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The Revealing Map of Donald Sterling's 162 LA Properties

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Donald Sterling's racism has somehow only just finally gotten too loud for everyone to keep ignoring: This morning, four days after the release of a cartoonishly bigoted audio tape, Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined a league-maximum $2.5 million; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is encouraging the other owners to force him to sell the team. The things Sterling said on that tape were gross, and Sterling's been saying shit like it (or worse) for years, but his bigotry has been more direct and far-reaching in Los Angeles, where he owns more than a hundred apartment buildings and has been accused repeatedly of discriminatory rental practices. Using PropertyShark's data, we've created a (double) map of all of Sterling's properties in Los Angeles—mostly apartment buildings, but also some land and a few single-family houses—that help illustrate just how tenacious Sterling is in his bigotry: out of 162 properties we can reasonably confirm as his, there's not a single one in the black and Latino neighborhoods south of the 10 or the Latino neighborhoods east of Downtown.

An accounting of Sterling's properties also reveals that he may be LA's foremost owner of a certain type of piece-of-shit stucco building that is unavoidable in any LA neighborhood developed post-1960: oversized; adorned with useless ornamentation; painted in sun-baked colors; and laden with moronically disingenuous names like Waldorf Towers, Santa Monica Bay Club, the Wilshire Manhattan Towers, and the Encino Regency Towers.

You wouldn't want to live in these places either way, if you had the choice, but Sterling has also been a shitty landlord. At The Nation, Dave Zirin runs down the rap sheet: 1986 rent spikes so dramatic that tenants marched on city hall, a successful 2001 lawsuit brought by the city of Santa Monica "on charges that he harassed and threatened to evict eight tenants living in three rent-controlled buildings," a 2004 crusade against Santa Monica's Tenant Harassment Ordinance, a "reportedly massive" 2005 settlement to tenants who sued him for discrimination, a record 2009 settlement to the US Department of Justice in a housing discrimination lawsuit that alleged he had set up racial quotas for his properties.

And that's all just people who were allowed the privilege of paying Sterling rent: according to various lawsuits, he "just said no to rent to non-Koreans in Koreatown and just said hell-no to African-Americans looking for property in plush Beverly Hills. Sterling ... says he did not like to rent to 'Hispanics' because 'Hispanics smoke, drink and just hang around the building.' He also stated that 'black tenants smell and attract vermin.'"

For a while there, Sterling seemed to think he could pay for his vile behavior with good publicity—the NAACP is now awkwardly trying to explain why it planned to give him an award despite years of this kind of documented racism—and he bought his five Skid Row properties back in the mid-aughts in an expensive campaign to convince Los Angeles that he was going to build a "state-of-the-art $50 million" homeless center. (If you were here at the time, you might remember the full-page ads he bought in the Los Angeles Times to announce the endeavor.) No one ever seemed to believe any of it and today the parcels are still home to old warehouses or light manufacturing centers or dried-out scrub.

All of the properties on the maps below are Sterling's, as far as we've been able to document via PropertyShark's records (he usually buys under the Donald Sterling Trust or Donald Sterling Family Trust; please let us know if you see any errors). There are a few other pieces of land on these maps, a few single-family houses in Malibu and Beverly Hills (at least some of which appear to be rental properties), Sterling's own relatively modest mansion on North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, and thousands of apartment units, stretching from Santa Monica to Koreatown, whose tenants will keep writing checks to Sterling after he's paid his $2.5 million fine, even after he's been forced to sell the Clippers and retreat back into the muck of his private life.


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Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

950 Second Street, Santa Monica

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37-unit apartment building

9429 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills

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Office building

Santa Monica Emperor

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23-unit apartment building

920 Euclid Street, Santa Monica

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42-unit apartment building

911 Ninth Street, Santa Monica

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23-unit apartment building

Design Center Towers

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54-unit apartment building

Pierre Towers

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30-unit apartment building

Santa Monica Bay Club

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48-unit apartment building

8501 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood

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Retail/commercial building

Mariposa Hollywood Towers

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45-unit apartment building

Wilshire Manhattan Towers

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35-unit apartment building

837 Third Street, Santa Monica

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26-unit apartment building

Wilshire Berendo Embassy

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38-unit apartment building

Wilshire Hobart Regency

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63-unit apartment building

719 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills

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Single-family residence

Waterford Apartments

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44-unit apartment building

Wilshire Kingsley Towers

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104-unit apartment building

Hollywood Towers

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38-unit apartment building (a two-story dingbat, incidentally, called the Hollywood Towers)

De Longpre Towers

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48-unit apartment building

707 Idaho Avenue, Santa Monica

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46-unit apartment building

Ambassador Towers

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236-unit apartment building

618 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills

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Single-family residence

612 Wall Street, Los Angeles

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Wholesale and manufacturing outlet

