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Tag: owner

  • Pilot program offers Long Beach homeowners up to $250,000 in low-interest loans to build ADUs

    Pilot program offers Long Beach homeowners up to $250,000 in low-interest loans to build ADUs

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    Eager to boost the supply of affordable housing, city officials in Long Beach devised a program that could help a limited number of homeowners build an extra unit on their land.

    But before they could launch it, they had to decide what to call it.

    “We’ve been playing with a name for a while,” Mayor Rex Richardson said, noting that a news release touting the program had been delayed days because of christening purposes. “We’re building the bike as we ride it.”

    Long Beach officials settled on the self-explanatory “Backyard Builders Program,” hoping a partial solution to a dearth of affordable housing lies in the unused spaces of city homeowners’ property. It’s a concept widely supported by advocates of low-income housing although some argue that the city’s version should have included more tenant protections.

    Long Beach’s pilot program uses one-time funding that will provide as many as 10 homeowners low- to zero-interest loans of up to $250,000 to build Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs, on their lots. Those units would have to be rented out to lower-income individuals or families for a minimum of five years.

    Interested applicants can apply at https://www.longbeach.gov/lbcd/hn/aduloan/.

    “Long Beach has been a leader on ADU production,” Richardson said. “And we’ve done all the things we need to do … to make it easy for people to develop ADUs in their backyard.”

    Claremont McKenna College’s Rose Institute confirmed in an April report that Long Beach was among the most ADU-friendly cities in the state, having issued 1,431 ADU permits between 2018 and 2022. While that total trails larger cities like San Diego (2,867), Long Beach produced 317 permits per 100,000 residents.

    An ADU, as defined by the city’s Community Development Department for this pilot program, must come with independent facilities that include a living room, sleeping area, kitchen and bathroom.

    In addition to agreeing to the temporary rent limit, property owners must live on site and have less than four units already on their land.

    The units may be rented to anyone earning 80% or less of the Los Angeles County median income, which translates into $77,700 for an individual, $88,800 for a two-person family, $99,900 for three people and $110,950 for four, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning.

    But the program gives homeowners an extra financial incentive to rent these ADUs to recipients of Long Beach’s housing choice voucher program, which provides a portion of the rent for those who fall into extremely low income, very low income or low income categories.

    Building an ADU has grown more expensive in recent years, with labor and material costs jumping 11% and 9%, respectively in 2021 and 2022, while construction labor costs rose 34% between 2018 and 2023.

    The loan covers up to $250,000 in planning, permitting and construction costs, though Kelli Pezzelle, a Backyard Builders community program specialist, doesn’t anticipate the loans needing to be that high.

    The interest on the loan will remain at 0% as long as the owner rents the ADU to a low-income recipient. A stipulation for loan qualification is that the owner must rent the home to a voucher recipient for a minimum of five years or a nonvoucher, lower-income tenant for seven years.

    The loan’s interest rate will jump to 3% if rented to someone who doesn’t meet the income limits after the five- or seven-year period. An owner would incur a $2,500 monthly penalty if the ADU is rented to a nonqualified tenant ahead of time.

    The possible removal of low-income tenants concerns Long Beach Residents Empowered, or LiBRE, an advocacy group that pushes for the creation and preservation of affordable housing and renter protections.

    “We’re happy that the city is investing in affordable housing and trying to reduce the housing shortage,” said LiBRE’s Project Director Andre Donado, via a phone call. “Every single renter, however, is at risk of eviction after five years.”

    Donado also hoped the city would consider offering relocation assistance of $4,500 to low-income renters displaced through no fault of their own in all cases.

    The city offers $4,500 or two months rent if a landlord demolishes or substantially remodels a building, but only one month’s rent in other cases.

    “I think there are several positives with the program, and we’d like to see it made permanent, with some adjustments,” Donado said.

    The pilot’s loans are significantly larger than the up to $40,000 in aid provided by California Housing Finance Agency’s ADU Grant Program, which doled out $125 million to help homeowners cover permitting and planning costs before running out of funds.

    The city believes that house-rich, cash-poor homeowners, particularly seniors, could take advantage of the loan to build an ADU and create passive income. The program estimates that the ADUs built with its loans would generate more than $1,000 monthly for owners who rent to voucher holders.

    “You may be a grandma or someone who’s got way too much backyard, and you want to be a part of the solution, but it may be hard for you to navigate or identify financing,” Richardson said.

    To that end, the city is expected to appoint a project manager to help loan recipients choose an architect, builders, planners, contractors and others needed throughout the planning and construction process. That manager will work as an intermediary between the property owner and the general contractor.

    One caveat for interested property owners is that a qualified renter cannot be a relative or a caregiver for their household.

    As for the loan, payments will be deferred during the building process up to two years.

    Richardson said since the program is based on loans that will be repaid over time, it will be self-sustaining. If it’s deemed a success — meaning that ADUs are built and rented to lower-income tenants — he said the city would consider looking for more revenue streams to expand the project.

    The city is hosting a series of Zoom webinars to gauge interest in the program and answer questions.

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    Andrew J. Campa

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  • A beloved Whittier pizza joint burns down. The owner suspects arson

    A beloved Whittier pizza joint burns down. The owner suspects arson

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    Pizzamania, a beloved pizza restaurant and a staple in Whittier for more than 50 years, burned down Tuesday morning in a blaze that the owner believes might have been intentionally set.

    The pizza joint and four other businesses were damaged after a fire was reported at 2:25 a.m. in the one-story strip mall in the 13500 block of Telegraph Road, Los Angeles County fire officials said.

    Firefighters arrived to find the five businesses engulfed in flames. The blaze was extinguished by 3:04 a.m.

    Patrons and passersby posted images of the fire on social media, and expressed grief over the loss of the restaurant that has been a fixture in the community for decades.

    “NOOOOOOO!!!!” one person posted on Instagram, followed by a series of crying emojis.

    A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Fire Department said the cause of the fire is being investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

    “Someone came by and torched it,” said Warren Haines, one of the co-owners of the restaurant.

    Video cameras from the restaurant were destroyed in the fire, but Haines said video from one of the neighboring businesses showed what looked like someone intentionally setting the fire.

    Haines, who started the restaurant in 1973 with his business partner, Jim Barrit, said the person appeared to have targeted Pizzamania.

    Investigators were searching the area for more surveillance images, he said.

    Officials with the Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to inquiries about the fire.

    The fire put about 50 employees at the restaurant out of work, he said.

    “I’m pissed off,” he said. “It takes the wind out of your sail.”

    Just hours after the fire, Haines said his son, who handles social media for the restaurant, had received more than 700 emails from patrons devastated about the news and wondering how they could help.

    He said he was moved by their outreach and understands that Pizzamania was an icon in the community for decades.

    “They call, and half of them are in tears,” he said. “It means everything to me.”

    Haines said he’s reeling over the fire but intends to keep Pizzamania alive.

    “We’re an institution,” he said. “I intend to rebuild.”

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    Salvador Hernandez

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  • 9th Circuit upholds California gun bans in some ‘sensitive’ places, but not others

    9th Circuit upholds California gun bans in some ‘sensitive’ places, but not others

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    California may enforce its recent ban on guns in “sensitive places” when it comes to parks and playgrounds, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, casinos, stadiums, amusement parks, zoos, libraries, museums, athletic facilities and the parking areas associated with them, a federal appellate court ruled Friday.

