Tag: square foot

L.A.’s famous ‘Hobbit Houses’ have a new owner. He calls himself the ‘King of Storybook’

In the architectural age of minimalism and millennial gray, a wild and whimsical antidote made of old clinker bricks and jumbled shingles sits on a quiet street at the edge of L.A. and Culver City.

Formally, the spellbinding property is named the Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Apartments, named after the Disney artist and his wife who obsessively spent three decades building it. But locals call them the Hobbit Houses — fitting, since they look straight out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel.

The complex looks comically out of place amid Culver City’s commercial corridor along Venice Boulevard. It’s surrounded by modern apartment buildings, boxy and inoffensive, built to blend in with today’s taste.

A bathroom in one of the Hobbit houses in Culver City adorned in glass tiles and ornate fixtures.

Amid that urban blur, the Hobbit Houses beg for your attention.

An electric lamppost flickers, mimicking fire. The tree in the front yard features a face, with eyes and a nose. The homes are filled with quirky leaded glass windows, uneven angles and heaps of wood shingles, resembling a thatched straw roof.

This year, the property hit the market for the first time. Offers poured in, and it sold to perhaps the most fitting possible buyer outside Bilbo Baggins himself: real estate agent Michael Libow.

At $1.88 million, Libow didn’t have the highest bid. His main qualification was that he owns and lives in one of the finest examples of Storyboook style in the region: the Witch’s House, a medieval-looking masterpiece that is more befitting a “Hansel and Gretel” adaptation than the streets of Beverly Hills.

The broker, seeing his connection to the style, promoted Libow to the seller, an out-of-state bank trust. The Hobbit Houses were his.

Michael Libow peers through a heavy wooden door of a Hobbit house that he purchased in early 2025.

“It’s like a companion piece to my own home,” Libow said. “It’s a little oasis in a city that’s been overdeveloped.”

Now that he owns both, Libow has declared himself, tongue-in-cheek, the “King of Storybook,” and said he intends to protect the property and be a spokesperson for the style.

“This is my legacy: bringing a little bit of joy to as many people as I can,” he said. “It’s about preservation, but it’s also about bringing a sense of awe and wonder to the world.”

The Hobbit Houses are one of Southern California’s finest examples of Storybook architecture, a fantasy style that fittingly emerged in L.A. in the 1920s around the start of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Inspired by cinema setpieces and centuries-old European cottages, architects designed playful homes with turrets and gables on the outside and nooks and crannies on the inside. When done well, the finished product looks lifted from a fairy tale.

A cat digs around on the roof of a Hobbit house in Culver City.

Disney artist Lawrence Joseph built the Hobbit Houses from 1946 to 1970. Over the years, the property developed a lore all its own. He rented out spare units to Hollywood tenants such as actor Nick Nolte and dancer Gwen Verdon, and the place also housed one of the men who kidnapped Frank Sinatra’s son (authorities found most of the ransom money Sinatra paid, $240,000, in one of the units).

Lawrence died in 1991, and his wife, Martha, got to work protecting the property. She obtained landmark status in 1996 and donated an easement to the Los Angeles Conservancy, ensuring that it can’t be remodeled or torn down.

The property, which includes nine units across four buildings, needed some work when he bought it, so Libow and his property manager, Ben Stine, have spent the last few months playing a developer’s version of “Minesweeper,” trying to make small improvements for the tenants — electric work, a tankless water heater — without disrupting anything protected by the L.A. Conservancy easement.

The Hobbit Houses came with a 15-page report detailing all the things protected on the property: not just the buildings themselves, but also the facade, landscape features and the interiors, including the custom furniture that Lawrence carved himself. Even the wallpaper can’t be touched.

“Protections within a structure are very unusual. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Libow said.

Detail of the flooring inside a Hobbit house in Culver City.

That means for renters, much of the furniture is included with the rent. The latest vacant unit — a two-bed, one-bath with a den — includes bar stools and a rocking chair that Lawrence carved.

The house is wrapped in clinker brick, a term for when clay bricks are set too close to the flames when being fired in a kiln, giving them distorted shapes and colors. Such bricks were sometimes trashed in older architectural eras, but these days, they’re prized for the unique look they bring to buildings, and perfectly natural for Middle Earth architecture in Culver City.

Inside, Lawrence’s sailing background shines through with nautical-themed interiors. A ship’s wheel serves as the chandelier, hanging above vertical-grain boat-plank floors that lead to a galley-style kitchen with a curvy bar.

“The idea behind Storybook is to have something fanciful and whimsical, which involves movement rather than rectilinear rooms,” Libow said. “There’s barely a right angle on the entire property. Everything’s amorphous in shape.”

Detail inside a Hobbit house in Culver City.

There are no knobs to be found; doors open with hidden latches and levers. A built-in fold-down desk pops out in the living room. In the master bedroom, a “cat door” slides open to provide easy access for felines that hang around the property.

The nine units range from 200 square feet to 1,200 square feet. The vacant unit, which spans around 1,000 square feet, hit the market a few months ago for $4,500 per month.

It’s a high price for the neighborhood — most two-bedroom apartments nearby fall in the $3,000 range — but interested renters still swarmed.

“These aren’t your typical tenants that need four walls and a sink. We get a lot of people in the creative industry,” Libow said. “You’re renting a lifestyle here.”

Libow said like his own home, which serves as a regular stop for Hollywood tour buses, the Hobbit Houses are a regular resting point for people walking through the neighborhood.

“Construction workers will walk by on their lunch to look at the turtles in the pond. It’s a break from reality, even if just for a minute,” he said.

Michael Libow outside one of his Hobbit houses in Culver City.

Libow and his property manager spend a lot of time on the grounds, looking for projects or small improvements they’re allowed to make under the conservancy. But for Libow, who bought it as a collector’s item as much as an investment, it’s a labor of love.

“It’s not the most functional style of architecture, but it is the coolest,” he said. “It’s weird, but I’m weird myself. I connect with weird.”

