DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES -In the column “What’s for Sale,” Los Angeles Downtown News looks at everything from condos to multi-family buildings to vacant lots now on the market. We hope that regular snapshots of individual properties will make for a wide-ranging survey of the overall state of Downtown real estate.
This week, the focus is on a penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live with a record listing price for a Downtown condominium.
The Property: The 5,862-square-foot penthouse, unit 51F, in the Ritz-Carlton Residences at 900 W. Olympic Blvd. is listed for $9.3 million. The building contains 224 residential units atop 1,001 hotel rooms.
Spec This Out: Unit 51F is a sprawling, two-floor condo on top of the skyline-defining Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott tower at L.A. Live. The penthouse is situated on the northern end of the coffin-shaped tower, and has spectacular views to the north, west and east. There are three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. The floor plan also identifies two dens (one upstairs, one downstairs), two libraries and an exercise room.
Compared to What: Quantifying the value of a two-level penthouse at the Ritz is tricky — there’s really nothing like it in Downtown. The listing price translates to $1,586 per square foot, more than three times the rate buyers generally encounter with Central City condos (the price-per-square-foot generally decreases with larger units). The HOA dues are an additional $3,207 per month.
The Ritz’s only other penthouse, which at 5,798 square feet is slightly smaller than unit 51F, recently sold for $8.55 million. A 3,436-square-foot three-bedroom condo on the 50th floor fetched $5.22 million. Buyers at the Ritz, however, are not likely considering other Downtown comps. They’ll probably measure it against units in luxury high-rises in Hollywood, on the Westside, or even in Manhattan, said Billy Rose, president of The Agency, the brokerage firm handling sales at the building.
To put the price in perspective, consider the 36-unit Binford Lofts at 837 Traction Ave. The entire building is listed at $9.25 million.
Before the Ritz, the record for a Down town condo listing was believed to be a 3,500-square-foot, four-level unit in the Arts District’s Biscuit Company Lofts. In 2007 it was on the market for $4.9 million.
You Down with GAT?: The $9.3 million listing price will only appeal to a small portion of society, a subset Rose describes as “global affluent travelers.”
“The collection of individuals are exceptional,” Rose said. “They’re sort of like the top of their class in whatever they do.”
Rose said the building might also appeal to Downtown executives and owners of Fortune 500 companies looking to live near where they work.
Picking Up the Pace: The Ritz-Carlton Residences got off to a slower-than-expected start. In February 2011, building developer Anschutz Entertainment Group announced that it closed its first escrow — what it didn’t acknowledge was that the buyer was AEG itself, as the Associated Press reported last year. The company also told the AP last year that it had opened escrow on 60% of the 224 condos. Today, only 53 sales have closed. That said, the project, where units range from $850,000-$9.3 million, is picking up steam. Eleven contracts worth a total of more than $14 million were signed in the past month, according to The Agency.
Luxury DIY: Unlike most condos, unit 51F is unfinished. Floors, cabinets and other built-ins have not been installed. This allows the buyer to select their color and materials, whether picking from the stock of flooring and cabinetry available through the Ritz, or by designing the unit themselves (in which case the buyer gets a credit to pay for the built-ins).
Location Cubed: Among the amenities that come with living inside a four-star hotel — 24/7 valet, concierge, maid service, room service — owning 51F also buys access to a Staples Center suite, co-owned by the building’s HOA, and gets the buyer privileges at Ritz-Carlton and AEG-owned venues worldwide.
Contact: The listing agent is The Agency at (213) 622-4242.
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
©Los Angeles Downtown News.