe Lofts, which are located directly across 6th Street, were next. We saw the largest unit they offer for rent at 700+ SQ FT and it rented for less than $2 / SQ FT probably somewhere in the $1.75 range from what I remember. I've viewed this building a few weeks ago and saw 3 units, all of which blended together and didn't stand out from each other. This may have to do with the fact that all the units are similar in size...I believe they range in size from 500 SQ FT to 750 SQ FT.
The much anticipated Eastern Columbia Lofts were next up. The Eastern Columbia building is a fantastic blue-green terracotta building with gold accents that was built in 1930. This building is on my Art Deco tour so I ended up telling a woman who was working there a little bit of history about it. There was nothing to see at this place, just the lobby, no floor plans. That kinda sucked but to be honest I wasn't surprised. The building was just sold a few months ago and they are very early in the design process. While we were there I ran into some friends who started the tour from a different vantage point and were disappointed because up until then they hadn't been able to see any actual units. I gave them the skinny on what places to see and which to skip, hopefully with my guidance they were able to have a better experience.
A building that I'm extremely interested in seeing completed is The Brockman. Unfortunately the building is a major construction site currently and we were only able to mill about a very tiny trailer with some paperwork but no floor plans. Damn them. Through my own independent research the units will sell for anywhere from low 200's all the way up to $1M. I'm keeping my eye on this place.
Not on the tour but another favorite of mine is South Park Lofts. Turns out we were parked near this magnificent building so we went to see if we could take a look at the viewing unit. Luckily we were able to get in and this place is by far the most spectacular building. Unfortunately the rents are spectacular as well and there is only one unit available in the entire building. If memory serves correct it was a tastefully done 2 Bedroom + office that was 1400+SQ FT and rented for $2800. Holy Schniekers. The nice thing about this place is that it has room dividers for the bedrooms as well as office which can be helpful when the other person you live with has a completely different schedule than yourself.
The most anticipated stop, aside from Molino Street, was 1100 Wilshire. Built in 1986, the 37-story office tower at 1100 Wilshire Blvd. has never been more than 10% occupied and has been completely empty for a decade. There are 15 floors of parking structure located at the base of the building with the office tower rising above. Now it will be converted into high-end for sale condos. We were able to go up to the 32nd floor and were treated with amazing views of the city. We also had a proposed floor plan in hand and upon further inspection we noticed that the units seem like they're going to be on the small-ish side. The corner units will definitely be the more interesting layout by far but it also seems that you'd lose a lot of floor space because of the intense triangular shape. Can't wait to see how this one turns out.
The last loft stop of the day was The Subway Terminal Building, now known as Metro 417. Once again, no floor plans, just a visit to the lobby with an informed guide. Kinda sad considering we couldn't end with a bang. We did skip a few projects because we were either not interested in seeing a converted 80's office building or already familiar with certain projects. The ones we skipped were The Gas Company Lofts and Santee Court.
After all that we ended up having a lovely lunch/dinner at Pete's which is located in the San Fernando Building at the corner of 4th and Main. Definitely go for the Blue Cheese Fries and plan on an extra workout to burn off the calories.
x
