$103M in tax revenue to lure hotel developer to Convention Center

$103M in tax revenue to lure hotel developer to Convention Center

A city committee on Tuesday endorsed a deal that would give a developer $103.3 million in public money over the course of more than two decades to open hundreds of hotel rooms next to the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Developer Lightstone Group wants to build two towers at Pico Boulevard and Figueroa Street and fill them with 1,130 rooms operated by three brands: AC Hotel, Moxy Hotel, and Hilton Garden Inn. But, due to the high costs of “concrete and steel high rise construction,” it has a $67.4-million financing gap, according to real estate advisory firm Keyser Marston Associates. The firm says the public money, adjusted for inflation, would fill that financing gap.

Los Angeles City Councilmembers are eager to get hotel rooms built near the convention center, and it appears they’re willing to loosen the city’s purse strings to make it happen.

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Automatic Smoke Curtains Reduce Smoke Inhalation

Using Smoke Curtains in Multi-Story Buildings

Automatic fire rated smoke curtains installed in discreet areas, and deploy automatically during a fire can help block heat and are excellent at blocking smoke from entering the building’s rooms. Due to the natural chimney effect that elevator shafts cause during a fire, automatic fire rated smoke curtains in front of elevators are highly recommended, due to elevator shafts often acting as chimneys, drawing smoke to other floors not currently affected by the fire.

A elevator smoke curtain combined with an elevator door will create the impenetrable assembly required by building codes. Similarly, smoke & fire curtains that block smoke from drifting up or down staircases are also highly effective for similar reasons; such as if the doors can be sealed, less smoke is likely to travel to other areas of the building.

Automatic fire rated curtains and elevator shaft curtains are a must for any building and can greatly reduce smoke inhalation.

Boyle Heights affordable housing nearly set to rise

Boyle Heights affordable housing nearly set to rise

A long-vacant lot in Boyle Heights is well on its way to redevelopment as an affordable housing complex from developer Abode Communities.

Metro, which owns the land the project would be built on, is formalizing a lease with the developer, and the agency’s board of directors will vote on whether to approve it Thursday. The Los Angeles City Planning Commission also signed off on the project earlier this month.

New renderings of the project, called La Veranda, offer a look at what it would look like. Consisting of two separate four-story buildings, it’s set to include 77 apartments and 8,000 square feet of commercial space. All but one of the residential units in the project would be set aside for low-income tenants, with the last reserved as a manager’s unit.

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Introducing the Next Generation of Integrated Doors

Introducing the Next Generation of Integrated Doors

Conventional doors only account for about one and a half percent of construction dollars. But they are responsible for a full 20 percent of owner problems. This is because conventional doors contain parts from as many as 15 different manufacturers. Each part is sourced separately, then put together in the field. The Syntégra™ Door system offers a better way.

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Escalators & Stairs With Fire & Smoke Curtains

Escalators & Stairs With Fire & Smoke Curtains

Both these items create a permanent breach in the compartment between floors. Using DSI Smoke Curtains this can be tackled in several ways depending on the strategy requirements. There is the option of using smoke curtains around the lower level to create a deeper reservoir depth or fully fledged fire curtains to seal off the escalator or stair well completely. In conjunction with intelligent control systems allowing control to be linked to the escalator operation to facilitate escape as well as escape buttons this provides a tested ans well used solution.

SF’s 2nd tallest building is finally underway

SF’s 2nd tallest building is finally underway

A slightly soggy red carpet greeted city bigwigs and developers Thursday, as a morning shovel ceremony finally kicked off construction on what will eventually be San Francisco’s second tallest building.

Mayor Ed Lee promised that rain means good luck on auspicious occasions as he talked the project up as a community benefit and a way to foster closer ties abroad.

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Door Systems launches new website

Door Systems launches new website

Door Systems is proud to announce our newly designed website

Door Systems is the only company to provide code compliant integrated fire doors and fire protection smoke curtains that offer superior aesthetics, high performance and up front cost savings while bringing long term value to the customer.

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Why Are Smoke & Fire Curtains Important For Elevator Doors?

Why Are Smoke & Fire Curtains Important For Elevator Doors?

Elevator shafts are a permanent compartment breach with the potential to spread flames and smoke vertically through a building very rapidly. While most, if not all elevator doors provide a degree of fire integrity this is not the same for smoke sealing.

DSI Smoke & Fire Curtains are able to offer a recognized “Smoke Seal” curtain that can be discretely installed into the surround facing the elevator door, rendering the curtain invisible when retracted. Once deployed it permits a greatly reduced level of smoke leakage falling inside the international leakage requirements.

$1 Billion Mega-Project, New Renderings

$1 Billion Mega-Project, New Renderings

The $1-billion development will bring three new towers to the Los Angeles skyline, including a 677-foot hotel spire that will contain two separate pool decks, 184 hotel rooms, and some number of the total 504 condominiums to be located on the 4.6-acre site.

The two neighboring, 40-story towers will contain the remaining condo units and will share a rooftop amenity terrace that will the complex’s 100-foot-tall podium of retail space. The podium, dubbed The Collection at Oceanwide Plaza, will be laid out as an indoor-outdoor, multi-level pedestrian mall and is to contain 150,000 square feet of commercial space.

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106 Downtown LA Projects in Development

106 Downtown LA Projects in Development

DTLA – Maybe it’s the turbo-charged national economy. Maybe it’s the Los Angeles housing shortage that has caused both rents and home sale prices to spike. Maybe it’s the pressure developers face of trying to launch a project before voters cast ballots on Measure S in March. Maybe it’s all of the above.

Whatever the case, the Downtown Los Angeles development scene is busier than ever, and has surpassed pre-recession peaks. Everywhere you look in the Central City, there are cranes and construction workers (not to mention closed streets and sidewalks) building new high-rises and landmarks.

In the last five months, developers have announced more than a dozen projects, from a reimagining of the Southern California Flower Market, complete with a residential tower, to the Olympia, a three-pronged South Park high-rise that would create more than 1,300 apartments. These occur as other long-awaited developments near the finish line: In the coming months, projects including the Wilshire Grand replacement and Los Angeles State Historic Park are scheduled to open.

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