Developer Spends $75M for Spring Street Plaza Portfolio

LOS ANGELES-Developer Barry Shy plans up to 1,000 housing units and 60,000 sf of retail space at a three-building, 800,000-sf site called Spring Street Plaza that Shy has acquired for $75 million, according to Colliers International. The new development, which Colliers describes as one of the largest adaptive re-use projects Downtown, comprises almost an entire city block on Spring Street between Sixth and Seventh streets in the heart of Historic Downtown Los Angeles.The three buildings in the portfolio include 650 S. Spring St., a 12-story 246,900-sf office building; 600 S. Spring, a 275,765-sf 17-story office building with three levels of subterranean parking; and 111W. Seventh St., a 223,131-sf, 11-story garment manufacturing building. The 650 S. Spring St. building is perhaps the best known of the three, having served in the 1920s as home to Bank of America and known for its ornate lobby, classical architecture and quality construction.Michael Ross of Colliers International says that the central location of the portfolio will connect the development with adjacent projects in Downtown Los Angeles and "patch the hole in the tapestry of mixed-use projects now under way Downtown." Ross, Fred Cordova, Bret Hardy, Nathan Pellow, Steve Nanino and Richard Abdulian of Colliers International represented the seller, an entity of L & R Investment Co.According to Ross, buyer Barry Shy has enjoyed success with other recent residential projects in Downtown Los Angeles and plans to begin construction immediately on the first phase of Spring Street Plaza. Cordova notes that the new project will join more than 4,500 residential units recently completed or under construction in the historic Downtown district.David Damus headed operations for the Spring Street Plaza transaction on behalf of L & R, which is an owner and operator of parking facilities throughout Los Angeles and the US.