Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Horse Gone Time to Close Barn Door


The LATimes reports on one of those "what are they smoking?" stories.

76-story condo tower planned for downtown L.A.
Developers plan a $1-billion L.A. complex. Doubters fear a glut.
By Roger Vincent
Times Staff Writer

May 8, 2007

Plans for a $1-billion high-rise condominium complex overlooking Pershing Square park in downtown Los Angeles were unveiled Monday by developers who expect to build the tallest residential building west of Chicago.

At 76 stories, the taller of two planned towers would dramatically alter the city's skyline and rival in height the U.S. Bank office skyscraper. The project, named Park Fifth, also calls for a 14-story five-star hotel. It will front on the park, as does the historic Biltmore Hotel catty-cornered to the planned development.
...
The project would stand at the northeast corner of 5th and Olive streets on the site of the Philharmonic Auditorium, which was razed in the 1980s to make way for an office and hotel complex that was never built. The demand for offices collapsed in the early 1990s, and downtown has been burdened by an oversupply ever since.
----

Hey, there's an idea worth pursing. The rationale is that the market will be healthy again by the opening in 2010.

44 comments:

Unknown said...

first

Unknown said...

:))

can we do belly flops from the top floor?

Rob Dawg said...

can we do belly flops from the top floor?

Sure, we can land on the pile of condo buyers who will have jumped before us.

Kerriella said...

Wow, quiet morning here on EN. Got an easy first aaron. LOL

Guess I will head over to the house and get back to work so more drama on the Casey front can unfold. LOL It always seems to happen anymore when I am not here.

Anonymous said...

Aaron may have been first, but he isn't murst.

Anonymous said...

Red here... MURST

Anonymous said...

Nigel's sites are so boring

I fell asleep looking at them and missed the proper thread for this

Anonymous said...

I lived downtown LA for a year. It would take a large bribe for me to live down there again.

Anonymous said...

Nigel's sites are so bad that my cat pissed on his picture and blew up my monitor.

Peripheral Visionary said...

I'm not surprised UTAH! has floated to the top of the mortgage fraud cesspool. Look at our own little turd of a junior broker to see just how professional the industry is there.

It's too bad, it's the 98% of mortgage brokers that give the other 2% a bad name.

Utah's problem is that it is a working-class state with working-class wages that thinks of itself as an upper-middle class state. I'm sure our award-winning blogger would point out the median household income of ~$50,000--oh wait, he's done that already.

What he hasn't told you is that the household median income is that high only because it has been cobbled together from multiple part-time jobs--not only are two-income families common in Utah, it's not at all unusual to meet families with three and four incomes. Most Utah jobs are working-class, part-time jobs at the resorts, restaurants, call centers (MAJOR employer in Utah), and, of course, construction and real estate. There are only a few real middle class jobs available, mostly in government, education, and healthcare, and there is a lot of competition for them (=low wages.)

The standard of living is (was) good in Utah, but most of the prosperity is a facade. Everyone is trying to keep up with the neighbors, having to have their own four-bedroom house, two SUVs, boat, season ski pass, etc., not realizing that in reality, none of their neighbors can really afford any of that either, and that behind the scenes everyone is slaving away and borrowing heavily to just barely make ends meet. No surprise that there are so many bankruptcies, so many foreclosures (sure, Utah is "down" in the rankings--only #10 or so--but they'll be back up to #1 in no time flat), and that so many people get involved in fraud to try and keep the lifestyle up.

Very sad, and now is a time when I'm not happy to claim it as one of my home states (my other is California--*sigh*.) The housing bubble has only prolonged the inevitable, it's only a matter of time before the economy there comes crashing back down to earth.

Anonymous said...

PARK FIFTH ! ?

Very original. Presumably named after Phadeius F Fifth V.

(with apologies to the writers of Recess)

Anonymous said...

peripheral visionary - are you saying all their wives go out to work then? :)

Anonymous said...

"People on the net recognize the value my real estate blog provides and frequently link to it as being authoritative. Additionally, my lead generation has been skyrocketing."

AH, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAAAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAHAA HAHAHAHA ... aack! (hairball) .... AH HAAAA HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
thhpptt!!!

S_t_C

Aspeth said...

@Aaron and Rob Dawg....
can we do belly flops from the top floor?
Sure, we can land on the pile of condo buyers who will have jumped before us.


