Another communal living company is opening in Los Angeles, and it’s capitalizing on one of the region’s most celebrated housing types: the bungalow court.
Node, which started in Brooklyn before branching out to Dublin, and now Los Angeles, has purchased and remodeled two bungalow courts in Echo Park.
“We’re all about kind of eliminating isolation through community in places where you see a lot of loneliness,” says Max Pattar, Node’s business development consultant.
That’s the philosophy commonly espoused by “coliving” companies, which operate kind of like college dorms (though they tend to hate that word), with planned events, shared living areas, and separate bedrooms. But at Node in Echo Park, most residents will get their own individual one-bedroom bungalows with their own bedrooms, bathrooms, patios, and living spaces; two bungalows have two bedrooms and can be shared with a roommate.
Bungalow courts were originally designed to blend private and public living spaces. Multiple small cottages arranged around a central courtyard, usually a walkway or garden, encourage neighbors to spend time together but give everyone a bit of solitude as well.
Although they were a common form of multifamily housing in Los Angeles from 1910 to 1930, bungalow courts can no longer be built from the ground up due to city parking minimums. And because of their age, many courts, including the two properties acquired by Node, are rent-controlled.
Those two factors have been deterrents for owners to revive bungalow courts that have degraded over the past century. Under the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, annual rent increases are capped by the city (it’s 3 percent this year).
Node is prolonging the lives of these bungalow courts, but it might also be taking affordable units away from the community by turning them into pricier short-term rentals. Its fully furnished bungalows are available for rent for $3,000 per month.
Tara Stephenson, who runs events for Node, says the company prefers 12-month leases, but shorter leases are available. If there’s a lot of turnover, prices won’t be kept low. Property owners are allowed to reset prices to market rate every time a new lease is signed.
“With short-term rentals in [rent-stabilized] units, landlords can raise prices when a tenant vacates the unit, essentially nullifying the long-term RSO protections for renters,” says Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin.
On Friday, he introduced a motion asking city staffers to draft an ordinance that would require 12-month minimum lease in rent-controlled buildings.
“Los Angeles cannot wait for action to protect needed RSO housing units in Los Angeles,” he wrote in the motion.
According to Bonin, since 2001, property owners have filed applications with the city to remove more than 25,000 rent-controlled units from the market. Even when rent-controlled units remain on the market, they’re increasingly at risk of not being affordable. Landlords are finding creative ways to raise rents, even for rent-controlled properties.
At the newly renovated Villa Carlotta, an ornate, historic rent-controlled apartment building in Hollywood’s Franklin Village, rent-controlled rates can reset every time a new lease is signed. Studios in the building are now available for stays of 30 days or more, with rates from $6,700 for a two-month stay. (Before Villa Carlotta was remodeled, some of the apartments rented for as low as $859 per month).
A spokesperson says both of Node’s Echo Park bungalow properties were vacant when the company acquired them, and the company “undertook a two-year historical restoration of the units” to “keep them from going extinct.” According to the city’s housing department, there’s only record of one buy-out agreement at both addresses (under city law, landlords can “buy out” tenants at rent-controlled properties by offering them money to vacate, but they must register those agreements with the city).
On a recent tour of Node’s property on Sunset Boulevard, Pattar and Stephenson said the company’s founder decided to expand west because he loves Los Angeles.
“When we pick our neighborhoods, we try to pick ones with authenticity, that have some edginess,” says Pattar. “We like to be in up-and-coming neighborhoods, neighborhoods with mom and pop coffee shops, not Starbucks everywhere.”
They both said they’re curious to see what types of tenants end up moving in, wondering out loud if the units might be attractive to transplants from New York. Node’s other locations have lured freelancers, students, and tech workers.
Asked about what impact Node might have on the community, they said they believe Node will do more good than harm for Echo Park. They said the company will organize events, dinners, and local partnerships that support local businesses.
Stephenson said she’s interested in finding ways to encourage Node tenants to get involved with nonprofit work and to give back to the neighborhood in ways that are more meaningful than “buying a beer” at a local bar.
“We’re so connected to the local market,” says Pattar. “We try to blend into the neighborhood.”
Comments
Heinous.
By Partymuscles on 06.18.19 11:34am
"Those two factors have been deterrents for owners to revive bungalow courts that have degraded over the past century." Wow, Curbed LA actually acknowledged this.
Someone comes up with a nice way to improve properties and Mike "Incompetent" Bonin has to come along and try to stop it. Rent control keeps buildings and neighborhoods crappy. Gentrification makes them nicer.
By LADude on 06.18.19 12:22pm
Bonin needs to go. Rent control has kept certain areas below par . Don’t worry Bonin and his minions are in for a rude wakening
By Wackyone1968 on 06.18.19 12:30pm
I don’t know how this bungalow court has been "revived" in any way. They painted them white and black and hooked them up to wifi and now you can get a 450 sq ft one bedroom for only 3000/month.
