Thursday, April 28, 2011

33340 MULHOLLAND HWY, MALIBU 90265 ($1,900,000)



$1,900,000

4 Bedroom

3 Bathroom

4,600 SF

DIRECTIONS: Kanan to Mulholland fork to left to Encinal, turn right on Lechusa, right on Decker to Mulholland

REMARKS: This private Mediterranean Contemporary horse property takes advantage of the views of the Santa Monica Mountains. Inside 3 fireplaces, cooks kitchen with copper hood, the master suite is large and sumptuous living space w/additional room that can be used as a gym or babies room.With deep soak tub & large steam shower are all angled for the views. Gorgeous outdoor living space w/pool, 4 stall barn, wood panel lined tack room, wash rack for 2 horses and arena. This home is all solar powered. 

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

What's Happening in Your Neighborhood - Downtown LA



An Oregon developer plans to build a 22-story hotel near the L.A. Live entertainment center to serve a growing number of visitors to downtown Los Angeles.

Marriott International Inc. would operate the proposed 377-room hotel on Olympic Boulevard under two of the company's brands: Residence Inn by Marriott and Courtyard by Marriott. Construction on the nearly $120-million project is set to begin next March and be completed by 2014.

It would be built and owned by a consortium led by Williams/Dame & Associates, the Portland, Ore., developer that built the condominium towers Evo, Luma and Elleven near Staples Center in the South Park district of downtown.

Maryland-based Marriott already operates a JW Marriott and a Ritz-Carlton in a skyscraper across Olympic on the campus of L.A. Live as well as a Marriott Hotel about seven blocks north on Figueroa Street.

It is not unusual to have multiple Marriott products so close together, company executives said.

"We have a portfolio of brands that cater to different demands and price points," said Tony Capuano, executive vice president of development for Marriott. "This gives us the opportunity to serve a variety of guests who come for a variety of reasons."

The hotel plan is not contingent on the construction of Farmers Field, a proposed professional football stadium and convention facility that L.A. Live owner AEG is seeking approval for to build nearby, Capuano said.

"We feel very good about the bet we have made with our brands," he said, in large part because there are already about 300 events a year at Staples Center and L.A. Live venues including the Nokia Theater.

"We think Farmers Field would continue to grow the appeal and profile" of downtown, he said.

Downtown already is experiencing a burst in hotel visits. With the opening of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton last year, the supply of rooms went up 16% and demand grew 24% in 2010, said Bruce Baltin, a hospitality industry consultant at PKF Consulting USA.

"This is obviously very healthy in a down economy," he said. Downtown hotel occupancy has averaged almost 70% this year, compared with 61% in 2009 and nearly 65% last year.

Baltin attributed the uptick in downtown hotel occupancy to an increase in the number of people who come downtown and stay overnight after attending events. Downtown also is capturing business travelers who might have opted for hotels in Pasadena or the Westside in the past.

"Downtown has kind of reached a critical mass as a destination, and the more you add to it the more it will grow, to a reasonable extent," Baltin said. Marriott's no-frills Courtyard and extended-stay Residence Inn, with its larger units and kitchens, would add types of rooms that don't exist downtown, he said.

Williams/Dame & Associates would develop the hotel at the northwest corner of Olympic and Francisco Street with American Life Inc., a Seattle investment firm. Financing would be through the federal EB-5 program, which provides green cards to immigrant investors who put up a minimum investment of $500,000 for development in targeted areas.

The immigrants would be considered limited partners and thus co-owners of the project. If the project produces enough jobs to meet standards for the program, as expected, they would qualify for green cards granting residency. Marriott said the hotels would create about 100 jobs.

Building a high-rise hotel is less difficult than building a condominium tower because the units are more uniform, said Homer Williams, chairman of Williams/Dame. Williams has developed thousands of condos in Oregon and Los Angeles.

L.A. Live's effect on South Park has been more significant than he expected, and he predicts development in the area will continue to grow.

"We are going to ride some shirttails, hopefully," Williams said. His team acquired the hotel site, which is now a parking lot, from AEG.

