The owners of an office tower in downtown Los Angeles are offering some of their empty space to businesses that have been displaced by the wildfires.
Carolwood Equities is donating free office space in the 62-story Aon Center at 707 Wilshire Boulevard in the Financial District on a first-come, first-serve basis to businesses and individuals who have evacuated areas devastated by the wildfire catastrophe, CoStar News reported.
Firefighters are still battling to contain the fires that have destroyed an estimated 12,000 homes and businesses in Greater Los Angeles since a state of emergency was declared on Jan. 7, primarily in the Palisades along the coast and in the inland Eaton area.
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Aon Center will provide space to “independent contractors and people that were working in office buildings that burned down, people who lost their home offices,” Adam Rubin, a principal at Carolwood, told CoStar.
The donated leases in the tower initially will last for six months, with plans to reevaluate based on the needs of those affected. The 1.2M SF Aon Center is 73% occupied.
Beverly Hills-based Carolwood bought the Aon Center at the end of 2023 for $150M from San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties, which purchased the tower in 2014 for $269M.
The third-tallest building in Los Angeles, Aon Center was built in 1974 and renovated in 2020. Tenants include global professional services firm Aon, Wells Fargo Private Mortgage Banking and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Greater Los Angeles ended 2024 with an overall office vacancy rate of 23.9% and an overall availability rate of 29.2%, according to CBRE’s fourth quarter market report.
City and state officials are ordering expedited approvals for projects to rebuild structures destroyed by the wildfires.
On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order waiving permitting requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California State Coastal Act, including costly and lengthy environmental impact reviews that can add years to project timelines.
The order, which covers all of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, directs the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to coordinate with local governments to remove or expedite permitting and approval processes during rebuilding, with “the ultimate goal of issuing all necessary permits and approvals within 30 days.”
The permitting requirements under CEQA and the Coastal Act have been suspended in the past after natural disasters to facilitate faster rebuilding, but those suspensions typically required rebuilding property owners to show that they tried to comply with the law even if they weren’t subjected to it.
The order issued by Newsom on Sunday is a full waiver, effectively removing CEQA from the rebuilding process, with one caveat: the waiver shall apply only to properties and facilities that are “in substantially the same location as, and do not exceed 110% of the footprint and height of, properties and facilities that were legally established and existed immediately before this emergency.”
This week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order requiring city departments to complete project reviews within 30 days and to waive discretionary hearings for rebuilding projects within the city limits. The mayor’s order is applicable if property owners don’t increase the size of their homes and businesses by more than 10%.
Newsom’s order directs state agencies to identify other permitting requirements, including provisions of the Building Code, “that can be safely suspended or streamlined to accelerate rebuilding and make it more affordable.”
The governor said he will work with the Legislature “to incentivize the incorporation of additional fire hardening measures into rebuilding efforts and enhancements of fire mitigation and fire response capacity within rebuilt areas.”
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