Investor Turning Offices to Apartments

LOS ANGELES, CA-The Kor Group, a locally based investment group, named Taisei Construction of Cypress, Calif. to convert a53-year-old, 13-story office tower at 612 Flower St. in Downtown Los Angeles to 322 apartments.

The 480,000-sf office building, which has been empty for eight years, is the latest in a series of antiquated downtown L.A. office properties, often designated as historic structures, to be adapted as apartments. The buildings usually fill quickly with renters, thanks to the shortage of apartments in L.A.

Contractor Taisei has renovated a number of older, historic buildings into apartments, boutique hotels and new retail, says Emery Molnar, a company senior vice president. For example, Taisei is nearly finished with another project for the Kor Group, the renovation of the Pacific Shore hotel, recently renamed the Viceroy, in Santa Monica, Calif.