    However, the state may not enforce similar restrictions in hospitals or other medical facilities, on public transit, at places of worship or financial institutions, or in the parking areas associated with or shared by those places, the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined.

    It also may not enforce its ban on guns at all events requiring a permit, or on visitors carrying guns onto any private property where the owner has not posted signs explicitly allowing them, the panel ruled.

    The appellate panel — which simultaneously issued similar findings relating to laws in Hawaii — issued its ruling in response to broad injunctions by lower courts that had blocked the bans from taking effect amid ongoing litigation over the laws.

    The panel noted that some locations where it rejected statewide bans, such as banks and churches, could still bar visitors from carrying guns based on existing property laws, but the state governments could not unilaterally and universally do so for them. It said owners of private property are similarly free to ban firearms on their property.

    “For the places where we hold that the states likely may not prohibit the carry of firearms, the practical effect of our ruling is merely that private-property owners may choose to allow the carry of firearms,” Circuit Judge Susan P. Graber wrote for the panel. “Owners of hospitals, banks and churches, for example, remain free to ban firearms at those locations.”

    Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed partial victory — and said the state would continue fighting to drive down gun violence.

    “We refuse to accept shootings at schools, parks and concerts as a normal fact of life. While we fought for the court to go further, today’s ruling affirms our state’s authority to limit guns in many public places,” Newsom said in a statement. “California will continue to take action to protect our residents, and defend our nation-leading, life-saving gun laws from an extreme gun lobby and politicians in their pockets.”

    Gun advocates characterized the ruling as a partial win, as well.

    “This partially favorable decision from the Ninth Circuit shows how far we’ve come over the past decade. But this case, and our work to restore the right to bear arms, is far from over,” said Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, which helped bring the challenge against the laws. “FPC will continue to fight forward until all peaceable people can fully exercise their right to carry in California and throughout the United States.”

    Graber, an appointee of President Clinton, was joined in the decision by Circuit Judge Mary M. Schroeder, an appointee of President Carter; and Circuit Judge Jennifer Sung, an appointee of President Biden.

    The ruling was the latest to apply the historical test for gun laws set out in 2022 by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. vs. Bruen. There, the high court said that gun laws are legitimate only if they are rooted in the nation’s history and tradition or sufficiently analogous to some historical law.

    Graber’s opinion parsed through an array of historical laws to determine whether lower court injunctions blocking many of the states’ bans on guns in sensitive places should stand, or if they should be reversed based on historical precedent.

    In doing so, the ruling divided public places into those where guns may be banned, such as parks; and those where they may not be based on a lack of similar restrictions in the past, such as places of worship.

    That partition highlighted a reality under Bruen’s “history and tradition” test that gun control advocates have denounced as preposterous: that it precludes leaders from crafting modern gun laws to address modern realities of gun violence, such as mass shootings at places of worship.

    Billy Clark, senior litigation attorney at the gun control advocacy group Giffords Law Center, said the decision “further illustrates that it is constitutional to keep guns out of sensitive places” — but also more evidence of the “chaos” in 2nd Amendment law caused by the Bruen decision.

    Janet Carter, senior director of issues and appeals at the gun control group Everytown Law, said her group didn’t agree with all aspects of the decision, but still found it “heartening.”

    “Keeping guns out of sensitive places is common sense and these laws are crucial to keeping our communities safe from gun violence,” Carter said.

    Adam Kraut, executive director of the gun rights advocacy group Second Amendment Foundation, said California’s expansion of “sensitive places” where guns are banned “goes beyond what the Supreme Court contemplated when it mentioned them in Bruen,” and said his group will continue to fight such bans in court.

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    Kevin Rector

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  • Final orange grove in the San Fernando Valley is likely to give way to luxury homes

    Final orange grove in the San Fernando Valley is likely to give way to luxury homes

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    A century-old orange grove in Tarzana appears on its way to becoming the site of luxury homes, a transformation that would mark the end of commercial citrus farming in the San Fernando Valley, where the crop was once a mainstay.

    At 14 acres, Bothwell Ranch represents less than one-thousandth of what once was, before the orchards and ranches of the Valley gave way to vast tracts of housing and commercial buildings to serve residents. Citrus production amid the multimillion-dollar homes is far from viable, and the parcel of land is now owned by a developer who intends to fill most of it with houses.

    Los Angeles city planning officials held a public hearing Wednesday to collect comments before deciding whether to give the owners the green light to build 21 two-story homes while preserving a third of the site on Oakdale Avenue as a publicly owned orange grove managed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority for educational purposes.

    City officials are still gathering information about the planned development, but Henry Chu, the city zoning administrator for the project, said Wednesday that he is inclined to approve it within a few weeks.

    While hard to imagine today, Los Angeles was the top agricultural county in the nation for most of the first half of the 20th century, according to Rachel Surls, co-author of “From Cows to Concrete: The Rise and Fall of Farming in Los Angeles.” Citrus crops were as integral to that success as they were to the branding and selling of Southern California as a bucolic, desirable place to live.

    “The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, different citrus marketers and organizations such as Sunkist oranges were very much a part of basically making Los Angeles look like this golden, almost tropical, agricultural paradise where people could come and get a whole new start,” Surls explained. “That positioning of Los Angeles as a place where citrus grew was really, really key to the growth of Los Angeles.”

    With history in mind, City Councilman Bob Blumenfield announced in 2022 that after years of negotiations a deal had been reached between the site’s new owners, Borstein Enterprises, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority to preserve a third of it.

    “While I wish there was a way to save the entire Bothwell Ranch, with this partnership we can save a large amount of it to be run by one of the best land preservation organizations in the country,” Blumenfield said.

    The Bothwell Ranch gets its name from Lindley Bothwell, who purchased the farmland in 1926 after earning a degree in agriculture from Oregon State University, Blumenfield said. At the time, the citrus orchard was about 6 years old and totaled 100 acres. The Bothwell family sold off pieces of the land over the years but maintained a farming operation for decades until Ann Bothwell died in 2016. The ranch survived even as other ranches were driven out by rising land value during the housing boom after World War II.

    It is now likely to be replaced by a development called Oakdale Estates. The owners have said they intend for the houses to include environmentally sustainable features such as “cool” roofs that reduce heat reflection into the atmosphere and a new street with a system that captures and filters rainwater before reusing it to irrigate landscaping that will include some citrus trees.

    Two rows of citrus trees are expected to line Oakdale Avenue on the west side of the site as a homage to the land’s past, according to plans for the development. Designs for the residences call for modern farmhouses and Spanish architecture, meant to embrace the heritage of the San Fernando Valley.

    Abelardo Hernandez, left, and Al Trujillo trim orange trees at Bothwell Ranch in the San Fernando Valley on Aug. 27, 1998.

    (Frank Wiese / Los Angeles Times)

    A critic of the project, Jeff Bornstein, said at Wednesday’s city meeting that the development should be reduced in scope to preserve more of the orchard.

    “We have very little that marks our heritage of the past in the west San Fernando Valley,” he said. “We need to save a lot more of these” trees.

    The citrus trees planted in the 1980s are past their prime fruit-bearing years and suffer from the effects of under-watering, a representative for the developer said.

    When seen in aerial photographs, the ranch looks like a lush green anachronism — plucked from the agrarian past and neatly but nonsensically deposited into a suburban jewel box of red roofs and turquoise pools and tennis courts.

    “We’re overrun,” as the late Bothwell matriarch told a reporter in 1998 with a sigh. “But you can’t stand in the middle of Ventura Boulevard and say, ‘Stop!’”