We're sorry...we hate to interrupt, but it's against the law to jump off this bridge. A tourist might see you and we wouldn't want that. You'll just have to kill yourself somewhere else.

(hehe...just read Dawg's funny DK reference from a few days ago)

Rob Dawg said...

S_t_C,
Did he really say that or are you just channelling?

Your poop is too good for his shoes and spraying his pleather would just be masked by AXE odors.

Anonymous said...

AHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH....OH, JEEZ ... hahahaha.... Oh, I can't stop laughing.... man....

Yes, he actually said that! It's in the comments section of his most recent (bullshit) post on DHC.

Oh, Christ... you couldn't make this shit up!!!! Hilarious!!!

tthhpptt!!!!!

S_t_C

Anonymous said...

May 8, 2007 7:19 PM

Comments Section, most recent DHC post.

HA HAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHA.... still laughing.... HAHAHA HAAAAAA.....

Anonymous said...

STOP LAUGHING AT ME!

YOU BOOGER-HEADS!

Peripheral Visionary said...

peripheral visionary - are you saying all their wives go out to work then? :)

Utahns are just a little ahead of the curve on the three- and four-income family trend, there are going to be a whole lot of failed specu-vestors and their spouses working a whole lot of hourly jobs to make ends meet in the near future.

And one has to wonder if a certain award-winning blogger's wife works--and what her income is relative to her husband's. Hmm . . . it might not just be his parents who have been funding his house and his lifestyle.

Anonymous said...

Even though it's completely impractical and will most likely be a boondoggle, i love architecture and skyscrapers. Build it!

flailing forward said...

DHC xpost (testing Nigelz delete reaction time)

For the record, the reason Nigel Swaby has no hair on his head is to reduce resistance when he swims laps in his pool (which is indoors (near his koi pond (which is 28000 gallons and contains koi (which are fish.)))) Stop picking on him.

Anonymous said...

Here it is, in all its glory from DHC:

"No, ad hominem attacks are easily dismissed. People on the net recognize the value my real estate blog provides and frequently link to it as being authoritative. Additionally, my lead generation has been skyrocketing.

Even this blog is a high referrer to my real estate blog, so I don't think your argument really applies."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - what a fucking tool.

Anonymous said...

I'm just going to try and find some link counts. I'm guessing Nigel's links total something like :
30% off IAFF
30% off other Nigel blogs
39% off haterz blogs and similar
1% off RE and SLC related sites.

Anonymous said...

Watch out for furballs Sputnik....

Results 1 - 10 of about 147 linking to www.slcrealestate.blogspot.com.

Frequently linked? 147

1st on list IAFF

3rd on list own blog.

Miranda Mayer said...

Sputnik, you're a cat after my own heart.

Here's a kitten-kattenschtein treat for you.

Miranda Mayer said...

Nigel is is own biggest fan.

Anonymous said...

Be careful Rob Dawg, you might give Casey an idea to buy that thing in 2010. We all know is ideas are totally off the wall. He probably has a hard-on just thinking of this possibility. After all anyone can leverage borrowed money. You think he has ties to the Columbians yet? Instead of jail he can graduate to getting his family killed, his knees broken, and finally be killed in the most dreadfull way when he defaults.

In the late 70s early 80s there was a mini housing crash (more like zero growth for most), although not as bad as this one. It took a bit more than a few years to come out of it. I suppose 2010 is a bit optimistic for any rebound, but developers I am sure are trying to guess when this time will occur.

I laughed hard when Casey was asking for ideas to monitize his blog. It seemed the idea man, was asking for ideas.

And for his trip to Tahoe, what did he get done? Obviously nothing, as he still has no idea of what to do and any plan of action. Want to bet he still had 1000 emails to deal with?

All this guys hope is on his "book" deal. While his wife cleans hoauses for the money he borrowed from the corporation. You think bankrupcy can discharge that money?

I have never seen a guy get his hands on so much negitive worth. This isnt a story about forclosure, this is a guy writing a book about negitive worth.

Too lazy to make an account (casey has rubbed off on me).

Anonymous said...

Nigel's blogs are so boring that Nigel even called sitemeter and asked if their program was working as it wasn't registering any hits.

"People on the net recognize the value my real estate blog provides and frequently link to it as being authoritative"

Your parents don't count Nigey Poo. The only thing authoritative about your blogs are the way it shows you to be a loser, con artist, unethical, balding, fat, poser wannabe, idiotic and ill informed shyster of a meat sack.
By the way, those frequent links that you are getting are coming from the "What to do about insomnia" sites.

