Is everyone getting a little weary of the constant news updates about The Grand? For anyone still keeping score on the mixed-use Frank Gehry-designed downtown project: Today, the board that oversees the development voted to extend the deadline for groundbreaking until February 2009. The approval of the extension was largely expected (backstory: In April, the Downtown News broke the story of another round of delays at Grand Avenue development, which is being developed by Related Cos). But there's a pricey catch: If ground isn't broken by then, Related will pay $250,000 a month. "If Grand Avenue has not started construction by February 2011, the authority has the right to renegotiate the deal," according to the Los Angeles Times. Anyway, will Related make that deadline? Will it be built? Or we will have to write more posts about delays, using that tragically small rendering? Hope not. Meanwhile, Related released a hopeful sounding/cautious statement concerning the meeting, noting they expect to have the construction documents in order by end of the year. Horse's mouth after the jump.
"We are in a situation where the debt markets are extremely tight and as pointed out by Nelson Rising [chairman of overseeing city/county committee] in the meeting, in this climate developers can not even start discussions with potential lenders without having construction documents that are nearly complete. Related is working diligently to finalize our construction documents and we expect to meet this milestone by the end of the year. Bottom line is we can not speculate on the future of market conditions, but we are optimistic about the Feb 15th date and do have a thirty year track record that demonstrates our ability to execute and in arranging some of the largest and most complex financing packages."
· Penalty set if L.A. Grand Ave. project is delayed more [LA Times]
Loading comments...