Jack Flemming

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November 21, 2025
Developer plans to add a hotel and hundreds of residences to L.A. Live

The owners of Crypto.com Arena and L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles have filed plans with the city to potentially add another tower to their multibillion-dollar sports and entertainment complex.

AEG last week proposed a 49-story high-rise that would hold a hotel, residences, bars and restaurants.

The tower would rise across Olympic Boulevard from L.A. Live on a corner lot on Georgia Street now used by AEG for parking.

Many planned residential and other commercial projects in Los Angeles have stalled prior to construction in recent years as developers face economic headwinds, including unfavorable interest rates and rising costs of materials and labor.

AEG, too, will not be breaking ground on this project in the near future, a company representative said.

The company’s recent land-use application, which outlined the plans, is just a “first step for a potential development” on the company’s property at 917 W. Olympic Blvd., spokesman Michael Roth said. “AEG remains optimistic about downtown’s long-term prospects and is positioning the site for future development when conditions improve.”

The application calls for a large-scale development with 364 dwelling units and 334 hotel rooms.

The 783,427-square-foot building would also include bars and restaurants on levels 1, 5 and 6, along with a restaurant/nightclub on the eighth floor.

Residents and hotel guests would share an amenity deck with a restaurant, bar, pool, spa, club room, fitness area and a dining terrace. The complex would have 666 parking spaces.

In September, the City Council approved a $2.6-billion expansion of the Convention Center despite warnings from its advisors that the project would draw taxpayer funds away from essential city services for decades to come. Mayor Karen Bass and a majority of the council believe that the project will create thousands of jobs and boost tourism and business activity, making the city more competitive on the national stage.

The new construction will connect the two existing south and west exhibit halls by adding 190,000 square feet of space to create one contiguous hall with more than 750,000 square feet, and will add 39,000 square feet of meeting room space and 95,000 square feet of multipurpose space.

AEG is a co-developer of the Convention Center project with Plenary Americas.

Los Angeles-based AEG is one of the world’s biggest venue and event companies, with more than 20,000 employees. The company was founded in 1995 when Denver billionaire investor Philip Anschutz bought the Los Angeles Kings, and in 1999 it opened the downtown arena then known as the Staples Center, now Crypto.com Arena.

Among AEG’s recent developments is the IG Arena in the outer citadel of Nagoya Castle in Nagoya, Japan, where sports and entertainment events, including sumo wrestling, are held.

Roger Vincent

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November 12, 2025
What $400,000 or less gets you in Bergen County, Aug. 18 to 24

For prospective homebuyers eyeing the real estate market in areas of Bergen County, here’s what sold for or under $400,000 between Aug. 18 and Aug. 24.

Below, we provide an overview of the top 10 properties in each area, chosen for their proximity to the desired price range and the largest living spaces.

Please note that the properties in the list below are for real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of Aug. 18, even if the property may have been sold earlier.

230 The Promenade, Edgewater, NJ

1. $400K

Situated at 230 The Promenade, this condominium, was sold in July for a price of $400,000, translating to $471 per square foot. The property was constructed in 2003 and offers a living area of 850 square feet. The deal was finalized on July 30.

693 Chestnut Avenue, Teaneck, NJ

2. $398K

At $397,500 ($305 per square foot), the detached house at 693 Chestnut Ave. offered another opportunity below the targeted price range when it changed hands in July. This property, built in 1928, provides 1,304 square feet of living space, and sits on a 5,001-square-foot lot. The deal was finalized on July 29.

137 Orient Way, Rutherford, NJ

3. $345K, 1 bedroom / 1 bathroom

Priced at $345,000 (equivalent to $370 per square foot), this condominium, constructed in 1970 and situated at 137 Orient Way, was sold in July. The home spans 932 square feet of living area, with one bedroom and one bathroom. The deal was finalized on July 28.

1600 Center Avenue, Fort Lee, NJ

4. $329K, 1 bedroom / 1 bath

For a price tag of $329,000 ($560 per square foot), the condominium, built in 1975 and at 1600 Center Ave. changed hands in August. The home spans 588 square feet of living area, with one bedroom and one bathroom. The deal was finalized on Aug. 1.

1002 Washington Drive, Ramsey, NJ

5. $315K

In July, a condominium at 1002 Washington Drive, changed ownership. The property, covering 670 square feet, was built in 1964 and was sold for $315,000, which calculates to $470 per square foot. The lot size encompasses 0.8 acres. The deal was finalized on July 29.

6. $300K

This condominium, underwent a change of ownership in July. At 316 Prospect Ave., the home spans 962 square feet and was sold for $300,000, or $312 per square foot. The property was built in 1987. The deal was finalized on July 28.

90 Prospect Avenue, Hackensack, NJ

7. $285K

For a price tag of $285,000 ($284 per square foot), the condominium, built in 1956 and at 90 Prospect Ave. changed hands in July. The home spans 1,004 square feet of living area. The deal was finalized on July 31.

464 Liberty Street, Little Ferry, NJ

8. $270K

Situated at 464 Liberty Street, this condominium, was sold in July for a price of $270,000, translating to $364 per square foot. The property was constructed in 1969 and offers a living area of 742 square feet. The deal was finalized on July 31.

9. $270K

This single-family house, underwent a change of ownership in August. At 41 N. Franklin Turnpike, the home, built in 1955, was sold for $270,000. The property sits on a lot measuring 1.3 acres. The deal was finalized on Aug. 1.

388 Hickory Street, Teaneck, NJ

10. $235K

At $235,110 ($131 per square foot), the single-family home at 388 Hickory Street offered another opportunity below the targeted price range when it changed hands in July. This property, built in 1925, provides 1,796 square feet of living space, and sits on a 10,080-square-foot lot. The deal was finalized on July 28.

Real Estate Newswire is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to generate analysis of data from Propmix, an aggregator of national real-estate data.