    Times staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report.

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    Roger Vincent

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  • Former Ace Hotel in downtown L.A. reopens as ‘Airbnb on steroids’

    Former Ace Hotel in downtown L.A. reopens as ‘Airbnb on steroids’

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    The former Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, which helped lead an economic revival on a historic stretch of Broadway a decade ago, has reopened as a minimal-service operation akin to Airbnb, following a strategy that has become increasingly common for struggling hotels in recent years.

    Now called Stile Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa, the 1920s-vintage hotel tower has resumed limited operations after shutting down nearly six months ago. Downtown hotels were particularly hard-hit by the pandemic, and some have changed owners or operators.

    Ace Hotel Group had operated the 182-room hotel near Broadway and Olympic Boulevard since it opened in 2014, even as its ownership changed twice over the years. The chic brand made the Ace a destination for travelers as well as local residents who patronized its buzzy rooftop bar and restaurants.

    South Korea-based AJU Continuum, which bought the hotel in 2019, announced last week that it had brought in Kasa Living Inc. to operate the property.

    Kasa, which is based in San Francisco and has a national presence, “offers the consistency of a major hotel chain with the convenience and character of a modern short-term rental,” AJU Continuum said in a statement.

    Ace Hotel said upon its departure that the Broadway hotel would be operated in the future as “a limited-service, rooms-only operation, managed via a tech platform.”

    The limited-service model under which guests typically receive codes to get into their rooms via their phones is “basically an Airbnb on steroids,” said Donald Wise, a hotel investment banker at Turnbull Capital Group. “You’re not going to someone’s house or a condo, but to a box that has no more or less service than an Airbnb would have.”

    The independent United Theater on Broadway, which is connected to the hotel, will continue to operate as an open venue hosting concerts, performances and special events, AJU Continuum said. The hotel will have a rooftop wine bar but no restaurants.

    The site has had multiple identities since it was built in 1927. Constructed with backing from film luminaries Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith, it originally was meant in part to provide a theater for the United Artists movie production company they founded.

    The Spanish Gothic theater was designed by C. Howard Crane and the tower by Walker & Eisen, the team behind other local landmarks including the Fine Arts Building downtown and the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills. It held offices for rent and a theater where United Artists pictures premiered, starting with Pickford’s film “My Best Girl.”

    Other prominent occupants of the property through the years include California Petroleum Corp., Texaco and flamboyant preacher Gene Scott, whose broadcasts were heard nationally. He died in 2005.

    The opening of the Ace in 2014 was a pivotal point in the residential renaissance of downtown that helped spur growth nearby, said Nick Griffin, executive vice president of DTLA Alliance, formerly the Downtown Center Business Improvement District.

    “It was evocative of that particular moment in downtown, arriving as a kind of a hipster paradise,” he said. “That area of Ninth and Broadway was a particularly hip area with fashion and hotels at the intersection of the Historic Core, the fashion district and the downtown center.”

    Two other boutique hotels created in historic buildings followed the Ace to the neighborhood: the Hoxton Downtown LA and Downtown L.A. Proper. Both are also on Broadway.

    Short-term rentals in former traditional hotels and apartment buildings have been popping up downtown as business owners work to find financial equilibrium, Griffin said.

    “The new model of short-term rentals is sort of indicative of this moment in downtown as we continue to evolve and innovate coming out of the pandemic.”

    Griffin’s improvement district reported that average downtown hotel occupancy, which plunged during the pandemic, has reached nearly 69%, up a percentage point from a year ago. That’s close to what is usually considered a healthy rate but down from late 2019 when occupancy was closer to 80% and average room rates were higher.

    “The downtown Los Angeles market is still lagging, hasn’t recovered fully to the numbers that were pre-COVID,” said consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group. “We are definitely starting to see more distress among owners.”

    Challenges for hotel owners include a reduction in business travelers to downtown offices as more people work from home. They also face high interest rates on their loans and rising labor costs.

    Limited service hotels such as Stile may produce more profit for their owners while also lowering rates for guests who don’t mind having fewer services, Reay said.

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    Roger Vincent

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  • Is the eviction of hundreds of renters from Barrington Plaza legal? A court case to decide is now underway.

    Is the eviction of hundreds of renters from Barrington Plaza legal? A court case to decide is now underway.

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    Nearly a year ago, every tenant at the massive Westside apartment complex Barrington Plaza was served with an eviction notice by their landlord, who said the residents of nearly 600 units needed to move out so the company could install fire sprinklers following two major blazes.

    In the months since, most of the tenants have left. But more than 100 stayed behind, vowing to fight in court for the right to stay in their rent-controlled units, suspecting that the owner’s real intent was to upgrade the complex and re-rent the units at market rate.

    On Wednesday, their day in court finally came as lawyers for the tenants and the owner, Douglas Emmett Inc., presented opening arguments in a civil case that will decide whether the evictions are legal. The tenants and their advocates see the case as an important test of renter protections in a city faced with an affordable housing crisis.

    “I wanted to make sure I’m represented in this fight for tenants in Los Angeles,” said Barrington tenant Chuck Martinez, who has lived in the building since 2021. “To lose this affordable housing is a step backward for L.A.”

    For the owner, the case at the Santa Monica Courthouse is about landlords having the legal right to choose not to continue renting their units. “Inside the courtroom, this is a case about upholding the law,” said John Samuel Gibson, attorney for Douglas Emmett.

    The company wants to evict the residents under the Ellis Act, which allows landlords to evict rent-stabilized tenants to remove units from the rental market — for instance, to build condos.

    The heart of the case revolves around whether the company truly intended to take the units off the rental market and whether the law requires them to do so permanently.

    Frances M. Campbell, the tenant’s attorney, said evidence presented during the trial would show that the company for years had plans to “transform and upgrade” the complex and to re-rent the apartments “at a new market rate.”

    Campbell said the law requires owners who invoke the Ellis Act to remove the units permanently from the rental market.

    “Defendants can point to no case that allows a landlord to invoke the Ellis Act to temporarily go out of the rental business while it remodels or makes repairs to its buildings. And that makes sense, because that is not the purpose of the Ellis Act,” the tenants’ lawyers wrote in a trial brief.

    The lawyer pointed to an email sent by Douglas Emmett CEO Jordan Kaplan to city housing official Mercedes Márquez in May 2023, just days before the eviction notices were filed, as evidence that the company intended to re-rent the units.

    “This project is likely to take many years and assuming we bring the rental units back online within 10 years (which is a very good assumption) they will still be subject to the RSO,” Kaplan wrote, referring to the city’s rent stabilization ordinance.

    In his arguments on behalf of Douglas Emmett, Gibson pointed to that same email as evidence that the company wasn’t trying to evade rent control.

    “I personally assure you we are not doing this to remove Barrington Plaza from the RSO,” the email said.

    Installing fire sprinklers and making other safety upgrades is a multiyear project, and the apartments will be removed from the market during that time, he said.

    The law allows owners to use the Ellis Act to “take the property off the rental market for a longterm period,” the company’s lawyers argued in a trial brief.

    The Ellis Act does not require owners to remove the properties from the rental market forever, he said. Only that they do not “conduct a sham removal” in order to evade rent control.

    “This is not one of those sham situations,” Gibson said.

