Downtown L.A. development spreading south with planned SoLA Village

By Roger Vincent

A $1-billion residential, hotel and retail complex is being planned south of the 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles as robust development promises to spread beyond the traditional boundaries of the neighborhood.

The proposed project, called SoLA Village, would rise just south of Washington Boulevard on a block and a half next to the former LA Mart, a large design center and showroom for the gift, interior design, and home furnishing industries.

Now known as the Reef, the high-rise built in the 1950s also provides incubator space for new creative firms and artists. The planned project would be an ambitious addition by its owners into two parking lots covering 7.5 acres on both sides of Broadway.

Plans call for a densely developed complex with skyscrapers and low- and mid-rise residential buildings along with outdoor plazas and terraces intended to create a pedestrian-oriented community.

“SoLA Village will be about place making,” said Ava Bromberg, head of operations for the Reef and the SoLA Village project. “With the Reef, we are turning creative space into more of a community and connecting that community to the surrounding neighborhoods.”

Bromberg oversaw development of Atwater Crossing, a mixed-use complex in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles that incorporates housing, offices, manufacturing, a restaurant and live theater in an environment intended to nurture young firms in creative fields.

Both projects are controlled by limited liability companies headed by Ara Tavitian, a Glendale physician who invests in commercial real estate.

The developers hired well-known architecture firm Gensler to come up with the design for SoLA Village that will be submitted to city officials for approval.

“We’re not looking at this project as a singular fingerprint,” said Shawn Gehle, a design principal at Gensler. “It’s multiple projects within one project with diverse forms and materials.”

Plans call for a 1.66-million-square-foot development to be built in stages, probably starting with a 19-story, 208-room hotel. Guests might include people doing business at the Reef or attending events at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

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New home sales rise in June

By Alejandro Lazo- July 24, 2013, 8:17 a.m.

Sales of newly built homes rose last month to hit a five-year high in June, as the nation’s housing market showed little sign of slowing in June.

New home sales rose 8.3% over the prior month and 38.1% from the same month last year to hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 497,000 units, the Commerce Department said.

The median sales price of new homes was $249,700 last month. There was less than four months’ worth of homes for sale at the end of the month.

Builder confidence soars in July

By Alejandro LazoJuly 16, 2013, 7:43 a.m.

Builders’ confidence in the U.S. housing market soared in July as sales and home prices showed continued strength.

A housing market index by the National Assn. of Home Builders rose six points to a reading of 57 in July. Any reading above 50 indicates that more builders view conditions favorably than not.

“Today’s report is particularly encouraging in that it shows improvement in builder confidence across every region as well as solid gains in current sales conditions, traffic of prospective buyers and sales expectations for the next six months,” Rick Judson, chairman of the builders association, said in a news release.

It was the third consecutive increase, and the strongest level for the index since January 2006. The index is derived from a monthly survey of home builders nationally, which asks them to rate perceptions of current sales for single-family homes, expectations for the next six months and to rate the level of traffic of prospective buyers through home-buying projects.

All three of these components posted gains this month and all four U.S. regions tracked by the index showed improvement. The West was up three points to 51, the South five points to 50, the Midwest registered an eight-point gain to 54 and the Northeast was up four points to hit 40.

Housing starts jump dramatically in March; building permits fall

By Andrew KhouriApril 16, 2013, 6:45 a.m.

New residential construction rose significantly in March as builders started more multi-unit dwellings.

Housing starts rose 7% from upwardly revised February figures to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036,000, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The rate was 46.7% higher than March 2012.

Housing starts jumped higher than economists polled by Bloomberg News expected, after the Commerce Department said builders started many more units in February than previously thought.

The department revised February starts to an annual rate of 968,000 from 917,000.

As home prices rose last year and continued their upward trajectory this year, builders have increasingly looked to raise money and put up new homes, decisions that will boost jobs in construction as well as related industries. Last week, Arizona builder Taylor Morrison Home Corp. went public.

Southern California’s housing recovery: An interactive map

But while multifamily building was up in March, single-family housing starts dropped 4.8% compared with the previous month.

Building permits, an indication of future building, also were down, dropping 3.9% from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 902,000, although they were up 17.3% from March of last year.

As home builders look to capitalize on the low inventory that has lifted prices, they are racing to catch up after years of anemic building.

The National Assn. of Home Builders said Monday that builder confidence fell this month, the third consecutive decline. Developers cited rising construction costs and the lack of developed lots as concerns.

Still, builders expressed growing optimism in future sales, as expectations for the next six months reached the highest level in more than six years.

Compared with February, housing starts fell in the Northeast but rose in the Midwest, South and West.