A recent report presented by Better Buildings®, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), an association dedicated to assessing and improving the sustainability performance of real estate assets, offered insight into the impact of sustainability certifications on commercial properties’ business performance in Los Angeles. David Hodgins, executive director of Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge, presented findings showing that Class B buildings in Los Angeles with ENERGY STAR scores of 75+ achieved significantly higher occupancy rates and rent per square foot than non-certified Class A buildings there. Better Buildings’ findings were based on data from 263 ENERGY STAR-certified buildings and 526 LEED Certified buildings that illustrated the impact of ENERGY STAR benchmarking and certification on building occupancy and rental income. Co-presenter Dan Winters, head of Americas at GRESB, indicated the numbers are similar in other cities where studies have been done. Among the other Los Angeles findings: The average occupancy for ENERY STAR-certified buildings is 90%, vs the 84% current overall occupancy rate, which generates substantial gross annual rent increases The gross current asking rent per square foot (PSF) for ENERGY STAR buildings is $2.15, vs the current asking rent of $2 which also generates substantial gross annual rent improvements Los Angeles is benchmarking its most energy-intensive facilities and has pledged to reduce the energy intensity for 30 million square feet of city-owned and private buildings by 20% by 2020. More than 25 owners of large commercial buildings joined the challenge and report their results annually to help others save money and energy. The Los Angeles Existing Buildings Energy and Water Efficiency ordinance (EBEWE) has made energy efficiency a high priority in the city. This focus is paying off in multiple ways. The city ranked No. 1...

Casey Lynch and Mike Brown were graduate school classmates at UCLA when they started their real estate investment and development company, LocalConstruct, with limited funds and bona fide sweat equity. “We bought a $55,000 condominium in Fontana, Calif. that we painted and renovated ourselves. We were at Home Depot, buying our own supplies,” recalled Lynch. Flash forward nearly a decade, and LocalConstruct has become a thriving small firm with multifamily and mixed-use projects in California, Colorado, Idaho and Montana.  The Los Angeles-based company, a Yardi client, has developed 2,000 apartment units to date. Lynch and Brown have a specific vision for urban infill development. Seeking out markets with plentiful jobs but limited work-proximate housing, they have hit a sweet spot where limited supply meets unprecedented demand. We talked with Lynch about LocalConstruct’s market choices and formula for success.   You started your company in 2008, when real estate was in a desperate place. Why? Lynch: We saw a great opportunity to start an entrepreneurial enterprise, given the volatility in the market at the time. We raised a small fund to go out and buy single family homes and convert them into real properties in Los Angeles. You always hear developers who have been in the business 30 to 40 years talk about their first deal and working their way up the ladder. For us and our story, that would be true.   Things have changed tremendously since then. What happened to LocalConstruct in the last nine years? Lynch: We went from one unit projects to 2 to 4 to 8 to 20 to 100 to 300. We have a presence in four states in the West and we are focused on infill housing strategies, primarily rental housing, and we are focused on emerging markets...

Late last year, entrepreneur Elon Musk sent out a series of tweets complaining about the heavy traffic in LA. Can’t argue with him there –  Southern California has the country’s worst traffic, according to a study released by the data company Inrix. Musk called being stuck in traffic “soul-destroying.” But he didn’t just whine, he proposed a solution: tunnels. At first, it wasn’t clear if this was a billionaire’s joke or if he’s really serious about The Boring Company (suggested tagline: it’s not boring!). But then Musk added “Tunnels” to his Twitter bio, alongside Tesla, SpaceX and OpenAI, and the announced on January 28 that digging has begun. A team of workers excavated a “test trench” 30 feet wide, 50 feet long and 15 feet deep on the grounds of SpaceX’s Los Angeles headquarters, at Crenshaw Boulevard and 120th Street. So far, Musk calls it the start of an experiment. The “pilot tunnel” will only traverse Crenshaw Boulevard to SpaceX’s employee parking structure, but he made it public that his tunnel ambitions are much bigger. “We’re just going to figure out what it takes to improve tunneling speed by, I think, somewhere between 500 and 1,000 percent,” he said during a recent Hyperloop design competition at SpaceX. “We have no idea what we’re doing—I want to be clear about that. We’re going to get this machine, take it apart, figure out how to make it go much faster while still being safe and not affecting people on the surface. We’ll see how much progress we can make, but I’m optimistic tunneling can be improved by at least five-fold, maybe 10-fold.” That’s key to a lot of technologies—road tunnels, train tunnels, Hyperloop tunnels. For those who aren’t familiar, Hyperloop is a space-agey proposed mode of transportation...

Designer HKS and developer Hollywood Park Land Company are changing the face of mixed-used facilities. The duo behind the Hollywood Park complex will tap into several revenue streams with a built-in consumer base. After more than a decade of anticipation, the 238-acre Hollywood Park project is finally underway with gusto. Ground broke back in 2014. It stalled and crawled until 2016. This year ushered in new developments. Revenue 1: Mixed-Use Commercial & Residential The 3 million square foot mixed-use property will include 620,000 square feet of retail space, and an unconfirmed quantity of townhomes and apartments, and a luxury hotel with stunning city views. Residents and guests will also have access to a new casino. The former Hollywood Park Casino will be demolished this October and replaced with an 110,000 square-foot facility. The JCJ Architecture design will include 125 card game tables, simulcast wagering, a lounge, a café, and a Century Bar & Grill sports bar. “This new casino was also designed with luxury and convenience in mind,” said Hollywood Park Casino General Manager Deven Kumar in a press release. “The new property will engage the art and social communities featuring global artists’ work throughout. […] Visitors will feel very safe, while enjoying themselves in beautiful surroundings.” Revenue 2: Creative Commercial Spaces To soften the edges of the manmade structures, designers added several green spaces throughout the site. A lake with water features will help to create a cool and calming vibe. These parks can provide rental opportunities for arts and cultural organizations; spaces for vendors with kiosks; and even creative advertising installations for landscaping, home and exterior furnishing companies. The stadium project is slated for completion in 2019 followed by the casino and “mini-city” in 2023. Revenue 3: NFL Gold Two sports teams...

Several landmark projects break ground in the U.S. just as headlines herald the slowdown of real estate investments by the Chinese. According to a Bloomberg report, American real estate transactions with China are slowing down for the first time since 2011. The loss of momentum is a result of constraints issued by the Chinese government to minimize capital flight. While new investments dwindle, the nation’s skylines are beginning to see the fruit of the past surge: Hong Lei, consul general of China in Chicago, reports that Chinese firms have invested nearly $13 billion in real estate throughout the Midwest in the past 15 years. A recent project, which broke ground the summer, will be one of the nation’s largest investments. With a cost of $950 million, Vista Towers of Chicago (rendering, left) will be the largest real estate investment by a Chinese company in the US. The project is a joint venture between America’s Magellan Development Group and China-based conglomerate Wanda Group. The international presence of Wanda Group spans 300 million square feet of real estate, including retail, commercial, and hospitality. Vista will be the first notable project in The Windy City. Jeanne Gang, a respected Chicago-based architect and MacArthur fellow, designed Vista Towers. Standing 93-stories tall, it will be the third tallest building in Chicago. The luxury site will include a hotel and 406 condominiums. Condo rates will range from $1 million to $18 million. Across the country, Los Angeles records that China is responsible for seven out of 18 land deals made since 2014. Oceanwide Plaza (rendering, left) will be one of the largest Chinese investments in Los Angeles. With an estimated cost around $1 billion, the nearly 5-acre site will hold three towers including a hotel, 150,000-170,000 square feet of retail,...