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    Paloma Esquivel

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  • Lincoln Square Taproom’s Owner to Open a Bistro in the Cafe Selmarie Space

    Lincoln Square Taproom’s Owner to Open a Bistro in the Cafe Selmarie Space

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    As Chicagoans prepare to say farewell to Cafe Selmarie, a cozy Lincoln Square favorite that’s preparing to close after more than four decades, news about its forthcoming replacement is beginning to surface.

    Andrew Pillman, the owner of neighboring beer bar Lincoln Square Taproom, has applied for a liquor license under the business name Willow Cafe and Bistro at 4729 N. Lincoln Avenue. The restaurant is Pillman’s second takeover of a Lincoln Square institution, as in 2021 he opened the taproom in the former home of Huettenbar, one of the area’s last-remaining German taverns. In 2021, he opened a sister bar, Uptown Taproom. Pillman also runs Lakeview Taproom, which opened in July 2020. In November 2023, the space rebranded to add a coffee component.

    In the case of Huttenbar, back in 2021, Pillman told Block Club that he intended to preserve the dive’s German charm. However, regulars say Pillman and his crews drastically changed the bar’s vibe including replacing a mural that helped define the space.

    Cafe Selmarie owner Birgit Kobayashi announced her plans to retire and close Cafe Selmarie in September 2023 but has yet to share a closing date. The restaurant will remain open “through at least the end of April,” according to its website.

    Pillman and Kobayashi did not respond to requests for comment.

    A Lincoln Square pillar since Kobayashi and her late business partner Jean Uzdawanis founded it in 1983, Selmarie (a portmanteau of its founders’ middle names, Birgit Selma and Jeanne Marie) oversaw a transformation in the area from its perch on Giddings Plaza. It was home to the first espresso machine in the neighborhood and quickly garnered a following for its comfortable atmosphere, fresh baked goods made on-site, and an all-day lineup of soups, salads, sandwiches, and pasta. In 2017, Kobayashi became Selmarie’s sole proprietor following Uzdawanis’ death at age 63 after a battle with ovarian cancer.

    While few additional details about Willow Cafe and Bistro are available as yet, Pillman seems primed for a busy year. He’s applied for a liquor license for another beer bar, Rogers Park Taproom & Coffee House, at 1615 W. Howard Street. The space previously housed indie coffeehouse Sol Cafe and in February, Pillman told Block Club Chicago that he aims to compensate for the cafe’s closure by serving Hexe Coffee alongside beer, cocktails, breakfast, and lunch.

    Stay tuned for more on Cafe Selmarie’s closing date and more details on Willow Cafe and Bistro.

    Willow Cafe and Bistro, 4729 N. Lincoln Avenue, Opening date is not yet available.

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    Naomi Waxman

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  • A sign of the times: Tearing down an emptying O.C. office complex to build a warehouse

    A sign of the times: Tearing down an emptying O.C. office complex to build a warehouse

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    In the hierarchy of commercial real estate, office space has long been king.

    Developers and landlords lived by the conventional wisdom that there was no better use for your square footage than business offices because they commanded higher rents than industrial spaces.

    Simple math, the thinking went.

    Well, not so simple anymore. At least in Santa Ana, where a perfectly good office complex is being demolished in a dramatic demonstration of how weak the office rental market has become and how deep the demand for Amazon-style distribution centers runs in Southern California.

    The owners of the shiny glass building on Harbor Boulevard close to John Wayne Airport made the counterintuitive calculation that they will be better off owning warehouses than trying to wrangle tenants willing to pony up for conference rooms and corner offices.

    “We had to make a strategic shift,” said Dan Broder, who is in charge of the redevelopment by Kearny Real Estate Co., owner of the property formerly known as Elevate @Harbor.

    Lagging post-pandemic occupancy rates prompted owners of the office complex formerly known as Elevate @Harbor in Santa Ana to tear it down and build a warehouse.

    (Lawrence M. Pierce)

    The shift was prompted in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed nationwide to shrinking office populations and rising demand for home delivery of all manner of goods. Four years on, overall demand for offices remains well below pre-pandemic levels, raising questions about how many buildings built for white-collar labor still have a viable economic future.

    “There are a lot of office owners looking at their properties and wondering if those properties still make sense as offices,” said Michael Soto, Southern California research director for real estate brokerage Savills.

    Some have decided they don’t, and the result has been a shrinking inventory of offices over the last year in several U.S. markets, including Orange County, Savills said in a recent report.

    Although those in urban centers making the decision to get out of the office game increasingly have looked to convert unloved offices to apartments, in some areas warehouses are hard to come by and, consequently, bring a premium, Soto said.

    Orange County is prime territory for such switches, he said, because although it is still suburban in nature, it is densely developed with few empty sites available to build distribution centers.

    “There’s real pressure to redevelop older office buildings,” Soto said.

    The incentive to redevelop Kearny’s property was enhanced by its location in an industrial district, which spared the company from having to go through the time-consuming and challenging process of getting it rezoned for industrial use.

    An office building in Santa Ana is being demolished to make way for a distribution center.

    Demolition is underway of an office complex on Harbor Boulevard in Santa Ana that will be replaced by a distribution center.

    (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)

    It was a different world for office landlords in 2018, when Kearny bought the office campus for nearly $35 million. The landlord took over a property that was almost fully leased, Broder said. And even though a large tenant was set to move out, Kearny was unconcerned because there was every reason to expect the vacancy would be an opportunity to sign new tenants at higher rents.

    Kearny announced that it would spend about $15 million to upgrade the property into a campus-like setting with landscaped grounds, a fitness center and 24-hour access meant to appeal to tenants in creative fields such as technology. Marketing materials boasted that South Coast Plaza shopping center was nearby.

    Then came the pandemic, and by early 2022, with occupancy rates hovering at about 60% and the office rental market losing ground, Kearny started to discuss converting the property to another use, Broder said. He declined to disclose further financial aspects of the project.

    Kearny negotiated lease terminations with its tenants and set about to knock down the building that dates to 1982 and replace it with Harbor Logistics Center, a far less sleek 163,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution complex designed by SKH Architect set to be complete by the end of the year.

    It’s intended to be a “last-mile” facility, Broder said, for goods arriving from elsewhere to be distributed to the surrounding community.

    Last-mile facilities have “dramatically” increased in value in recent years and provide “solid rent growth” for their owners, the commercial real estate trade group NAIOP said, as e-commerce businesses such as Amazon compete to deliver within one day of a customer order or even on the same day it is placed.

    Frequently ordered goods can be delivered more quickly from a compact nearby warehouse than from a farther-away sprawling fulfillment center such as those found in the Inland Empire.

    Meanwhile, office rentals and on-site attendance by tenants have continued to lag in Southern California in 2023 as companies have tried to balance hybrid work policies with their desire for more employee engagement, real estate services company CBRE said in a recent report.

    The value of office buildings has been falling nationwide, with average property values down by at least 25% from a year earlier, according to a February report by real estate data provider CommercialEdge.

    Rendering of the warehouse-distribution center.

    Rendering of the less sleek 163,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution complex that will replace the office complex.

    (SKH Architect)

    “The downward trend in office valuation is more pronounced in older and less ideally located buildings,” the report said, perhaps such as the aging campus Kearny is knocking down.

    “This is not a one-off,” Soto said of the landlord’s switch from office to industrial use of its property. “Especially in dense suburban markets like Orange County where land is expensive, we are going to see more of this.”