Unknown said...

There is a mental illness among city planners that LA can be like NY, Chicago or Boston in having a bustling downtown community. I call it a mental illness because it is completely void of reason or logic, if you live or understand the mindset of the majority of people who live in LA and its outlining areas you know they have no use for a Downtown LA. I imagine most of those that push this downtown crap are from those cities or really like that type of community are trying to shove that live style into LA.

They build subways in earthquake country in sand that cause Hollywood Blvd. to sink and NO ONE IS USING THEM. They pump BILLIONS into public transportation that still take longer to reach your destination than the slowest freeways, assuming your destination is even reachable by public transportation. Keep in mind that since gas is $3.40 gallon there is a cost incentive but since the public transportation is so subsidized by tax payers it could cost more than driving should you pay the full unsubsidized amount.

Back to the subject, that Condo complex will never be sold out and will go down as a colossal failure. Why would you want to spend $800,000 to live in Downtown when you could live in say Pasadena? God knows you have better schools in Pasadena. Pasadena has a bustling downtown nightlife (Old Town Pasadena) where you won’t be tripping over homeless. Pasadena is not that much of a commute from Downtown LA assuming you are one of the 10 people in LA Country that actually work in Downtown (I have lived here all my life and I don’t think I ever met anyone that actually worked in Downtown LA). Being a mental illness though they think “if they build it they will come”, that’s why they built the public transportation, the subways, and are moving the homeless populations out into suburb shelters.What frustrates me is the LA tax payer will fit some bills for this mistake in the form of clean up, renovation, extra policing and other cosmetic fixes to the area so that this pig can have some nice lipstick when its ready to sell.

Anonymous said...

Even though it's completely impractical and will most likely be a boondoggle, i love architecture and skyscrapers. Build it!

Oh, Come on! That building in the rendering is hideous! Massively ugly. I love good Architecture, but this ain't it.

The only reason to build it is to make downtown LA even uglier than it is now. Build it!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Steph. <3 <3

(... stis on Steph's lap, purring contentedly....)

S_t_C

Anonymous said...

Nigel is is own biggest fan.

and a legend in his own mind.

Anonymous said...

Nigles sites are so bad...


That the Internet Domain Registry is making a new .ass domain for all his sites in the hopes of creating a "dark net". They originaly were going to use .stu and .pid but those were taken by some guy named Serin.

Anonymous said...

Interesting article on Yahoo!:

Men go for luxury when choosing handbags: survey


"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Men are more likely than women to opt for a luxury brand when buying handbags -- and it's the label, not the price, that counts, according to a survey of wealthy shoppers."

Actually that's true: I went for a name brand (Victorinox) when I bought my bag; it has a couple of very useful over-the-shoulder straps, because, after all, IT'S A BACKPACK--MEN DON'T BUY HANDBAGS, WHAT ABOUT THAT DO FASHION DESIGNERS NOT UNDERSTAND?

"It's European!"

Anonymous said...

This Just In...
Killer Wallaby Caught at SLC on Way To Kick Nasty Blogger

Rob Dawg said...

Wagga,
Shades of "Spiny Norman." Dinsdale! Nigel!

Anonymous said...

Rob, you can't say that. Now you'll have to see Doug.

Anonymous said...

Sorry should have said:
"You've transgressed the un-written law"

Rob Dawg said...

"If you don't make us pay you too much for this house we'll nail your head to the floor."

Anonymous said...

Or, on special occasions, screw your pelvis to a cake stand.

I wonder who's following this and who's completely lost and thinks we've tripped out on something.

Anonymous said...

...and what's more, he really knew how to treat an award-winning real-estate-blogging female impersonator from Utah.

Lost Cause said...

Who would not be attracted to the massive traffic jams, the 24/7 gridlock, the persistent smog, the wandering derelicts, the Latin flavor? I would pay $800,000 for that.

Anonymous said...

Is that merely a very bad rendition, or would that actually be the least attractive place to live since Cabrini-Green?

Rob Dawg said...

Akatsukami,
So right. I have to hold back about Carbini Greens and any number of "projects" stretching from Boston, Springfield, Hartford, New Haven, NYC, NJ, Philly, Pittsburg, Chitown, St Lou, on down all over and across the US that have set back exurbanism 20 or 40 years.