6 Downtown News
February 1, 2010
Twitter/DowntownNews
photo by Gary Leonard
Goodbye Garmentos, Hello Artists Gallery Row Tower to House Studios After Years as Factory Building by Ryan VaillancouRt staff wRiteR
L
ike many of the old towers in the Historic Core, the 14-story building at 724 S. Spring St. was born as bank offices, but for the past couple decades has housed mostly garment manufacturers. Building co-owner Rafi Shaoulian is now banking on the theory that artists will be better tenants than clothing makers. Shaoulian, a member of the partnership that owns the Corporation Building, sensed an opportunity to capitalize on the property’s location on Gallery Row by offering affordable space to artists. He is in the process of converting the building’s vacant areas to studios and office space for creative users that he plans to lease for $1-$1.50 per square foot. Shaoulian, who is also a partner in the real estate management firm D&R Brothers, which owns about 10 Downtown buildings, already has a few gallery tenants at other properties. “They’re making good money and paying their rents on time and paying more than the garmentos,” Shaoulian said. “Obviously when you have the tenants displaying their art and you have a gallery, the price of the property can go up at the end of the day, rather than having a factory in it.” Shaoulian has partnered on the project with Art Walk director Jay Lopez, who is leading leasing efforts in the building, and Kevin Taylor, a longtime film location scout who is
converting one of the building’s floors to a set and who previously managed the nearby Spring Arts Tower. “The general location for this is perfect, being right on Art Walk and Gallery Row,” Lopez said. “I knew that it would be important that Gallery Row would have something like this that would be less expensive.” There are not many examples of former office towers in the Historic Core targeting creative users, though the Spring Arts Tower, at 435 S. Spring St., fits that bill. The renovated 12-story Art Deco building houses about 120 commercial tenants, most of which are in creative industries. Leasing manager Andrea Wand declined to detail rental rates. In September 2007, when Taylor managed the building, he told Los Angeles Downtown News that rents ranged from $1.45$1.55 per square foot. The Corporation Building project is in the preliminary stages, but Lopez is looking to fill the 70% vacant building with everything from artists needing studio space to galleries to architects. Some of the floors are still occupied by garment manufacturers who are on month-to-month leases. “We’re planning to start with the upper floors from the 14th and go down to the lower floors and not disrupt the existing tenants right away,” Shaoulian said. Carving Space Most of the floors of the Corporation Building are com-
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Rafi Shaoulian and Jay Lopez are working on plans to turn the Corporation Building into studio spaces for artists, architects and other creative types. The structure at 724 S. Spring St. has held mostly clothing manufacturers in recent decades.
pletely open, in single, 4,700-square-foot blocks. The rooms are generally raw, with concrete floors and posts, and ceilings that are about 12 feet tall. Shaoulian and Taylor expect that some tenants will want entire floors, but most will opt for smaller spaces. As the building managers get a better sense of what kinds of tenants are interested in the building, they’ll refine their plans
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