Broadway Trade Center to House a Super-Fancy Miniature City→

More great news for Downtown LA!

"Last we heard, the new owners of the enormous and historic Broadway Trade Center, just off Broadway at Hill and Eighth, were hoping to snag one major tenant (Apple?) and turn the building into a tech campus, but now it seems like that plan has mingled with earlier ones proposing a hotel and retail to create a sort of super-fancy, super-elaborate, multi-use complex in the Trade Center's 1.1 million square feet of space. Waterbridge Capital, which bought the BRC last year for around $130 million, is envisioning a mix of about a dozen uses, including a hotel, a food hall, 500,000 square feet of office space, and 200,000 square feet of luxury retail (Louis Vuitton and Tiffany's are name-dropped), says the LA Times. We're not sure who wants to buy an actual Louis Vuitton in Downtown (knock-offs are another story), but maybe if you build it, they will come?

Waterbridge hope the new BTC, originally opened in 1908, will also house a 200-room hotel, "a health club, two swimming pools, a community park, an urban farm and a luxury spa with a Turkish bath." Central to this incredible-sounding complex will be a two-story, "great, sexy food hall-market", says Robert Cohen, the president of RKF, which is in charge of leasing out the retail space. The rooftop will have bars, restaurants, and decks…"

- Bianca Barragan, Curbed LA

Jeremy Renner's Latest Flip Project→

Love Preston Sturges!

"Jeremy Renner acts sometimes in The Avengers movies and various other aging movie franchises (Bournes, Impossibles), but his true calling is clearly flipping. With partner Kristoffer Winters, he's bought and sold more than a dozen houses since 2002 (he's said he doesn't even need to star in blockbuster movies), including a palatial 1920sish bachelor pad in Holmby Hills that sold in 2013 for $24 million. Their latest, in the *Hollywood Hills below Runyon Canyon, is a slightly more lowkey number in a similar, glammily smoke-filled style. In fact, the house once belonged to 1930s and '40s screwball filmmaker Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story) and, according to the listing, Charlie Chaplin is rumored to have had his first wedding in the "luxurious gentleman's room." The 1926 property also comes with five bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, covered front porch, copper-topped antique bar, dining room, eat-in kitchen, rooftop terrace, and a guesthouse, all in about 7,000 square feet on just a bit under a quarter of an acre. Renner and Winters are apparently calling it The Sturges. They bought the place in 2009 for $1.35 million and are selling today for $4.795 million."

- Adrian Glick Kudler, Curbed LA

Here Are the Final Plans for West Hollywood's New Central Park→

Exciting WeHo News!

"The plans for West Hollywood's new central park—a complete overhaul of West Hollywood Park—have been in flux for a long, long time, but with this latest design, the city is ready to make it official. The plans, from Irvine-based LPA Inc., are on the agenda for this Monday's meeting of the West Hollywood City Council, says WeHoville. The latest includes a new dog park at a cost of $750,000, added in response to input from the community and WeHo Mayor John D'Amico. If all goes smoothly, construction's expected to start next fall and finish by the summer of 2018. Work on the new pool and rec center will be completed before the old one is razed so nobody's swimming is disrupted. After that, the children's playground and the AIDS memorial will be built.”

- Bianca Barragan, Curbed LA