611 San Julian Street, Los Angeles

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Light manufacturing

600 Wall Street, Los Angeles

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Warehouse

Long Beach Towers

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91-unit apartment building

Sierra Vista Regency

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42-unit apartment building

Wilshire Serrano Regency

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41-unit apartment building

5446 Newcastle Avenue, Encino

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30-unit apartment building

Encino Regency Towers

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51-unit apartment building

Encino Arms Towers

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68-unit apartment building

540 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles

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88-unit apartment building

Wilshire Alexanda Westgate

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106-unit apartment building

533 South Hobart Boulevard, Los Angeles

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45-unit apartment building

530 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles

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45-unit apartment building

520 North Kings Road, Los Angeles

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63-unit apartment building

520 North Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills

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Single-family residence

Wilshire Kenmore Towers

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24-unit apartment building

510 South Ardmore Avenue, Los Angeles

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91-unit apartment building

509 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills

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Single-family residence

500 South Gramercy Place, Los Angeles

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30-unit apartment building

4718 Kester Avenue, Sherman Oaks

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26-unit apartment building

470 South Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills

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24-unit apartment building

450 South Oxford Avenue, Los Angeles

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53-unit apartment building

Wilshire Ardmore Towers

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129-unit apartment building

Wilshire Catalina Regency

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42-unit apartment building

Westmoreland Regency Towers

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64-unit apartment building

Waldorf Towers

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21-unit apartment building

Wilshire Harvard Regency

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431 South Harvard Boulevard, Los Angeles

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45-unit apartment building

Holt Villas

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14-unit apartment building

430 South Hobart Boulevard, Los Angeles

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68-unit apartment building

428 North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills

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36-unit apartment building

423 North Heliotrope Drive, Los Angeles

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60-unit apartment building

421 South Berendo Street, Los Angeles

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46-unit apartment buildings

Beverly Hills Galleria Apartments

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16-unit apartment building

415 South Harvard Boulevard, Los Angeles

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45-unit apartment building

Wilshire Museum Towers

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58-unit apartment building

411 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles

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86-unit apartment building

Essex House

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15-unit apartment building

Wilshire Hobart Ambassador

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68-unit apartment building

Wilshire Hoover Towers

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52-unit apartment building

Oakhurst Towers

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32-unit apartment building

3915 West 7th Street, Los Angeles

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33-unit apartment building

357 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills

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23-unit apartment building

345 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills

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14-unit apartment building

Wilshire Hampshire Powers

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66-unit apartment building

The Regency

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32-unit apartment building

Hancock Park Towers

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28-unit apartment building

341 South Kenmore Avenue, Los Angeles

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62-unit apartment building

341 South Berendo Street, Los Angeles

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42-unit apartment building

Wilshire Ardmore Plaza

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52-unit apartment building

334 South Cloverdale Avenue, Los Angeles

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334 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles

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36-unit apartment building

333 South Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills

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Single-family residence

333 South Berendo Street, Los Angeles

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45-unit apartment building

332 North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills

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24-unit apartment building

Spalding Towers

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35-unit apartment building

Wilshire Berendo Towers

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84-unit apartment building

327 South Hoover Street, Los Angeles

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48-unit apartment building

327 South Doheny Drive, Los Angeles

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48-unit apartment building

324 South Linden Drive, Beverly Hills

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Single-family residence

324 East Sixth Street, Los Angeles

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Light manufacturing

317 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills

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29-unit apartment building

Beverly Regent Apartment

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20-unit apartment building

316 East Sixth Street, Los Angeles

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Warehouse

3121 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles

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20-unit apartment building

3111 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles

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16-unit apartment building

3101 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles

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16-unit apartment building

3100 West Third Street, Los Angeles

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54-unit apartment building

310 South Mariposa Avenue, Los Angeles

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45-unit apartment building

Wilshire Commonwealth Towers

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33-unit apartment building

303 North La Peer Drive, Beverly Hills

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19-unit apartment building

3025 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles

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16-unit apartment building

Wilshire Vermont Towers

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67-unit apartment building

Rexford Park Plaza

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28-unit apartment building

29191 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu

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About 10 acres of land

29127 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu

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Single-family residence

272 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills

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25-unit apartment building

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950 Second Street, Santa Monica

