| PRESS RELEASES / LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL 11/10/03 | ||
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The stretch of Wilshire Boulevard known as Park Mile distinguishes itself from the rest of the bustling commercial corridor, with its well-landscaped, low-rise office buildings. But as housing demand continues to rise, some of the last remaining open lots in the expanse between Miracle Mile and Koreatown are being filled in with high-end condos, harkening back to the neighborhood’s residential roots. “It’s a great location. It’s not too far from downtown, but far enough away so that you are in a residential area,” said Tim Yu, an associate with Millennium Enterprises, a developer that is finishing up two condo projects in Park Mile. “If you can find something there as an infill project, that would be an incredible find.” With condominiums commanding prices approaching $900,000, that’s not an overstatement. Besides condos, the old Perino’s restaurant site at the east end of Park Mile is being redeveloped with 47 high-end apartments. Also on tap for the area is a new elementary school. One thing that likely won’t be going up any time soon: new office buildings, given the severe zoning restrictions that have been instrumental in creating a neighborhood feel. Longstanding area plan Park Mile, which is surrounded by Hancock Park, Windsor Square and other neighborhoods of older, historic homes, was a different place even a few decades ago. Like most of Wilshire Boulevard, the frontage was originally dotted with big homes, but by the 1960s those had been torn down in anticipation of high-rise development that was encroaching from Wilshire Center. However, residential zoning restrictions put a halt to new commercial construction, leaving dozens of vacant lots. Debate between commercial property owners and nearby residents over Park Mile’s future was so intense that the stretch from Highland Avenue to Wilton Place, now its official boundaries, was left out of the 1972 citywide Wilshire community plan, said John Welborne, a lifetime area resident. In 1980 the two sides reached a compromise that still stands in the form of the Park Mile Specific Plan: new commercial construction would be limited to three-story buildings with generous setbacks and landscaping. About two dozen open lots were gradually filled in with such construction. But now commercial development has tailed off and multi-family residences are being built or planned for the remaining handful of lots, which are mostly too small for commercial development, according to Chris Runyen, a Grubb & Ellis Co. commercial real estate agent. He notes that the specific plan prevents commercial building owners from charging lease holders for parking. “That removes one important investment component,” he said. In the residential market, it’s another story. Just east of Highland Avenue at the west end of Park Mile, a new nine-unit condominium complex features three-bedroom units of at least 2,200 square feet with granite countertops and walk in closets. They have been commanding prices from $769,000 to $871,000, said Elaine Golden-Gealer, a Coldwell Banker residential agent who along with her partner has the project listing. Across the street, construction has started on a 20-unit condominium complex, while at the eastern end of Park Mile, Millennium is completing a six-unit condo complex on Ingraham Street and 16-unit complex on Norton Avenue. The units will be priced at $730,000 to $800,000, and marketed to wealthy Koreans spreading out from Koreatown. Welborne, an attorney who is vice president for planning and land use of the Windsor Square Association, the local homeowners group, said residents generally have supported these projects, which must go through vigorous oversight by the Park Mile Design Review Board. Tom Carey, a partner in Carey & Kutay Development, has also worked hard to garner support for the firm’s proposed redevelopment of the old Perino’s restaurant site nearby, shut down since the 1980s. The 47-unit project is still in the midst of board and zoning reviews. “The
demand for residential housing is twice as large as the supply. You can’t
keep up,” he said.
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