By Partymuscles on 06.18.19 12:36pm
And they remodeled the kitchens, bathrooms, added AC, new windows, new paint, etc. I would call that revived.
https://www.apartments.com/1236-sunset-blvd-los-angeles-ca/lhn4w4f/
By LADude on 06.18.19 1:35pm
Rehabbing a place like this is a lot more than paint and wifi.
Most places of this vintage are total gut-jobs; rent control usually prevents ordinary care and feeding, so after 40+ years, they’re in sad shape.
Ordinarily, sensible economics would have them razed and a 4-story stucco box taking their place. Node finds a way to satisfy the hysterical preservationists and still potentially break-even on the deal. Bonin wants to prevent this, assuring even more Ellis filings.
By smartalex on 06.18.19 11:05pm
Yeah, too bad they didn’t put up a 4-story stucco box, then 30 more people would have been able to live there. Instead it’ll be 10 awful rich people who see this ad copy and go "cool!"
By Partymuscles on 06.19.19 9:10am
Ah the angry socialist. Such a pity.
By WS Norton on 06.20.19 7:48am
Could not have put a better name and picture to this comment than "WS Norton" and "old white guy in a suit."
By Partymuscles on 06.20.19 10:47am
Agree gentrification makes neighborhoods nicer, don’t agree rent control keeps buildings and neighborhoods crappy.
All of the older buildings in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire are rent control and look just fine to me. So do the neighborhoods. The reason is there is no vacancy control (aka "strict" rent control) and when someone moves out the new rent can go to market. That gives landlords enough cashflow over the long haul to fund maintenance and repairs.
Areas like Crenshaw district, that have rent control too, behave differently. When someone moves out there, even if they’ve been there for ages, the new rent someone wants to pay isn’t much higher than the old, because the area isn’t very nice. Those buildings have defacto vacancy control and that’s the reason they don’t look nice.
In Inglewood I’m saying let the landlords have the upside when someone moves out, but put a cap on what the increase can be to someone who has lived there 20 years. That’s what City of Inglewood went with, and it will allow the area to become more like Mid-Wilshire with well-maintained older buildings and good diversity.
By calzada on 06.20.19 1:07am
Forget the unnecessary spin – we get it. the company buys dumpy buildings in hip enough areas where they know they can fix the dump up, furnish it in an instagram trendy way and rent for a tidy profit. nothing wrong with that. yes people paying way less in the past will get the boot – that’s the way it works. All the community coming together BS isn’t important – you rent apartments for as much as you can get like everyone else.
By LAoneWay on 06.18.19 12:34pm
Exactly. I like the way you cut right through the the bs and PR/virtue-speak that plagues modern discourse.
By MyrnaMinkoff on 06.18.19 2:21pm
People will eventually realize that the majority of these articles are merely paid advertisements and nothing more.
By subaruwrx on 06.18.19 3:44pm
Not sure which is more nauseating, the eyeroll-inducing PR spin from the company or the rent-control advocates who want investment in and preservation of old properties while decrying the increase in rents.
By dudeimstarving on 06.18.19 1:52pm
The Curated Lifestyle. Making decisions for you so you don’t have to! All those pesky mistakes we all learn from? Heck, now there’s someone else to blame. Enter Node!
By Cleavon Little on 06.18.19 1:53pm
Rents need to be capped. Skyrocketing rents are hurting millions of Americans ..
It is an industry that needs to be regulated.
By ByeByeLA on 06.18.19 2:00pm
Capping rents leads to higher rents. Regulation is not the answer. Increasing supply and an increase in vacancy rates leads to lower rents.
By LADude on 06.18.19 2:25pm
We are seeing the price gouging. It one of the biggest expenses of an American families life and it is unregulated. No one will lower rents.
By ByeByeLA on 06.18.19 3:14pm
No one is price gouging anyone. Landlords charge what tenants will pay. If there are more options (i.e. more supply) and then landlords have to lower prices or the potentially tenant will rent somewhere else. This is a proven fact.
By LADude on 06.18.19 3:59pm
I’ve known folks who have had low rents for a decade or more, never a raise, in non-rent-controlled units. Not any more. With the spectre of rent control extending to newer construction, those owners are wisely, preemptively raising rents to market levels, much to the dismay of their tenants.
Rent control forces landlord to raise rents. It forces them to pass on marginal applicants.
If you want stable rents, you need to promote an atmosphere that allows for new supply to come quickly to market, and allows landlords to compete with each other for tenants.
Rent control provides neither.
By smartalex on 06.18.19 11:17pm
I would never pay this much to face Sunset… yuck. Such an empty part of Sunset, too. I’m sure it’s getting built up.
By astroland on 06.18.19 2:22pm
If people can’t afford to live in LA, why don’t they move?
By Jim_Boonie on 06.18.19 5:15pm
Why don’t you move?
By Partymuscles on 06.18.19 5:34pm
It’s called entitlement. It’s what lazy people specialize in
By Transplant Trash on 06.21.19 8:51am
Rent increases are 4% this year in the City if LA. Upped from 3 % which has been the norm for decades.
By agentaimee on 06.18.19 6:43pm