Joint Venture Plans $175M High-Rise Condo

SAN PEDRO, CA-The Downtown high-rise condominium development trend has arrived here via a partnership of the Carlyle Group and Beverly Hills-based Galaxy Commercial Holding, which plans to develop a 16-story, 318-unit residential condo project along the waterfront in Old Town San Pedro. The $175-million project will be called the Vue and will offer condo units priced in the $300,000 range.The project site is a short drive across the Vincent Thomas Bridge from Long Beach at 5th and Palos Verdes streets. The JV expects to break ground in the spring 2006 and to have the units available for occupancy in early 2008, according to Rhonda Slavik, marketing manager for Vue.The condominiums will include units of one-, two- and three-bedrooms that will range from 700 sf to more than 1,713 sf. Planned amenities include a roof-top sky deck on the 16th floor, a lounge and a fitness center. The project will include a five-story, 725-space controlled access parking structure.Designed by J. Kobi Moses, principal of GMP Architects of Santa Monica, the project will feature interiors by Style Interior Design of Irvine. GMP's other projects include three luxury towers in Marina Del Rey. Style Interior's work includes projects in Pasadena, Marina Del Rey, Irvine and Santa Ana.In addition to emphasizing the project's location, views and amenities, the developers are marketing the Vue units as among the lowest-priced waterfront living in Southern California. They point out that downtown high-rise projects, which were hardly imaginable only a few years ago in the Southland, have become popular in Los Angeles, Long Beach and other locales--both in terms of new construction and in the form of existing high-rise buildings that have been modified for residential uses.