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    Roger Vincent

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  • Clean and secure your tagged high-rise or we’ll do it for you, L.A. proposes telling owner

    Clean and secure your tagged high-rise or we’ll do it for you, L.A. proposes telling owner

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    After six trespassing arrests were made in less than a week related to a heavily tagged unfinished skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, the City Council will consider ordering the property owners to clean up the site.

    Councilmember Kevin de León introduced a motion Feb. 2 that would instruct the Department of Building and Safety, the Bureau of Street Services and the Bureau of Engineering to order the Oceanwide Plaza owners to secure the property and clear debris from the public right of way. The council will vote on the motion Friday.

    “Our residents and businesses deserve safe and vibrant neighborhoods, which is why I’ve taken action to ensure the Oceanwide property is cleaned and made safe,” De León.

    If the owners do not comply by Feb. 17, the city will begin its own cleanup process, the motion said. There is currently scaffolding, plastic barriers and other debris on the sidewalks and in the bus lane adjacent to the building.

    The Department of Building and Safety issued an order to the property owners on Jan. 31 requesting they remove all graffiti and debris and securely fence the building.

    Oceanwide Plaza was slated to be a mixed-use development including luxury apartments and hotel and retail space, but construction was halted in 2019 when the Beijing-based developers ran out of money.

    The incomplete high-rise has attracted many taggers and graffiti artists in recent weeks, who have collectively tagged at least 27 stories of the building. De León’s motion described the development as “a blight on downtown Los Angeles” and “a black eye on an otherwise vibrant part of DTLA.”

    The development faces Crypto.com Arena, which hosted the Grammys last weekend, and is near the popular L.A. Live complex among shops and restaurants. De León represents Council District 14, which includes downtown Los Angeles.

    De León’s motion orders the owners of Oceanwide Plaza to “restore the public right of way to its original condition,” and instructs various city organizations to step in if the job is not completed by the deadline. The motion also asks the city administrative officer to identify funding for the cleanup and securing of the site.

    The building attracts criminal activity and has become a hazard for surrounding residents and businesses, the motion said. Los Angeles Police Department officers are also investigating a report of shots fired near the development last week.

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    Caroline Petrow-Cohen

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  • Woman who clung to getaway car to save stolen dog speaks out: ‘I held on to the windshield wipers’

    Woman who clung to getaway car to save stolen dog speaks out: ‘I held on to the windshield wipers’

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    Ali Zacharias recalled desperately clinging to the hood of the getaway car as it sped through downtown Los Angeles. Inside the vehicle was the thieves’ precious cargo: Onyx, her French bulldog and “buddy.”

    Zacharias said her only thought was, “I’m not leaving this car. … I held on to the windshield wipers, thinking they wouldn’t drive if I was on the car.”

    They did.

    “Before I know it, we’re going like 40 miles per hour,” she said. She rode atop the hood for a short way before the car swerved and she rolled off. She was bruised and cut but not badly hurt, she said in an interview with The Times on Sunday.

    But as Zacharias stood watching the car disappear, she felt bereft. Onyx was gone.

    Onyx, a French bulldog with one blue eye and one green eye, was stolen from his owner in downtown L.A. on Jan. 18.

    (Ali Zacharias)

    The terrifying scene was caught on video, which was later posted on Instagram and has since gone viral.

    Since the Jan. 18 incident, Zacharias has been victimized a second time, by a scammer playing on her desperation to find Onyx. The individual led her on a “goose chase” Sunday to extract $50 — for “gas money,” the person claimed — she told The Times.

    Los Angeles police are investigating the incident but could not be reached for comment Sunday.

    French bulldogs are one of the most popular small-breed dogs in the world, according to the American Kennel Club, “especially among city dwellers.” They’re known for their square heads, “bat” ears and charming disposition. Expensive and in high demand, the dogs have been a favorite target of thieves in recent years in the L.A. area.

    Two of Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs were stolen in February 2021, and her dog walker was shot and wounded during the heist. The woman who recovered them and later sued — trying to claim the $500,000 reward — was found to be involved with the dognappers. More recently, thieves stole 12 purebred French bulldogs, including a 10-month-old show dog named Roll X, from a Gardena pet shop.

    Zacharis’ heartbreak began when the West Hollywood woman, who says she manufactures clothes, was on a lunch break with Onyx at a Whole Foods in downtown Los Angeles on Grand Avenue near 8th Street. Onlookers were watching the 44-year-old interact with her dog. The black-and-white-speckled French bulldog is a little over a year old and has different colored eyes, the left blue and the right green.

    “They were watching me feed him meatballs and white fish. … I spoil him.”

    He ducked under the table where she was sitting; she let him go as he explored. The next thing she knew, she said, a woman had picked up Onyx and was walking away with him.

    Onyx is a little over a year old.

    Onyx is a little over a year old.

    (Ali Zacharias)

    “I thought it was a misunderstanding,” Zacharias said, so she followed, calling out to the woman, who got into a white Kia Forte. And still, she “didn’t punch into the fact that my dog was stolen. … I wasn’t in that mode.”

    So she attempted to follow the woman into the car, which held four people, before being pushed out. They locked the door. Zacharias said she realized they were “about to drive off with my dog, so I stood in front of the car, and I was holding my hands up, like, ‘Stop, do not go,’ and they drove into me and I fell onto the hood.”

    When she tried to describe to loved ones what had happened, they weren’t able to appreciate it, she said — until Saturday, when she said she became aware of video circulating on social media that showed those terrifying moments on the hood of the car.

    “I get wind of this video on Instagram, and it changed my whole world,” she said, “because I had felt completely alone.”

    The video, taken by witness Harrison Pessy, has drawn a lot of interest from news outlets and social media channels, and Zacharias said she hoped that would help police solve the case.

    “I hope the next story about this is a reunification story.”

    A poster says "Stolen Dog! Big Reward!"

    A poster promising a reward has been circulated in the theft of a French bulldog in downtown L.A. on Jan. 18.

    (Ali Zacharias)

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    Amy Hubbard

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  • Woman clings to speeding car’s hood after French bulldog stolen in Southern California, video shows

    Woman clings to speeding car’s hood after French bulldog stolen in Southern California, video shows

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    LOS ANGELES — Terrifying video captured the moments a woman clung to the hood of a speeding car in Southern California after her French bulldog was stolen.

    “I thought I was going to die. I just was like ‘this is it”,” said Ali Zacharias.

    She and her dog Onyx were having lunch together at a Whole Foods in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 18 when it all happened.

    A woman first called to the dog, then grabbed the leash and walked away. Zacharias followed her but the woman hopped into a car with three others inside and locked the doors.

    Zacharias didn’t hesitate.

    “I didn’t want the car to drive away, so I ran and stood in front of it. They drove into me and I fell on top of the hood, and just started to grab on… Before I knew it, they were like backing up and taking off,” she recalled.

    The thieves kept going for several blocks before swerving, sending Zacharias to the ground.

    The suspect vehicle is described as a newer model white Kia Forte four-door sedan with a missing hubcap.

    Onyx is a black merle French bulldog with a spotted coat and two different colored eyes. Zaharias is just hoping to get her beloved dog back.

    “I just feel lost and lonely without him. He’s my buddy, he’s my wing man. He goes to work with me, we do everything and he was just suddenly gone.”

    Zacharias is offering a reward for her dog’s safe return. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at (877) 275-5273.

    Copyright © 2024 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

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    KABC

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  • LAPD on the hunt for man suspected of shooting and killing a 4-month-old puppy

    LAPD on the hunt for man suspected of shooting and killing a 4-month-old puppy

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    Los Angeles Police Department detectives are searching for a man who is suspected of shooting and killing a 4-month-old puppy.