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August 25, 2025
Historic film studio hits the market at top dollar even as filming dips

One of the oldest movie studios in Los Angeles is up for sale, perhaps to the newest generation of content creators.

The potential sale of Occidental Studios comes amid a drop in filming in Los Angeles as the local entertainment industry faces such headwinds as rising competition from studios in other cities and countries, as well as the aftermath of filming slowdowns during the pandemic and industry strikes of 2023.

Occidental Studios, which dates back to 1913, was once used by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to make silent films. It is a small version of a traditional Hollywood studio with soundstages, offices and writers’ bungalows in a 3-acre gated campus near Echo Park in Historic Filipinotown.

Kermit the Frog above the Jim Henson Company studio lot in Hollywood.

(AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

The seller hopes its boutique reputation will garner $45 million, which would rank it one of the most valuable studios in Southern California at $651 per square foot. A legendary Hollywood studio founded by Charlie Chaplin in 1917 sold last year for $489 per foot, according to real estate data provider CoStar.

The Chaplin studio, known until recently as the Jim Henson Company Lot, was purchased by singer-songwriter John Mayer and movie director McG from the family of Muppets creator Jim Henson.

Occidental Studios may sell to one of today’s modern content creators in search of a flagship location, said real estate broker Nicole Mihalka of CBRE, who represents the seller.

She declined to name potential buyers but said she is showing the property to new-media businesses who don’t present themselves through traditional channels such as television shows and instead rely on social media and the internet to reach younger audiences.

Occidental Studios, which dates back to 1913, was once used by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to make silent films.

(CBRE)

New media entrepreneurs may not often need soundstages, “but they like the idea of having the history, the legacy” of a studio linked to the early days of cinema, she said. It might lend credibility to a brand and become a destination for promotional activities as well as being a place to create content, she said. Mihalka envisions the space being used for events for partners, sponsors and advertisers as well as press junkets for new product launches.

Entertainment businesses located nearby include filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s Array Now, independent film and production company Blumhouse Productions and film and production company Rideback Ranch.

Neighborhoods east of Hollywood such as Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park and Highland Park have become home to many people in the entertainment industry, which Mihalka hopes will elevate the appeal of Occidental Studios.

“We’ve been seeing film and TV talent heading this way for a while,” she said, including executives who also live in those neighborhoods.

The owner of of Occidental Studios said it’s gotten harder for smaller studios to operate in the current economic climate that includes competition from major independent studio operators that have emerged in recent decades.

“Once upon a time, you did not have multibillion-dollar global portfolio companies swimming in the waters of Hollywood,” said Craig Darian, chief executive of Occidental Entertainment Group Holdings Inc., citing Hudson Pacific Properties, Hackman Capital Partners and CIM Group. “They are not content producers, but have a long history of providing services for multiple television shows and features.”

Competition now includes overseas studios in such countries as Canada, Ireland and Australia, he said. “When production was really robust and domiciled in Los Angeles, it was much easier to remain very competitive.”

Another factor threatening the bottom line for conventional studios is rapidly changing technology used to create entertainment including tools as simple as lighting.

“You used to know that equipment would last for decades,” Darian said. “The new tools for production are becoming obsolete in far shorter order.”

Writers’ bungalows at Occidental Studios.

(CBRE)

Nevertheless, Darian said, the potential sale “is not motivated by distress or urgency. Nothing is driving the decision other than the timing of whether or not this remains to be a relevant asset to keep within our portfolio. If we get an offer at or above the asking price, then we’re a seller.”

Darian said he may also seek a long-term tenant to take over the studio.

Occidental Studios at 201 N. Occidental Blvd. comprises over 69,000 square feet of buildings including four soundstages and support space such as offices and dressing rooms.

It’s among the oldest continually operating studios in Hollywood, used by pioneering filmmakers Cecil B. DeMille, D.W. Griffith and Pickford, who worked there as an actor and filmmaker in its early years. She reportedly kept an apartment on the lot for years.

More recently it has been used for television production for shows including “Tales of the City,” “New Girl” and HBO’s thriller “Sharp Objects.”

Local television production area declined by 30.5% in the first quarter compared with the previous year, according to he nonprofit organization FilmLA, which tracks shoot days in the Greater Los Angeles region. All categories of TV production were down, including dramas (-38.9%), comedies (-29.9%), reality shows -(26.4%) and pilots (-80.3%).

Feature film production decreased by 28.9%, while commercials were down by 2.1%, FilmLA said.

Roger Vincent

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June 24, 2025
‘I’m not going anywhere’: For one Altadena fire survivor, the math makes sense to rebuild

Jennie Marie Mahalick Petrini has a big decision on her hands.

For Petrini, the night of Jan. 7 brought total loss. The Eaton fire decimated her quaint home in the northwest corner of Altadena near Jane’s Village, reducing her sanctuary to a pile of rubble.

“I have a spiritual connection to that house,” she said. “It was the only place I felt safe.”

Now, like thousands of others, she’s crunching the numbers on whether to sell her burned lot and move on, or stay and rebuild.

For many, it makes more sense to sell. Experts estimate a rebuild could take years, and navigating contractors, inspectors and governmental red tape, all while recovering from a traumatic incident, just isn’t worth the effort. It’s the reason why lots are hitting the market daily.

But for Petrini — for reasons both emotional and financial, a melding of head and heart — staying is the only realistic option.

Breaking down the math

Petrini, 47, bought her Altadena home, where she lived with her partner and two daughters, for $705,000 in 2019. Built in 1925, it’s 1,352 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms on a thin lot of just over 5,300 square feet.

She was able to refinance her loan during the pandemic, lowering the interest rate to 2.75% on a $450,000 mortgage. The move brought her mortgage payments from $3,600 down to $3,000 — a relative steal, and only slightly more than the $2,800 rent she has been paying for a Tujunga apartment since the fire.

The property was insured by Farmers, which sprang into action following the fire, sending the first of her payouts on Jan. 8.

