First Look at the Redesigned Figueroa Central

Earlier this month, puzzling news emerged from Downtown Los Angeles.  Figueroa Central, the long awaited mixed-use companion to LA Live, was simultaneously upsized and downsized.  Revised plans from Oceanwide Real Estate Group added a third tower to the development, but also featured less than half of the 1,200 residential units permitted under the original project.  Now, a document from the DLANC's Planning and Land Use Committee is here to answer all of your burning questions.

Despite a significant reduction to Figueroa Central's proposed residential density, new designs from RTKL actually call for taller buildings than in the original proposal.  The largest of the three buildings - referred to as the North Tower - would rise 49 stories from the intersection of 11th and Flower Streets.  The 677-foot tall structure would contain 164 residential units, a 183-room hotel, and various ancillary uses.

Moving south through the project site, designs call for twin 40-story buildings, each with an architectural apex 530 feet above street level.  The Middle and South Towers would comprise the bulk of Figueroa Central's residential component, each containing 170 dwellings.  Units would average 1,620 square feet in size, ranging from 1,000 square foot one-bedroom units to 6,000 square foot penthouse units.

All three buildings would sit atop podium structures, offering a mixture of retail, amenity space, and parking for up to 1,444 vehicles.   Residential amenities, concentrated below the Middle and South Towers, would contain a meeting room, library, multi-media playroom, kitchen, fitness center, and an outdoor pool deck.  Podium levels within the North Tower would cater to hotel guests, featuring a nightclub, celebrity chef restaurant, ballroom facility and an on-site health club.

Figueroa Central would feature an impressive 166,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, contained within the first two levels of its podium.  In addition to street-fronting stalls along Figueroa, Flower, 11th and 12th Streets, a series of ground-floor paseos would funnel pedestrians into a central galleria with additional shops and restaurants.  An artistic rendering of the proposed galleria portrays an airy, semi-enclosed environment, similar to that of many Southern California shopping malls.

As in the previous design, Oceanwide Group's updated plan features an immense video screen, wrapping the full length of Figueroa between 11th and 12th Streets.  The LED panels are integrated into a "single ribbon-like," entity which would be used for signage and as an "active artistic building facade."

An exact timeline and budget for Figueroa Central have not been revealed.  The project will go before the DLANC Planning and Land Use Committee on Tuesday, October 21.

Flower Street elevation

11th Street (L) and 12th Street (R) elevations

• Fig Central Revises Plans, Adds Third Tower (Building Los Angeles)
• 1101 S. Flower Mixed-Use Project (DLANC)

Fig Central Revises Plans, Adds Third Tower

In early September, rumblings from the Department of Building and Safety hinted that the stalled Fig Central development was about to become much more active.  Now, a recent case filing from the Department of City Planning has revealed developer Oceanwide Real Estate Group's updated vision for the mixed-use complex.

The revised proposal for Fig Central plans for three high-rise towers, containing 504 residential units, 183 hotel rooms, and nearly 170,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.  Those figures are reduced from the earlier, RTKL-designed iteration of the project, which called for two towers with 1,200 condominiums, 500-to-700 hotel rooms, and 250,000 square feet of retail and restaurant uses.  However, quick detective work by Skyscraperpage forumer (and ancient historian) Flavius Josephus indicates that the overall square footage of the project will remain the same.

An exact timeline for the project - previously budgeted at $700 million - is uncertain at this point in time.  Construction will first require the removal of several existing structures at 1101 South Flower Street, including an underground bank vault that has previously been cited as a detriment to the property's potential.

Fig Central is part of a recent trend in which Chinese investors have snatched up high-profile U.S. properties in gateway markets, with emphasis on New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  This includes Shenzen Hazens Real Estate Group's $105 million purchase of Downtown's Luxe Hotel and adjacent parking lots, located across the street from Fig Central.  A few blocks northwest, the Shanghai-based Greenland Group has already broken ground on the first phase of the 1.65 million square foot Metropolis development.

• Oceanwide Group Finally Getting Active on Fig Central (Building Los Angeles)

• DIR-2014-3673-SPPA (LADCP)

Oceanwide Group Finally Getting Active on Fig Central

Image credit: RTKL

Nine months after purchasing the comatose Fig Central development for $200 million, Oceanwide Real Estate Group is finally taking the plunge in South Park.  Last week, the Beijing-based developer issued $320 million in bonds that will reportedly be used to finance the construction of the mixed-use complex.  Simultaneously, the developer has applied for the first in a series of LADBS approvals that will allow the long-delayed project to move forward.

The recent LADBS filing describes Fig Central as a two-building development, offering a mixture of apartments and hotel rooms above ground-level commercial space and a health club.  Towers will ascend to heights of 53 and 38 stories, seated atop a an eight-floor podium structure.  Seven stories of the podium will be devoted to a vehicular garage, supplementing three underground parking levels.

More information can be garnered via a series of renderings, drawn up years ago by architectural firm RTKL.  Fig Central, originally envisioned as the retail component of the LA Live complex, greets its namesake street with storefronts and a mid-block public plaza.  From there, a ground-level paseo cuts straight through to the eastern side of the property, helping to mitigate the inherent walkability issues that come with such a large development site.

The glass-clad towers would directly abut the Flower Street side of the project, creating a formidable street wall along the path of the Blue and Expo Lines.  Upper levels of the mid-rise podium would feature outdoor dining space and a residential amenity deck.  Additionally, a large LED ribbon would wrap the western perimeter of the property, bombarding commercialism upon all passersby between 11th and 12th Streets.

Fig Central joins more than a dozen new and revived high-rise projects that have sprung up throughout Downtown within the past two years.  North of LA Live, the Shanghai-based Greenland Group is currently building hotel and condominium towers as part of their Metropolis development.   On parking lots surrounding the Fig Central site, Mack Urban and other local investors are scheduled to break ground on multiple high-rise buildings before the end of this year.

• China's Oceanwide Buys L.A. Property (Wall Street Journal)
• Oceanwide Real Estate Sells 320M Bond... (Mingtiandi)
• 1101 S Flower Street 90015 (LADBS)