    The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating David Sumlin, a man suspected of domestic violence and of killing the victim’s pet.

    (Los Angeles Police Department)

    The suspect, David Sumlin, 32, shot the dog near downtown L.A. on Jan. 2 after an intense verbal exchange with the dog’s owner, according to police.

    The LAPD said that Sumlin stated, “It’s either you or the dog,” before he held a pillow over the dog and shot two rounds into the puppy. Police officials arrived on the scene and transported the dog to a local animal shelter where it later died.

    “The investigation is ongoing and the suspect has not been found yet,” LAPD Officer Roman John said.

    Detectives released a photo of the suspect, whom police described as a Black man with black hair and brown eyes. He is 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds. Sumlin is a transient who frequents the area of 7th Street and Stanford Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, according to police. The firearm used remains outstanding. Anyone who spots Sumlin is asked to call 911.

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    Roberto Reyes

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  • Prison for man who shot three people in Auckland CBD, including Jay-Jay Feeney’s brother – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Prison for man who shot three people in Auckland CBD, including Jay-Jay Feeney’s brother – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    Poull Andersen and two others were injured in the shooting on Fort St, Auckland, in March 2022. Photo / Supplied

    A man with gang ties who wounded three people with a single shot from a homemade firearm outside a central Auckland kebab shop – including business owner Poull Andersen, the brother of well-known radio personality Jay-Jay Feeney – has been sentenced to prison.

    The defendant, now 20 and with continuing interim name suppression, appeared before Judge Kathryn Maxwell in Auckland District Court this morning as she mused over his unusually substantive criminal history for someone so young.

    He has spent some of his time since the March 5, 2022, shooting remanded in a maximum security jail cell, where he has at times spent 23 hours per day in lockdown.

    “You have to take some responsibility, though, of course, for that difficulty on remand,” the judge said, blaming the difficult conditions on “how you are acting in prison”.

    AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.

    The defendant was ordered to serve a sentence of five years and seven months for three counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm with a firearm and a concurrent six-month sentence for receiving $1700 worth of stolen goods as the result of an unrelated road rage incident.

    He was 18 when arrested last year for the shooting, which took place around 2am on a Saturday on central Auckland’s Fort St, where some businesses catering to the nightclub scene remained open.

    Court documents state the teen…

    Original Author Link click here to read complete story..

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    MMP News Author

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  • It's not a drive-thru, but a motorist still plowed through a smoke shop in Fullerton

    It's not a drive-thru, but a motorist still plowed through a smoke shop in Fullerton

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    Surveillance video caught a driver crash straight through a smoke shop in Fullerton on Wednesday morning in an accident that police say was due to the motorist driving under the influence.

    About 3 a.m., a white Mercedes-Benz pulled into the parking lot in front of Cobra Smoke Shop & Vape Store on Euclid Street. The driver seems to lose control of the vehicle as it accelerates into the glass storefront, through the store, and out the back, according to the video footage. Two individuals — the owner in the back of the store and a part-time worker at the cashier — were in the store at the time of the incident but were not injured, according to Fullerton police.

    “In the video, you can see it seemed like she stopped and then she put her hands up and then the car just accelerated,” Seja Karim, 22, the manager of the family-owned smoke shop, said when describing the footage shot by a closed-circuit security camera. “I think she hit the gas instead of the brake and ran into the whole store.”

    The owner came out from the back of the store, thinking the car crash was part of a robbery scheme and someone from the car would start stealing inventory, Karim said.

    Fullerton police identified the sole occupant of the car as a 22-year-old woman from Santa Ana. Sgt. Ryan O’Neil, a Fullerton Police spokesperson, said the woman was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and taken to the Fullerton Police Department, where she was cited and released.

    “The message we want to send is that during the holiday times, be safe and make good decisions when you go out drinking,” O’Neil said. “Line up a sober ride so you can get home safe to your family.”

    As one of the few smoke shops in the area open 24/7, the shop is popular among customers even around midnight, Karim said. She said it was fortunate that no customers were in the store at the time of the car crash.

    “Around that time, it gets pretty crowded, but thankfully, there was no one here at this store,” she said.

    The car cleared the shelving cases but plowed into the “cigar room” where the shop keeps all of its cigars, some of which sell for $80 each, and a humidifier used to maintain a certain humidity level in the room. Karim estimates the loss to be over $100,000 from the cigar room alone.

    Before workers had the chance to fix the gaping hole in the storefront, customers trickled into the smoke shop that same morning, stepping into the open-faced store to get their nicotine fix.

    “We never closed,” she said. “We just cleaned up the area and got right back to business.”

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    Ashley Ahn

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  • Redondo Beach councilman faces 2-year suspension from law for misappropriating money

    Redondo Beach councilman faces 2-year suspension from law for misappropriating money

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    The State Bar of California recommended that a Redondo Beach City Council member be suspended from practicing law for two years for misappropriating half a million dollars in client funds and misrepresenting what happened to the money.

    Councilmember Zein Obagi Jr., lead counsel for Obagi Law Group, was first charged by the State Bar’s Office of Trial Counsel in July 2021 with seven counts of professional misconduct. In January, Obagi faced an additional five charges for allegedly seeking to mislead a judge and making misrepresentations to the Superior Court about why the money never made it to his former client.

    The initial charges were filed after $1.9 million was deposited into Obagi’s account as part of a settlement agreement around the 2018 sale of a cannabis dispensary, Valley Herbal Healing Center, according to the State Bar filings.

    At the time, Obagi was representing the owners and was supposed to transfer $515,000 from the settlement money to one of the owners, Eric Dominguez.

    In a lawsuit filed in 2021, Obagi blamed a different attorney involved in the settlement agreement, saying that attorney was the one responsible for transferring the settlement money to Dominguez. But according to the State Bar, which accused Obagi of additional misconduct for making false statements in his lawsuit, that attorney had transferred money to Obagi with the explicit understanding that he would use some of it to pay his former client.

    A dispute between the owners had resulted in Dominguez removing himself from negotiations, and Obagi failed to alert Dominguez and the other owner that representing them both could pose a conflict of interest, according to State Bar filings.

    “Every attorney has a duty of undivided loyalty to their clients, free of conflicts of interest,” said George Cardona, chief trial counsel at the State Bar.

    Cardona said the State Bar Court found that Obagi breached his duty “both by accepting joint representation of two clients in a matter where their interests conflicted without their informed written consent and by subsequently acting adversely to a former client’s wishes in the same case in which he had previously represented him.”

    The court found that Obagi’s wrongdoing “does not appear to have been caused by dishonesty or corruption” but rather negligence.

    “Obagi’s misconduct is substantially aggravated by multiple misdeeds, significant harm to Dominguez and indifference and lack of insight by failing to accept accountability for some of his behavior,” the State Bar filings stated, though it noted his character and lack of prior discipline.

    Dominguez was forced “to endure nearly two years of a grueling and horrible ordeal” to have the settlement funds paid, Cardona said.

    Obagi told The Times the State Bar Court’s decision supported his initial statement that he “never engaged in any intentional wrongdoing, never acted dishonestly and gained no financial benefits.”

    He said he is grateful the court recognized his “extraordinary good character” and agreed his negligence wasn’t done in bad faith, but he called the decision “excessively punitive” because there was no outstanding harm done.