Petrini received $380,000 for the dwelling, an extra 20% for extended damage equating to roughly $70,000, and $200,000 for personal property. She used the $200,000 payout to cover living expenses such as a second car, medical bills and a bit of savings, and also tucked away $50,000 to use toward rebuilding.

She estimates that even the thriftiest rebuild will cost around $700,000, and right now, she can cover around $500,000: the $380,000 and $70,000 insurance payouts, plus $50,000 of the personal property payout she stashed for a rebuild.

To cover the extra $200,000, she received a Small Business Administration loan up to $500,000 with an interest rate of 2.65%, which can be used for property renovations. Once she starts pulling from that loan, she estimates she’ll pay around $1,000 per month, which, combined with her $3,000 mortgage, totals roughly $4,000.

It’s a hefty number, but still far cheaper than selling and starting over.

“I could sell the lot for $500,000, take my insurance payout and buy something new, but my house was valued at $1.2 million,” she said. “So even if I put $500,000 down on a new house, to get something similar, I’d have a $700,000 mortgage with a much higher interest rate.”

As it stands, if she cashed out, she’d be renting for the foreseeable future in the midst of a housing crisis where rents rise and some landlords take advantage of tenants, especially in times of crisis. Price gouging skyrocketed as thousands flooded the rental market in January, leading to bidding wars for subaverage homes. To secure her Tujunga rental, Petrini, through her insurance, had to pay 18 months of rent up front — a total of more than $50,000.

“It sounds so lucrative: sell the land, pay off my mortgage and be debt-free. But then my children wouldn’t have a home,” she said.

Bigger than money

Jennie Marie Mahalick Petrini, from left, and her daughters, Marli Petrini, 19, and Camille Petrini, 12, look over the lot where their home stood before the Altadena fire. It was the first time the daughters had looked through the lot.

(Robert Hanashiro / For The Times)

While the math makes sense, Petrini has bigger reasons for staying: she’s emotionally tied to the lot, the community and the people within it.

Altadena is a safe haven for her. She bought her home after escaping a domestic violence situation in 2017. The seller had higher offers, but ended up selling to Petrini after she wrote a letter explaining her circumstances.

It’s also the place where she got sober after abusing stimulants to stay awake and keep things running as a single mom.

“When I was getting sober, I’d go for walks five times a day through the neighborhood,” she said. The trees, the animals, the flowers, the variety of houses. It was — is — a special place.”

Petrini once worked as the executive director of operations at Occidental College, but took a break in 2023 to focus on her children and her health. She and a daughter both have Type 1 diabetes.

Petrini hasn’t been employed since, and her parents helped her pay the mortgage before the fire. She acknowledges that she’s operating from a place of privilege, but said accepting help is crucial when recovering from something.

“Even being unemployed, I just knew I’d be okay here,” she said. “I would trade potting soil to a man who owned a vegan restaurant in exchange for food. You always get what you need here.”

Getting crafty

For Petrini, speed is the name of the game. Experts estimate rebuilding could take somewhere between three and five years or even longer, but she’s hoping to break ground in August and finish by next summer.

In addition to nonprofits, she’s also reaching out to appliances manufacturers and construction companies. The goal is to stitch together a house with whatever’s cheap — or even better, free. She recently received 2,500 square feet of siding from Modern Mill.

“I’m not looking for a custom-built mansion, but I also don’t want an IKEA showroom box house,” she said. “My house was 100 years old, and I want to rebuild something with character.”

To help with costs, she’s also hoping to use Senate Bill 9 to split her lot in half. She’d then sell the other half of the property to her contractor, a friend, for a friendly price of $250,000.

$Jennie Marie Mahalick Petrini is diving into the complicated process of staying in Altadena and rebuilding her property.$

Jennie Marie Mahalick Petrini is diving into the complicated process of staying in Altadena and rebuilding her property.

(Robert Hanashiro / For The Times)

To speed up the process, she’s opting for a “like-for-like” rebuild — structures that mirror whatever they’re replacing. For such projects, L.A. County is expediting permitting timelines to speed up fire recovery.

So Petrini’s new house will be the exact same size as the old one: 1,352 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. She submitted plans in early June and expects to get approval by the end of the month.

For the design, she turned to Altadena Collective, an organization collaborating with the Foothill Catalog Foundation that’s helping fire victims in Jane’s Village rebuild the English Cottage-style homes for which the neighborhood is known. For customized architectural plans, project management and structural engineering, Petrini paid them $33,000 — roughly half of what she would’ve paid someone else, she said.

“I’m going with whatever’s quickest and most efficient. If we run out of money, who needs drywall,” she said. “I want my house to be the first one rebuilt.”

It doesn’t have to be perfect. Petrini and her daughters have been compiling vision boards of their dream kitchen and bathrooms, but she knows sacrifices will be made.

“It’s gonna be a scavenger hunt to get this done. We’re gonna use any material we can find,” she said. “But it’ll have a story. Just like Altadena.”

Jack Flemming

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June 23, 2025
There’s one bright spot for San Francisco’s office space market

SAN FRANCISCO — In recent years, San Francisco’s image as a welcoming place for businesses has taken a hit.

Major tech companies such as Dropbox and Salesforce reduced footprints in the city by subleasing office space, while retailers including Nordstrom and Anthropologie pulled out of downtown. Social media firm X, formerly Twitter, vacated its Mid-Market headquarters for Texas, after owner Elon Musk complained about “dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building.”

While the city remains on the defensive, one bright spot has been a boom in artificial intelligence startups.

San Francisco’s 35.4% vacancy rate in the first quarter — among the highest in the nation — is expected to drop one to three percentage points in the third quarter thanks to AI companies expanding or opening new offices in the city, according to real estate brokerage firm JLL. The last time San Francisco’s vacancy rate dropped was in the fourth quarter, when it declined 0.2% — the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to JLL.

