LAX people mover woes, Figuring out SB 79, and more

Fashionphile, described as the county's largest "ultra-luxury re-commerce brand," has upped its presence at Row DTLA. Row DTLA announced this week that Fashionphile would expand its footprint from 7,000 square feet to 32,330 square feet by opening a new concept flagship store. The Row DTLA outpost is the largest on the West Coast for Fashionphile.

The Row DTLA campus, located at 7th and Alameda Streets, spans more than 30 acres and includes over 1.7 million square feet of commercial space. The property's owners recently initiated plans to build up to 1,000 apartments on parking lots at the eastern side of the campus.

Here's what we're reading this week:

Almost no one is building new apartments in Los Angeles. Here’s why "Institutional investors are pulling money from L.A. real estate projects, preferring other cities with more predictable development rules and profits." (LA Times)

The home construction industry is bleeding workers. Could paying them more help rebuild L.A.? "At Tuesday morning’s City Council meeting, Councilmembers Curren Price and Hugo Soto-Martínez introduced a motion to commission a study on the effects of establishing a $32.35 minimum wage for all construction projects in the city with 10 or more residential units and under 85 feet in height." (LA Times)

Dolce & Gabbana Leads Retail Tenants at Landmark One Beverly Hills Resort Project "The designer brand, along with Casa Tua Cucina and Los Mochis, will take tens of thousands of square feet of retail space at the ultra-luxe development" (Commercial Observer)

LA takes up rent control reforms that could lower annual hikes. What you need to know "Currently, the city’s rules allow annual increases of up to 10%, depending on inflation and whether a landlord covers a renter’s gas and electricity bills. Rent hikes can be even higher in cases where tenants add new occupants to their households....A proposal from the L.A. Housing Department would instead cap increases at 5%. Meanwhile, tenant advocates continue pushing city leaders to pass an even lower limit of 3%." (LAist)

A historic housing bill is on Newsom’s desk. Cities are scrambling to figure out how it works "SB 79, introduced earlier this year, applies only to counties with at least 15 passenger rail stations. That amendment instantly narrowed the bill’s scope from 58 counties to just eight: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sacramento." (LA Times)

Metro L.A. River Path Project: Delays and Rising Costs "It will likely take leadership from L.A. City and L.A. County elected officials to get Metro's L.A. River path project out of the limbo it has been trapped in for the last half-decade" (Streetsblog LA)

The LAX Automated People Mover is long delayed and $880M over budget. Here's what went wrong "A report from the 2024-25 L.A. County Grand Jury released in June determined that the LAX Automated People Mover has been slowed by a strained relationship between Los Angeles World Airports and its contractor for the project, LINXS, 'inadequate' conflict resolution processes and political pressures. According to the grand jury, LINXS took advantage of these factors to “force” the city to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle disputes." (LAist)

Flying taxis are coming to L.A. This developer is already picking places to land them "The vertiports, as they are called, might be built on open land next to an airport or university, or also on a parking garage or other building rooftop in downtown areas, said Kevin Cox, chief executive of VertiPorts by Atlantic. The company wants to build the infrastructure needed to integrate air travel into congested urban centers as an alternative to stop-and-go car trips." (LA Times)

Council Passes Single Stair Reform With Unanimous Vote "Adopting it for Culver City was 'urgent' as the state of California will be closing out the option for cities to change their own building codes on Oct. 1 for a six year moratorium." (Culver City Crossroads)

• Los Angeles took its single-stair ordinance to the 1-yard line, but did not adopt it before October 1.

Follow us on social media: 

Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn / Threads / Instagram / Bluesky