    The “worst part of this outcome,” Obagi said, is that he won’t be able to personally see through cases for clients who have faced “discrimination or unlawful retaliation in the workplace.”

    The State Bar Court’s recommendation, which must be approved by the Supreme Court, includes that Obagi be put on probation for three years, including two years of a suspension from practicing law until “he provides proof to the State Bar Court of his rehabilitation, fitness to practice and present learning and ability in the general law.”

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    Karen Garcia

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  • Marvel Snap will still ‘flourish in the future,’ despite ByteDance’s exit from gaming

    Marvel Snap will still ‘flourish in the future,’ despite ByteDance’s exit from gaming

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    TikTok owner ByteDance is looking to get out of mainstream gaming, including at its subsidiary Nuverse, the publisher of Marvel Snap. ByteDance confirmed Monday in a statement to Polygon that it will “restructure” its gaming business. The decision is expected to lead to hundreds of layoffs, according to Reuters, which first reported the news. ByteDance has not confirmed the scope of its layoffs.

    “We regularly review our businesses and make adjustments to center on long-term strategic growth areas,” a ByteDance representative said in a statement. “Following a recent review, we’ve made the difficult decision to restructure our gaming business.”

    Though ByteDance is divesting from Nuverse, Marvel Snap “will continue to operate and flourish in the future,” according to a tweet posted early Monday on X (formerly Twitter) by the official Marvel Snap X account. The game is developed by Irvine, California-based indie studio Second Dinner.

    Reuters, citing four unnamed sources, reports that ByteDance has no plans to enter the mainstream gaming market again. The company’s casual games publisher Ohayoo — which work with Chinese social media platform Douyin — will not be impacted, nor will the casual games that run on TikTok. Beyond Nuverse, ByteDance is reportedly looking to sell off mobile gaming subsidiary Moonton Technology, Reuters reported. Earlier this month, ByteDance restructured its virtual reality company Pico, resulting in hundreds of employees being laid off, TechCrunch reported.

    Nuverse had 3,000 employees in 2021, according to TechCrunch — a number that has remained relatively consistent over the years, the outlet said, citing Chinese tech news outlet LatePost.

    ByteDance has invested heavily in the video game industry over the past few years as it looked to compete with Chinese gaming giants Tencent and NetEase. Marvel Snap was a success in the U.S., reaching a reported $116 million in revenue. Other Nuverse games include One Piece: The Voyage and Warhammer 40,000: Lost Crusade. Moonton Games is responsible for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Watcher of Realms.

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    Nicole Carpenter

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  • Caltrans long aware of conditions under 10 Freeway that fueled fire

    Caltrans long aware of conditions under 10 Freeway that fueled fire

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    The state was long aware of conditions under Interstate 10 where a massive fire Saturday severely damaged the freeway south of downtown Los Angeles — with Caltrans inspectors on site as recently as Oct. 6, according to state officials, tenants and a lawyer for the company leasing the land.

    The fire was fueled by wood pallets stored under the freeway and is being investigated as an arson.

    The plot of land was leased by Caltrans to a private company that subleased it to small blue-collar businesses at much higher rents.

    For years, a pallet distributor, a recycler, a mechanic shop and a garment factory supplier operated between the freeway pillars on East 14th Street a block east of South Alameda Street. Along the perimeters, homeless people camped and lighted fires to keep warm.

    The conditions did not raise any apparent alarm bells among state officials who regularly inspected the site. Google Earth photos from January 2023 and March 2022 show dozens of columns of pallets stacked two stories high, amid piles of tires, wood boxes, cardboard and old vehicles, all visible from four streets and a freeway offramp.

    “Caltrans staff inspect all airspace lease sites at least annually to check for potential safety hazards and lease violations,” said Eric Menjivar, a spokesperson for Caltrans District 7, which maintains state highways in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Areas under and next to the freeway are considered airspace.

    “Staff also monitor what is placed or stored on site by the tenant. If deficiencies are noted, Caltrans staff notifies the tenant for remedy. The State Fire Marshal also inspects regularly for fire and life safety.”

    Menjivar said Caltrans inspected the property Oct. 6 after Caltrans had filed a lawsuit to remove its tenant, Apex Development Inc., for noncompliance with the lease. The suit, filed in September, said the company had not paid its rent in more than a year and had illegally sublet the land to a host of small businesses.

    The California Department of Transportation has not provided inspection reports requested by the Times.

    Jose Luis Villamil Rodriguez, who started renting a spot on the property from Apex in 2011, said he watched Caltrans inspectors regularly come to the site.

    “They would even take photos,” he said. “Everyone knew what was under the freeway, they saw the pallet yard and so I’m pretty sure they were aware of it.”

    Rodriguez said the pallet yard business had been under the freeway for about seven years. He said the owner was constantly storing and moving the pallets. Rodriguez said he never interacted with the inspectors. Out of caution, Rodriguez said he had fire extinguishers at his job site. “Whether others didn’t, I wouldn’t know,” he added.

    Caltrans had rented the 48,000-square-foot lot to Apex and its owner, Ahmad Anthony Nowaid, starting in 2008. Under Apex’s lease agreement, the property could be used only for parking operable vehicles and “open storage”; other uses required the approval of Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration, something the company does not appear to have secured. Apex was also not allowed the storage of inoperable vehicles, flammable materials or other hazards.

    The lease agreement between Caltrans and Apex was filed in court as part of the state’s lawsuit against the company for unpaid rent. As of September, Apex owed nearly $80,000 in back rent on the property that burned.

    A court hearing in the suit is scheduled for early 2024.

    Apex, through its attorney Mainak D’Attaray, confirmed that Caltrans had inspected the lot at East 14th Street at least once a year. The lawyer also disputed that the various small businesses renting from Apex were there illegally; Caltrans “was fully aware of the sublessees and their operations,” he said in a statement.

    The attorney argued that state officials were wrongly blaming the company and knew about homeless encampments and the overall conditions at the site.

    “Even the State of California’s Fire Marshall inspected the premises,” D’Attaray said in a statement. “Apex is sympathetic to the loss of property and the adverse impact the fire has caused the people of Los Angeles. But Apex was not involved in the fire. Apex is being unfairly scape-goated for something over which it had no control.”

    The lot at the edge of the Fashion District is one of five that Caltrans had rented to Apex’s owner, Nowaid. Caltrans had filed eviction proceedings for all five properties, saying Nowaid’s firm owed a total of at least $620,000 in unpaid rent.

    Earlier this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized Apex and its owner without specifically identifying Nowaid.

    “This guy and this organization, whoever the members of that particular organization are, have been bad actors,” Newsom said at a news conference. “They stopped paying their rent, they’re out of compliance, and as was stated yesterday … they have been subleasing this site to at least five, maybe as many as six tenants, without authorization from Caltrans or authorization from our federal partners.”

    D’Attaray said that the eviction suits were retaliation by Caltrans for a lawsuit that Apex had filed in June, accusing the agency of interfering with his business.

    He said the governor and Mayor Karen Bass were trying “to excuse their own failures to adequately address the public safety issues caused by the unhoused.”

    Apex had repeatedly called the Los Angeles Fire Department to report fires started by homeless people who pitched tents around the perimeter of the lot, D’Attaray said. He claimed that the city’s fire and police departments responded “dismissively.”

    “The unhoused persons camping along the fence line of the premises were allowed to remain and accumulate all types of refuse and materials over which Apex had no control,” D’Attaray said in the statement.

