One of China’s largest real estate developers is working to save a sinking Downtown Los Angeles project.
Oceanwide Holdings, based in Beijing, is trying to raise enough capital to restart construction at its stalled Oceanwide Plaza development at Figueroa, Flower, 11th and 12th streets in South Park, Urbanize Los Angeles reported, citing a new status report.
The developer says it’s in active negotiations with investors to finance the $1 billion needed to complete construction, plus hundreds of millions to pay off construction debts.
Oceanwide blamed the project’s delays on “liquidity issues,” a lawsuit filed by its general contractor and impacts of the global pandemic, according to the “unaudited interim results” report on Aug. 29.
Oceanwide bought the block-size downtown site in 2013 for $296 million, and soon announced plans for a mixed-use project in three towers across the street from what is now the Crypto.com Arena. It broke ground in 2015.
Construction of the $2.3 billion Oceanwide Plaza ground to a halt in early 2019, well ahead of the pandemic, leaving in the lurch a 2-million-square-foot hotel, condo and retail project. The company said at the time that it needed to restructure capital after contractors demanded more than $100 million for unpaid work.
A gaping Oceanwide Plaza remains half finished, with $1.2 billion spent on the project to date, according to the developer.
Oceanwide claims construction of the main tower is complete, along with 85 percent of all electrical work. About 60 percent of the interiors of the other two towers are also done. If finished, Oceanwide Plaza would contain 504 condominiums, a 184-room Park Hyatt hotel and 150,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
Oceanwide Holdings, according to its report, now aims to restart construction in 2023, after which it would take two years to complete the towers and add touches that include LED signs and landscaped patio decks.
Pending financing and given its construction timeline, it could open as early as 2025.
— Dana Bartholomew
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