“People wanted to count us out, and I think that was a bad bet,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “We’re seeing all of this because the ecosystem is better here in San Francisco than anywhere else in the world, and it’s really an exciting time.”

Five years ago, AI leases in San Francisco’s commercial real estate market were relatively sparse, with just two leases in 2020, according to JLL. But that’s since soared to 167 leases in the first quarter of 2025. The office footprint for AI companies has also surged, making up 4.8 million square feet in 2024, up from 2.6 million in 2022, JLL said.

“You need the talent base, you need the entrepreneur ecosystem, and you need the VC ecosystem,” said Alexander Quinn, senior director of economic research for JLL’s Northwest region. “So all those three things exist within the greater Bay Area, and that enables us to be the clear leader.”

AI firms are attracted to San Francisco because of the concentration of talent in the city, analysts said. The city is home to AI companies including ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Anthropic, known for the chatbot Claude, which in turn attract businesses that want to collaborate. The Bay Area is also home to universities that attract entrepreneurs and researchers, including UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and Stanford University.

Venture capital companies are pouring money into AI, fueling office and staff growth. OpenAI landed last quarter the world’s largest venture capital deal, raising $40 billion, according to research firm CB Insights.

OpenAI leases about 1 million square feet of space across five different locations in the city and employs roughly 2,000 people in San Francisco. The company earlier this year opened its new headquarters in Mission Bay, leasing the space from Uber.

OpenAI began as a nonprofit research lab in 2015 and the people involved found their way to San Francisco for the same reason why earlier generations of technologists and people pushing the frontier in the United States are drawn to the city, said Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s vice president of global affairs in an interview.

“It is a place where, when you put out an idea, no matter how crazy it may seem at the time, or how unorthodox it may seem … San Francisco is the city where people don’t say, ‘That’s crazy,’” Lehane said. “They say, ‘That’s a really interesting idea. Let’s see if we can do it.’”

The interior of OpenAI’s new San Francisco headquarters in the Mission Bay neighborhood. (OpenAI)

Databricks, valued at $62 billion, is also expanding in San Francisco. Databricks in March announced it will move to a larger space in the Financial District next year, boosting its office footprint to 150,000 square feet and more than doubling its San Francisco staff in the next two years. It pledged to hold its annual Data + AI Summit in the city for five more years.

The company holds 57,934 square feet at its current San Francisco office near the Embarcadero, according to CoStar, which tracks real estate trends.

“San Francisco is a real talent magnet for AI talent,” said Databricks’ co-founder and vice president of engineering Patrick Wendell. “It’s a beautiful city for people to live and work in and so we really are just following where the employees are.”

Several years ago, Wendell said his company was considering whether to expand in San Francisco. At the time, it was unclear whether people would return to offices after the pandemic, and some businesses raised concerns about safety and cleanliness of San Francisco’s streets. Wendell said his company decided to invest more in the city after getting reassurances from city leaders.

“People are seeing an administration that is focused on public safety, clean streets and creating the conditions that also says that we’re open for business,” said Lurie, who defeated incumbent mayor London Breed last November by campaigning on public safety. “We’ve said from day one, we have to create the conditions for our arts and culture, for our small businesses and for our innovators and our entrepreneurs to thrive here.”

Laurel Arvanitidis, director of business development for San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, said that the city’s policy and tax reforms have helped attract and retain businesses in recent years, including an office tax credit that gives up to a $1-million credit for businesses that are new or relocating to San Francisco.

On Thursday, Lurie announced on social media that cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is opening an office in San Francisco after leaving the city four years ago.

“We are excited to reopen an office in SF,” Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong wrote in response to the mayor’s social media post. “Still lots of work to do to improve the city (it was so badly run for many years) but your excellent work has not gone unnoticed, and we greatly appreciate it.”

Santa Clara-based Nvidia is also looking for San Francisco office space, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be named. The news was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. Nvidia, which also has California offices in San Dimas and Sunnyvale, declined to comment.

“It’s because of AI that San Francisco is back,” Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said last month on the Hill & Valley Forum podcast. “Just about everybody evacuated San Francisco. Now it’s thriving again.”

But San Francisco still has challenges ahead, as companies continue to push workers to return to the office. While the street environment has improved, it will be critical for the city to keep up the progress.

Lurie said his administration inherited the largest budget deficit in the city’s history and they have to get that under control. His administration’s task is to make sure streets and public spaces are clean, safe and inviting, he said.

“We have work to do, there’s no question, but we are a city on the rise, that’s for sure,” Lurie said.

Times staff writer Roger Vincent contributed to this report.

Wendy Lee

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June 1, 2025
L.A. County to buy downtown skyscraper for new HQ despite a ‘hell no’ from Hahn

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved the county’s purchase of the Gas Company Tower, one of downtown L.A.’s most prominent skyscrapers, paving the way for the transfer of thousands of workers and public services out of the city’s civic center.

With a 4-1 vote, the supervisors gave county officials the final green light to move ahead with buying the tower for $200 million.

The approval came over vehement objections from Supervisor Janice Hahn, who warned that the purchase would sound the death knell for downtown’s civic heart and shunt the county’s workforce to a “souless” office tower on Bunker Hill.

“None of you here are going to convince me that this is a good idea,” Hahn said before casting her vote against the purchase with a “hell no.”

County employees are currently based inside the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, a 1960 building named after Hahn’s father, a longtime county supervisor.

The building is one of several county-owned properties considered vulnerable to collapse in a major earthquake. Officials have estimated that it will cost hundreds of millions to upgrade the buildings, making a new, presumably safer skyscraper an appealing alternative to some on the board.

“If we know this building is not seismically safe, then we have an obligation and a responsibility to take action,” Supervisor Holly Mitchell said from the room inside Hahn Hall where the board holds its weekly meetings.

County Chief Executive Fesia Davenport, whose office spearheaded the sale, promised the purchase “will save the county hundreds of millions of dollars” compared with the cost of upgrading the Hall of Administration and other county buildings.