The planned project is "another crucial milestone in Los Angeles' thriving downtown renaissance," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement. "This project will create countless local construction and permanent jobs and will expand Los Angeles' infrastructure to support large-scale conventions that generate significant revenue for the city."
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Friday, April 8, 2011

Venice Garden & Home Tour May 7



The Venice Garden & Home show will feature thirty gardens and homes “showcasing the unique vision and creativity of the homeowners, architects, and landscape designers inspired by the Venice Beach lifestyle.”  This year, and each year is different, will feature Venice walk streets and the Coeur d’Alene neighborhood.  Gardens open at 10 am and close approximately 5 pm.


Here is what the Venice Garden & Home Tour has to say about the event. 

"This annual self-guided walking tour will feature 30 gardens and homes in the charming, secluded Walk Streets neighborhood and streets south of Venice Boulevard. The tour is a showcase of how architects, landscape designers, and homeowners have crafted gardens and homes to make lovely living oases. These private spaces, sequestered behind carved wooden doors, contemporary metal gates and imaginative fences, are open to the public this one day of every year when tour-goers can walk the streets, meet and enjoy the community, and be inspired by the inventive design, surprising spirit and whimsy that is uniquely Venice.

The Walk Streets through tranquil neighborhoods where the homes face one another are actually pedestrian paths that bring people together. When Venice was being developed, workers lived in modest bungalows that later became summer beach homes for Angelinos; many of the remaining old bungalows are reworked now to meet today’s standards and tastes, and sit side by side sleek contemporary cubes. Local architects Barbara Bestor, Tom Carson, Talbot McLanahan, Tim Petersen and Robert Thibodeau, along with local landscape designers such as Jay Griffith, Pamela Burton, Naomi Sanders and Di Zock, have influenced the constantly evolving development of these distinctive neighborhoods.

The gardens and homes on this tour exemplify the Venice creative energy, the homeowner’s love of living inside or outside with nature, the use of lanterns or crystal chandeliers found hanging from trees, cleverly placed antique neon signs or sculptures in just the right places to enhance gardens. In this rustic enclave, rooftop gardens and solar panels have popped up into the trees, and tiny vegetable gardens thrive next to shady children’s play yards.

Now in its 18th year, the Venice Garden and Home Tour is the much anticipated annual fundraising event that draws visitors from all over California. The tour gives financial support for NYA’s Las Doradas Children’s Center, a licensed child care facility that provides full-time, education-based child care to low-income working families."


Ticketing & Contact Information

Tickets are $60 in advance , $70 at the door.  Children under 12 are admitted free.  All proceeds go to the Las Doradas Children’s Center, 804 Broadway Ave.  Tickets are tax deductible.   Contact Barbara Bauman at 310-821-1857 or Barbara at Barbara@venicegardentour.org.  Also contact Barbara if you want to be a docent.

To purchase tickets or learn more about the event please visit: http://www.venicegardentour.org/
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Monday, April 4, 2011

$100-million apartment and retail development planned near Hollywood & Highland



A Los Angeles developer is planning to build a $100-million apartment and retail development near the Hollywood & Highland entertainment complex.

Champion Real Estate Co. paid $20 million for a 2.76-acre collection of parcels, some of which will be redeveloped, President Robert Champion said Thursday. The property was purchased out of receivership.

Champion Real Estate's Hollywood project, which has not been designed, would take at least a year to be approved by city officials and an additional two years to build, Champion said. By 2013, he predicted, there should be demand for new apartments.

"We think that will be perfect timing for the market," he said. Potential renters would be "people geared toward the entertainment industry who want to live in Hollywood and like an urban lifestyle."

Champion Real Estate acquired 17 parcels — most of the property — roughly bounded by Highland, Selma, Hawthorn and Las Palmas avenues. The real estate includes three small office buildings, two apartment buildings, a restaurant building and three parking lots, said receiver Taylor B. Grant, who handled the sale.

Panavision occupies one of the office buildings and recently renewed its lease. Champion intends to raze the two vacant low-rise apartment buildings on Selma.

There were 19 offers on the property, according to Grant's Newport Beach-based Real Estate Receiverships. The property had an assessed value of $34 million.

Champion said his company paid about 60% of what the last owners did. Those investors, headed by Connecticut-based Commonfund, intended to build a hotel but never started development.

"A hotel made sense in 2006 but not in 2011," Champion said.

Champion Real Estate specializes in mixed-use developments in urban neighborhoods. Past projects include the Burbank Collection in Glendale, the Pasadena Collection in Pasadena and Gaslamp CitySquare in downtown San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter
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