37-unit apartment building

9429 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills

Office building

Santa Monica Emperor

23-unit apartment building

920 Euclid Street, Santa Monica

42-unit apartment building

911 Ninth Street, Santa Monica

23-unit apartment building

Design Center Towers

54-unit apartment building

Pierre Towers

30-unit apartment building

Santa Monica Bay Club

48-unit apartment building

8501 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood

Retail/commercial building

Mariposa Hollywood Towers

45-unit apartment building

Wilshire Manhattan Towers

35-unit apartment building

837 Third Street, Santa Monica

26-unit apartment building

Wilshire Berendo Embassy

38-unit apartment building

Wilshire Hobart Regency

63-unit apartment building

719 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills

Single-family residence

Waterford Apartments

44-unit apartment building

Wilshire Kingsley Towers

104-unit apartment building

Hollywood Towers

38-unit apartment building (a two-story dingbat, incidentally, called the Hollywood Towers)

De Longpre Towers

48-unit apartment building

707 Idaho Avenue, Santa Monica

46-unit apartment building

Ambassador Towers

236-unit apartment building

618 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills

Single-family residence

612 Wall Street, Los Angeles

Wholesale and manufacturing outlet

611 San Julian Street, Los Angeles

Light manufacturing

600 Wall Street, Los Angeles

Warehouse

Long Beach Towers

91-unit apartment building

Sierra Vista Regency

42-unit apartment building

Wilshire Serrano Regency

41-unit apartment building

5446 Newcastle Avenue, Encino

30-unit apartment building

Encino Regency Towers

51-unit apartment building

Encino Arms Towers

68-unit apartment building

540 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles

88-unit apartment building

Wilshire Alexanda Westgate

106-unit apartment building

533 South Hobart Boulevard, Los Angeles

45-unit apartment building

530 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles

45-unit apartment building

520 North Kings Road, Los Angeles

63-unit apartment building

520 North Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills

Single-family residence

Wilshire Kenmore Towers

24-unit apartment building

510 South Ardmore Avenue, Los Angeles

91-unit apartment building

509 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills

Single-family residence

500 South Gramercy Place, Los Angeles

30-unit apartment building

4718 Kester Avenue, Sherman Oaks

26-unit apartment building

470 South Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills

24-unit apartment building

450 South Oxford Avenue, Los Angeles

53-unit apartment building

Wilshire Ardmore Towers

129-unit apartment building

Wilshire Catalina Regency

42-unit apartment building

Westmoreland Regency Towers

64-unit apartment building

Waldorf Towers

21-unit apartment building

Wilshire Harvard Regency

431 South Harvard Boulevard, Los Angeles

45-unit apartment building

Holt Villas

14-unit apartment building

430 South Hobart Boulevard, Los Angeles

68-unit apartment building

428 North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills

36-unit apartment building

423 North Heliotrope Drive, Los Angeles

60-unit apartment building

421 South Berendo Street, Los Angeles

46-unit apartment buildings

Beverly Hills Galleria Apartments

16-unit apartment building

415 South Harvard Boulevard, Los Angeles

45-unit apartment building

Wilshire Museum Towers

58-unit apartment building

411 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles

86-unit apartment building

Essex House

15-unit apartment building

Wilshire Hobart Ambassador

68-unit apartment building

Wilshire Hoover Towers

52-unit apartment building

Oakhurst Towers

32-unit apartment building

3915 West 7th Street, Los Angeles

33-unit apartment building

357 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills

23-unit apartment building

345 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills

14-unit apartment building

Wilshire Hampshire Powers

66-unit apartment building

The Regency

32-unit apartment building

Hancock Park Towers

28-unit apartment building

341 South Kenmore Avenue, Los Angeles

62-unit apartment building

341 South Berendo Street, Los Angeles

42-unit apartment building

Wilshire Ardmore Plaza

52-unit apartment building

334 South Cloverdale Avenue, Los Angeles

334 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles

36-unit apartment building

333 South Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills

Single-family residence

333 South Berendo Street, Los Angeles

45-unit apartment building

332 North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills

24-unit apartment building

Spalding Towers

35-unit apartment building

Wilshire Berendo Towers

84-unit apartment building

327 South Hoover Street, Los Angeles

48-unit apartment building

327 South Doheny Drive, Los Angeles

48-unit apartment building

324 South Linden Drive, Beverly Hills

Single-family residence

324 East Sixth Street, Los Angeles

Light manufacturing

317 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills

29-unit apartment building

Beverly Regent Apartment

20-unit apartment building

316 East Sixth Street, Los Angeles

Warehouse

3121 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles

20-unit apartment building

3111 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles

16-unit apartment building

3101 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles

16-unit apartment building

3100 West Third Street, Los Angeles

54-unit apartment building

310 South Mariposa Avenue, Los Angeles

45-unit apartment building

Wilshire Commonwealth Towers

33-unit apartment building

303 North La Peer Drive, Beverly Hills

19-unit apartment building

3025 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles

16-unit apartment building

Wilshire Vermont Towers

67-unit apartment building

Rexford Park Plaza

28-unit apartment building

29191 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu

About 10 acres of land

29127 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu

Single-family residence

272 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills

25-unit apartment building