No supervisors have toured the building themselves, according to a county spokesperson, though several of their staff members have visited.

The 52-story tower at 555 W. 5th St. was widely considered one of the city’s most prestigious office buildings when it was completed in 1991. It has nearly 1.5 million square feet of space on a 1.4-acre site at the base of Bunker Hill.

The price is a deep discount from the building’s appraised value of $632 million in 2020, underscoring how much downtown office values have fallen in recent years.

At $200 million, the county would get the Gas Company Tower for about $137 a square foot, a bargain by historical standards. The county also agreed to pay as much as an additional $5 million in closing costs on the transaction.

“This opportunity will not last forever,” Davenport warned, adding that the county could finance the purchase in part from money set aside for capital projects.

Hahn said the transaction was akin to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

“The money being used to pay for this purchase is being stolen from the funds that were meant to keep this building alive,” she said from Hahn Hall.

Richard Keating, the architect who designed the Gas Company Tower to appeal to corporate America, said it makes sense for a public entity to take ownership now.

“We’re looking at a decline in need for standard office use, meaning lawyers, architects and accountants are doing things differently” since the pandemic, Keating said. “City and county employees are still hard at work in their office spaces, but they’re tired, old, sometimes decrepit and oftentimes no longer up to code in terms of earthquake” safety requirements.

“It’s a perfect time to take advantage of some of these more or less empty office buildings.”

Moving hundreds of county workers into the Gas Company Tower also stands to lift shops, restaurants and other businesses in the nearby blocks by Pershing Square, he said. “I think it’s a good move all the way around.”

In recent years, the downtown office market has turned against landlords as many tenants reduced their office footprint in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it became more common for employees to work remotely.

Last year, the owner of the Gas Company Tower, an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, defaulted on its debt, and the property was put in receivership, in which a court-appointed representative took custody of the building to help creditors recover funds they lent to Brookfield. The building has about $465 million in outstanding loans.

Other major tenants in the Gas Company Tower include law firm Latham & Watkins and accounting firm Deloitte. The county will assume the tenant leases as landlord.

When the Gas Company Tower is formally owned by the county, it will be removed from the tax rolls. The building’s property tax bill last year was more than $7.1 million, according to real estate data provider CoStar.

Tenants would, however, be required to contribute to the tax rolls by an unspecified amount through a “possessory interest tax” that can be levied on private companies leasing public buildings. Tenants in privately owned office buildings also commonly pay a share of the landlord’s property taxes.

The building is in good condition with “a remaining useful life” of no less than 35 years, according to a recent property condition report prepared for the current owner that was obtained by The Times.

The report also said the tower and the World Trade Center garage at 333 S. Flower St. included in the deal require about $1.3 million to address urgently needed repairs and deferred maintenance. Additional long-term costs to maintain and modernize the properties were estimated at about $48.7 million over 12 years. Projected costs include roof repairs, refurbishing air conditioning systems and updating the elevators.

The county currently occupies about 16.5 million square feet of office space for 38 departments, which comprises 6.9 million square feet of leased office space and 9.6 million square feet of owned office space, Davenport said in a memo to the board recommending the purchase of the Gas Company Tower.

The county spends about $195 million per year on the leased office space, and the property it owns “is in poor condition and old,” Davenport said. Nearly half of it is more than 50 years old.

By moving staff from both leased office space and aging buildings in poor condition, the county avoids paying rent and the “significant” costs of seismic retrofits and other needed renovations to old buildings such as aging air conditioning, plumbing and electrical systems, the chief executive’s memo said. Funds earmarked for seismic retrofits and other renovations of old buildings will be included in the payment for the Gas Company Tower.

The county inspected the building and will buy it “as-is,” Davenport said. The Department of Public Works reviewed a seismic report for the tower and agreed with its findings. A county spokesperson said the findings will remain confidential until the deal closes.

If the county elects to complete a seismic retrofit and other improvements to the Gas Company Tower, it can realize a future return on its investment by selling the building when the market recovers, Davenport said.

Southern California Gas Co. said in September that it is planning to move from its longtime headquarters in its namesake tower, where it has been a primary tenant since the building was completed, to another skyscraper a block north at 350 S. Grand Ave.

The utility signed a long-term lease for nearly 200,000 square feet on eight floors in the Grand Avenue building on Bunker Hill often known as Two California Plaza, its new landlord said, and is expected to move by spring 2026 after building out the new offices. SoCalGas will also have an office on the ground floor to serve customers.

Rebecca Ellis, Roger Vincent

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November 6, 2024
Studio owners revise plans for $1-billion update of historic Television City

The owners of Television City have scaled back their plans to enlarge and modernize the landmark Los Angeles studio where CBS began making shows to broadcast nationwide at the dawn of the television age.

Formerly known as CBS Television City, the studio sits next to popular tourist attractions the Original Farmers Market and the Grove shopping center in the Fairfax district where it has been operating since 1952 as a factory for such hit shows as “All in the Family,” “Sonny and Cher” and “American Idol.”

CBS sold the famous studio for $750 million in 2019 to Hackman Capital Partners, one of the world’s largest movie lot owners and operators. CBS continues to occupy Television City as a tenant.

An architect’s rendering of the planned office and production space at Television City, an entertainment studio in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles.

(Courtesy of Foster + Partners and Television City)

Hackman Capital announced a $1.25-billion plan two years ago to expand and upgrade facilities on the lot at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in hopes of harnessing strong demand in the region for soundstages, production facilities and offices for rent on studio lots.

Hackman Capital on Friday will update its application to the city to enhance the studio, saying it is responding to feedback about the project from nearby residents, stakeholders and city officials. If approved, the new project is expected to be completed by 2028.

The studio owners also brought in a new design architect, Foster + Partners. The London-based firm is led by Norman Foster, a prominent architect whose designs include the pickle-shaped Gherkin skyscraper in London and the master plan for the $2-billion One Beverly Hills condominium and hotel complex under construction in Beverly Hills.