    A spokesperson for Newsom rejected the idea that the governor’s statements were off base.

    “CalFire currently believes the fire was caused by arson — the criminal act of deliberately setting fire to property — in a fenced-off area that Apex was responsible for maintaining while they continued to assert rights under the lease,” the spokesperson said.

    A representative for Bass did not respond to requests for comment.

    A Caltrans engineer, who asked to withhold his name because he was not authorized to speak, said that it was the state agency that should have seen this coming.

    “Caltrans has known about this for a long time,” the engineer told the Times earlier this week. “They have permitted lessees to store flammable stuff underneath these freeways for decades. They’ve had a couple of fires in the last three years that have affected columns, but inspectors can’t completely get underneath the bridge to make a thorough inspection because of all the junk.”

    In Atlanta, a similar fire in 2017 caused a portion of the 85 Freeway to collapse after a 39-year-old homeless man who police said had been smoking crack set fire to an upholstered chair on top of a shopping cart.

    The fire ignited combustible materials stored under the freeway. Federal investigators found the Georgia Department of Transportation partly responsible.

    In an alert sent out to transportation agencies across the country, the National Transportation Safety Board warned: “Although catastrophic fires fueled by materials stored underneath bridges are relatively rare events, the loss of this structure demonstrates what can happen if bridge owners are not vigilant about monitoring and controlling such materials.”

    The I-85 closure snarled commuter traffic on the region’s busiest throroughfares for six weeks. In response, Caltrans wrote up a policy directive directly based on that incident that prohibited the storage of flammable materials under its bridges and required access for bridge inspections.

    It is not clear if it was enforced.

    Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) said the fire on Saturday “should have never happened.

    “There’s already protocols in place,” he said. He praised the governor’s response to the fire and his administration, which has pushed the effort to “Fix the 10.”

    Santiago said he felt confident that the governor’s office and Caltrans would provide information about the state’s leases, including a review of litigation and enforcement mechanisms.

    “Once we get the information there needs to be strong accountability mechanisms in place to prevent anything like this from ever happening again and putting the public at risk.”

    Carina Quinto, who runs a mobile mechanic shop out of the freeway underpass, was bewildered by officials. She had been watching news reports about the fire and was surprised to hear officials say they had no idea what was going on under the underpass.

    “Supposedly the city didn’t know the kind of businesses that were running under the freeway. They knew exactly what we were doing,” she said. Someone from sanitation came regularly to check that oil was properly disposed, she said.

    When asked for proof of the visit, she said, it burned up in the fire.

    Times staff writers Taryn Luna and Thomas Curwen contributed to this report.

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    Rachel Uranga, Matt Hamilton, Ruben Vives

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  • Catalina Island diner owners underpaid workers, required 18-hour days, D.A. says

    Catalina Island diner owners underpaid workers, required 18-hour days, D.A. says

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    Los Angeles County prosecutors charged the owners of a popular old-school Catalina Island diner and pizza restaurant with withholding over a half a million dollars in wages from their employees and expecting them to work 18-hour days.

    The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced Thursday it had charged Jack Arthur Tucey, 80, and Yueh Mei Tucey, 75, with felony grand labor and wage theft, among other charges. The Tuceys, a married couple who run three restaurants and a hotel in Avalon, face a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison if convicted, according to prosecutors.

    The district attorney’s office said the couple would have their workers rotate around their Avalon businesses, regularly working 12-hour days or longer. For the overtime, Dist. Atty. George Gascón said employees would be paid only minimum wage — a violation of California law requiring that workers earn above their hourly rates when they work days longer than eight hours.

    Prosecutors also accused the couple of filing fraudulent statements with the state’s Employment Development Department, concealing the real wages they were paying to their workers.

    “What you will see in this case is individuals that for years have been operating in Catalina Island exploiting many workers,” Gascón said at a news conference Thursday.

    Gascón said the office has identified 18 workers who were victims of wage theft, many of them immigrants who were living on the couple’s property. He said he believed additional workers would soon come forward.

    The Tuceys were arrested Thursday, according to the district attorney’s office, and could not be reached for comment.

    Since 2001, the couple have owned multiple businesses across the tourist town, according to prosecutors, who said they now own a hotel and three restaurants: Original Jack’s Country Kitchen, Mrs. T’s Chinese Kitchen and Avalon Bake Shop and Original Antonio’s Pizzeria and Deli.

    Lilia García-Brower, the California labor commissioner, said her team’s investigation into the owners began in 2017 and determined that everyone from busboys to maintenance workers had been systemically underpaid, with some forced to clock out prematurely in the payroll system to avoid their overtime hours getting documented.

    If they left the job, she said, they faced eviction, which deterred employees from confronting the owners.

    “Many of these employees were also living in the properties owned by these defendants, which placed them in a particularly vulnerable situation,” García-Brower said. “All the workers lived on Catalina Island, they were geographically isolated and feared being blacklisted if speaking up.”

    She said last month her team conducted an audit of wages paid to the 18 workers interviewed and found they were owed more than $1 million in unpaid wages from 2008 to 2022.

    Court records show Jack Tucey had been sued twice over failure to pay wages. In July 2016, his handyman, Francisco Rodriguez, alleged he’d often worked six days a week but was never paid an overtime rate. In January 2021, two employees of Original Jack’s Country Kitchen — Lin Mei Qian and Xiv Peng Sonog — sued the couple, alleging they had never received overtime pay or the meal periods they were entitled to under California law.

    It’s the second case to come out of the district attorney’s Labor Justice Unit, formed in September to prosecute wage theft cases. That month, the office filed charges against owners of two garment businesses in South Los Angeles, who allegedly paid workers as little as $6 an hour.

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    Rebecca Ellis

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  • Renter converted Murrieta home into marijuana grow house, destroyed interior, owner says – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Renter converted Murrieta home into marijuana grow house, destroyed interior, owner says – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    MURRIETA, Calif. (KABC) — For three years, neighbors in the Mahogany Hills community in Murrieta had no idea a criminal enterprise was operating in their neighborhood.

    “I figured they worked night time jobs. Never really saw them during the day. They would come and go at night,” said neighbor Josh Kegley.

    Then two weeks ago, an electrical fire sent smoke billowing out of the rental home across from Kegley’s home.

    “The fire department crashed through the front door and found something very shocking. They found the house was converted into a cannabis farm,” said attorney John Tiedt.

    USDA Certified Organic Tinctures and salves

    The once-beautiful home that touted marble floors and surfaces throughout was destroyed by the tenants who rented the home.

    “It was a couple that purported to be employed. They had $25,000 in the bank, they seemed to be very credible to the management company,” said Tiedt.

    Tiedt represents the property owner in a possible lawsuit against the property management company. He says the couple’s identification and bank statements were fakes – but had the property management company verified their employment it would have been caught.

    “At this point, we’re investigating that very carefully. It seems to me that the management company never checked the inside or looked into or inquired of the tenants what they were doing with the house,” said Tiedt.

    The grow house is not just a concern for the property owner who will have to shell out thousands of dollars for repairs, but also for neighbors worried about their…

    Original Author Link click here to read complete story..

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  • I have obtained a dog

    I have obtained a dog

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    Only 4 weeks but the former owner left her out in the cold. Coonhound. Apparently coonhounds were bred to chase prey up trees and then howl real loud so the hunter can tell where they went, then shoot the animal in the tree. That’s where the phrase “barking up the wrong tree” came from.

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