Hackman Capital, which operates studios in the U.S., Canada and U.K., is also responding to changing conditions in the office rental market, which has contracted since the COVID-19 pandemic drove many companies to work remotely at least some of the time. Plans still call for creating new offices, but there would be fewer of them.

Foster’s new design eliminates a 15-story office tower on the west side of the lot, cutting 150,000 square feet of offices to rent to entertainment-related firms. Another 15-story office tower remains in the plan, but other building heights have been lowered, particularly along the perimeters, Hackman Capital said.

An architect’s rendering of plans for Television City.

(Courtesy of Foster + Partners and Television City)

The plan still represents an addition of more than 980,000 square feet to the 25-acre site at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue that retains a suburban-style low-density appearance with soundstages, low-rise offices and support facilities flanked by asphalt parking lots.

The company’s proposal calls for combining old and new space to create 700,000 square feet of offices to support production on the lot and an additional 550,000 square feet of offices for rent to entertainment and media companies, the company said.

Office space behind studio gates is in high demand in the Los Angeles area and has been snapped up at other studios by such big Hollywood players as Netflix and Amazon.

“The industry wants to have a location where they can do production and have offices in a self-contained campus environment,” said real estate broker Jeff Pion of CBRE, who represents Hackman Capital. “Having all of the different components that make up production in one location is very attractive to the industry.”

Plans for Television City also call for a new commissary and more than four acres for production base camps. The streetscapes would be improved to be more visually appealing to passersby, with wider sidewalks.

On Fairfax Avenue, where pedestrians now pass by a fenced parking lot, there would be shops and restaurants serving the public on the ground floor of office buildings that could be reached only from inside the lot.

The separation is part of the balancing act Hackman Capital is attempting to make Television City feel more friendly to the neighborhood while retaining the security and exclusivity of a closed campus that appeals to celebrities and others who make movies and television shows.

Landlords can also charge a premium for office space on movie lots because they are close to the action for independent production companies and offer the cachet prized by many in the entertainment industry.

Filming activity in Los Angeles has fallen off substantially in the wake of strikes by writers and actors last year, according to FilmLA, a nonprofit organization that tracks on-location shoot days and filming permits in the region. The downward trend compounded a dip that emerged in late 2022 as on-location filming in Los Angeles took a dive as studios pared back movie and TV production that surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A rendering of the entrance to the planned mobility hub on Fairfax Avenue where shuttle buses from a nearby subway station would come and go.

(Courtesy of Foster + Partners and Television City)

California is finding it particularly hard to rebound from the strikes because it’s more expensive to shoot here, multiple production executives told The Times. That makes Los Angeles less attractive to studios looking to cut costs after major industry disruption.

To Hackman Capital Chief Executive Michael Hackman, the downturn and filming pullback from California suggest that regulators and studio operators should further support production companies.

“Our actual customers tell us all of them want to stay in Los Angeles,” he said. “We have the best crews in the world here, but we don’t have enough modern soundstages in premier locations. We also have to push the state on tax incentives so that we don’t lose business outside of the city.

“The entertainment industry is our city signature industry and if we don’t invest in the future, we’re really at risk of losing it,” Hackman said. “We’re still emerging from a once-in-a-generation dual strike. And the production stoppage cost Angelenos approximately $6.5 billion or more in lost wages and economic activity, which makes it clear how important this industry is to our city, and especially the people who work in entertainment every day.”

Hackman Capital’s proposal calls for raising the number of Television City stages to at least 15, from 8, along with production support facilities.

To make room for the planned additions, parking would be converted from surface lots to garage structures and underground spaces capable of parking 4,930 vehicles.

Two stages built in the 1990s on the east side of the lot would be demolished as part of a planned reconfiguration of the site.

The four original stages built by CBS in 1952 would be preserved along with other historical design elements created by Los Angeles architect William Pereira, who also designed such noteworthy structures as the futuristic Theme Building in the middle of Los Angeles International Airport and the Transamerica Pyramid office tower in San Francisco.

Pereira’s long-range plan for Television City conceived in the 1950s was expansive, said Bob Hale, creative director of Rios, the master plan architect of Hackman Capital’s proposed makeover. Hale said Pereira’s original concept called for the complex to grow to 24 stages and 2.5 million square feet of production space, including several multistory office buildings.

“It was built in a way that it could be disassembled and incrementally extended,” Hale said. “For a number of reasons, that didn’t happen.”

In an effort to make it happen now, Hackman Capital set out to get the support of Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky and the surrounding community. Over five years, the company met with nearly 3,000 neighbors, Hackman Capital said.

Among the groups supporting the project are the Holocaust Museum LA, Los Angeles Conservancy, Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, Mid City West Neighborhood Council and FilmLA, Hackman Capital said.

The first proposal drew fire from neighboring businesses the Grove and Farmers Market, which sent letters to residents in 2022 calling the Television City project a “massively scaled, speculative development which, if approved, would overwhelm, disrupt, and forever transform the community.”

In July 2022, an executive representing Grove owner Rick Caruso appeared before a committee of the Mid City West Neighborhood Council and said the Television City project would create “complex” issues for the neighborhood, including traffic, parking and construction. Caruso himself has said he does not oppose the redevelopment of Television City.

The Beverly Fairfax Community Alliance, which was founded by the Grove and Farmers Market, has been more blunt, warning that the expanded site would clog Fairfax Avenue, Beverly Boulevard, La Brea Avenue and 3rd Street with traffic.

The signature red awning at Television City as seen from Beverly Boulevard.

(Courtesy of Foster + Partners and Television City)

“Even those accustomed to living with L.A. traffic and parking nightmares will be shocked at how much worse it can be,” the group said on its website.

To address such concerns, Hackman Capital said the new plan will reduce the number of estimated daily car trips to Television City by 5,000 to 8,700. The landlord also plans to move its “mobility hub” from The Grove Drive on the east side to Fairfax at 1st Street on the west side of the lot. The mobility hub would serve public transit, rideshares and other passenger drop-offs as well as employee shuttle buses to the subway stop being built at Fairfax and Wilshire Boulevard.

“Our goal with Television City, particularly along the perimeter on our public edges, was to find a really great interface with the community. So it wasn’t just a studio with a blank wall, but we were active and engaged,” said Brian Glodney, a development executive for Hackman Capital.

Community members told Hackman Capital said they want the streets outside the studio to have a sense of connection between mom-and-pop businesses on Fairfax, the Farmers Market, the Grove and Pan Pacific Park, Glodney said.

Outlets on the edge of the lot such as shops and restaurants will be limited to a total of 20,000 square feet, he said, “just enough to help activate the streets but not compete with our neighbors.”

Roger Vincent

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April 4, 2024
Historic Sportsmen’s Lodge hotel may be demolished for 520-unit apartment complex

The historic Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City could be demolished to make way for a 520-unit residential complex and mixed-used development if the Los Angeles City Council approves the project Wednesday.

Proponents of the development say it would bring much-needed affordable housing that would enable workers to live closer to their jobs.

Opponents say the developers have not sufficiently weighed the project’s effects and that it would erase an important piece of history.

The Sportsmen’s Lodge hotel permanently closed when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Now, the only active part of the property is the neighboring Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge, which opened in 2021 with retailers including grocery chain Erewhon and the sustainable clothing and shoe store Allbirds. The lodge’s event center was demolished to make room for the shops.

Developers have long had designs on the nearly nine-acre property at Ventura Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Avenue. Best Buy eyed it for a superstore in the ’90s. Richard Weintraub, who owned the land at the time, had plans to revamp the lodge in 2009 and reopen it as “Sportsmen’s Landing,” with a boutique shopping center and modern restaurants. Legal issues with the hotel lease prevented that project from coming to fruition.

In addition to the 520 apartment units, 78 of which would be set aside for low-income tenants, the project would include 46,000 square feet of commercial space. The design would also include a bike and pedestrian path along the L.A. River.

Erewhon, the Studio City Residents Assn. and Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel workers, filed appeals with the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee to stop the project, which had been approved by the city Planning Commission in July.

At a meeting earlier this month, the committee denied the appeals, sending the proposal to the full City Council for Wednesday’s vote.

“This will bring one of the most important and catalytic developments to this part of the San Fernando Valley,” Dave Rand, a lawyer representing the developer, Midwood Investment & Development, said at the meeting. “For years, Ventura Boulevard has been a largely ignored, yet hugely important corridor in the Valley. With this city’s unbelievably ambitious housing goals and obligations, the corner of Coldwater and Ventura Boulevard at this site is the perfect location to bring housing, mixed use and river-appropriate fronted development.”

The property, which became popular for its trout fishing and bait-and-tackle shop in the 1930s, was first owned by actors Noah and Wallace Beery.

Dancers Peta Siddall and Josie Neglia demonstrate salsa moves before a crowd in the Sportsmen’s Lodge in 2001.

(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

In 1946, the event center and restaurant opened, followed by the 190-room hotel in 1962. In its heyday, Sportsmen’s Lodge was a movie studio hangout, and many local residents knew it as a popular venue for weddings, bar mitzvahs, New Year’s parties and more.

In recent years, most hotel guests were tourists visiting nearby Universal Studios, but that dried up in the pandemic, and the hotel has been shuttered since then. In 2020, the hotel was a Project Roomkey site, housing people experiencing homelessness to reduce the spread of the virus.

In 1964, the lodge became the first hotel to unionize in the San Fernando Valley and was one of the first union hotels in Los Angeles. The organizing drive was led by Bill Robertson, a leader in the Los Angeles labor movement.

“We continue to believe that … the historic hotel is an important remaining link to that history, and therefore should be preserved,” Unite Here Local 11 co-President Kurt Petersen said in a written statement.

An Erewhon representative did not respond to a request for comment.

Midwood Investment & Development, which bought the property in 2017, sued Erewhon in 2022, accusing it of failing to pay rent and overusing the retail center’s parking lot for its employees.

Erewhon countersued, alleging that Midwood wrongly prohibited Erewhon employees from using the parking lot and that Midwood “induced” Erewhon to lease a space in the proposed shopping center.

Amy Minteer, an attorney for the Studio City Residents Assn., said the association doesn’t want to kill the Sportsmen’s Lodge project but to reduce its height and lessen the construction effects.

Across the L.A. River, Harvard-Westlake school is building an athletic campus on a former golf course.

The cumulative effects of both projects are a big concern, Minteer said — not only air quality and construction noise but also the loss of mature trees.

“The Residents Association doesn’t want there to not be a project,” Minteer said. “They just want this project revised, to mitigate the impacts to the community and to come into closer alignment with existing standards for the neighborhood.”

The residential building will be 97 feet tall, while the tallest building in the area is 56 feet.

“It’s just way out of proportion with everything else in the area,” Minteer said.

Rand, the attorney for the developer, said the project received a density bonus to raise the height beyond the usual 30 feet, which can only be denied if there is a “quantifiable and identifiable health and human safety risk.”

Crispin Carrasco, who lives near the proposed project and is a member of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, said the council supports the development because Midwood has said it will work with contractors who will hire local carpenters.

Stella Stahl, communications director for Councilmember Nithya Raman’s office, said Raman has not yet taken an official position on the project.

At the committee meeting, Mashel Majid, Raman’s deputy chief of staff, said that the development will not significantly affect the area and that Raman’s office is “committed to supporting housing projects.” But Majid expressed disappointment that the historic hotel would be demolished.

“Because this project is on private property and dictated by state laws that protect the ability for this site to build housing, the city, unfortunately, cannot require that the hotel remain,” she said.

Jenna Peterson

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April 3, 2024