The homeowners say they never hired Ortiz, never met her, and never owed her a dollar. On Feb. 26, 2026, LAPD’s Real Estate Fraud Unit arrested Ortiz. On March 3, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged her with 25 felony counts of knowingly causing a false instrument to be recorded in a public office, under California Penal Code section 115(a). She pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $700,000. If convicted as charged, she faces up to 24 years in state prison.

Beyond the headline is a cautionary tale for property owners about how the mechanic’s lien system works, why it was vulnerable to this kind of abuse, and what remedies they have if a fraudulent lien lands on a title.

California’s mechanic’s lien law is grounded in the California Constitution and codified in the Civil Code. The purpose of the law is to protect a contractor, subcontractor, laborer, or material supplier who improves real property and goes unpaid. It allows them to record a claim against the property itself. If the owner still refuses to pay, the claimant can sue to foreclose the lien and force a sale. The system favors the contractor over the property owner by providing them with a secured interest in the property value for work completed. For legitimate contractors, it is often the only leverage they have against a nonpaying owner.

At a high level, the mechanic’s lien process has four main steps. First, a contractor who lacks a direct contract with the owner must serve a 20-day preliminary notice identifying the project and the work. Second, the claimant must record the lien within strict deadlines (generally 60 to 90 days after completion, depending on whether a notice of completion was filed). Third, the claimant has 90 days from recording to file a lawsuit to foreclose on the lien. Fourth, if no suit is filed, the lien expires by operation of law.

When a mechanic’s lien is presented for recording at the County Registrar-Recorder, the clerk performs only an administrative review. The clerk checks that the document has the right format, the right signatures, a notary acknowledgment, and the required statutory language. The clerk does not verify whether the work was done, whether a contract existed, whether the claimant is licensed, or whether the amount claimed is plausible. 

The trade-off is that the system relies on two backstops: the 90-day foreclosure deadline, which forces a dishonest claimant into court where the claim can be tested, and the criminal law, which punishes anyone who records a false instrument. There is no easy administrative remedy for property owners who are victims of fraud.

The Ortiz scheme exploited the gap between those two backstops. Recording a lien is cheap and fast. The document immediately clouds title, which means the owner generally cannot sell or refinance until the cloud is removed. A lien for $24 million or $98 million would pause any sale, regardless of whether the underlying claim has any basis. A dishonest claimant who never intends to sue can simply record, wait, and let the pressure build on the owner to pay something to make the problem go away. Even after 90 days, when the lien is legally unenforceable, it remains on the record until someone takes affirmative steps to remove it.

According to the DA, Ortiz is alleged to have recorded 24 claims of mechanic’s lien and one grant deed against ten properties, claiming amounts from $800,000 to more than $98 million, for services such as “cleaning” and “consulting.” LAPD has stated that Ortiz is not licensed by the California Department of Real Estate and was promoting herself as a real estate consultant and business coach without a license.

If a property owner discovers a fraudulent lien on their title, they have several legal remedies, though each of them requires retaining counsel and incurring fees, and may be cumbersome.

The most direct option is a petition to release the lien under Civil Code section 8480. Once the 90-day foreclosure window has passed without a lawsuit, the owner can petition the superior court for an order releasing the lien, after first giving the claimant 10 days’ notice and an opportunity to release it voluntarily. This is the cleanest remedy when the claimant has simply let the lien go stale, which is often the case with a claimant who never intended to litigate in the first place.

Inside the 90-day window, an owner and their counsel can press the claimant to either file suit or release the lien, making clear that a claimant who records a lien and then fails to prosecute it exposes themselves to liability for attorney’s fees, costs, and potential tort damages.

For an owner who needs to sell or refinance immediately and cannot wait for a court proceeding, Civil Code section 8424 provides a mechanic’s lien release bond. A surety bond equal to 125 percent of the lien amount substitutes for the real property as security, which removes the lien from title and shifts any dispute to the bond itself. The approach is expensive, and at the face amounts recorded in the Ortiz matter, which ranged from $800,000 to nearly $100 million, the bond premium and collateral requirements may put this remedy out of reach for many owners. It remains an option worth evaluating with counsel when a transaction is at stake.

A knowingly false lien also supports a civil claim for slander of title. That cause of action allows the owner to recover the damages caused by the cloud on title, including the cost of clearing it and, in appropriate cases, punitive damages against a claimant who acted with malice. In a case involving dozens of liens recorded against unrelated owners, the pattern itself may support the malice element.

Owners should also report the matter as criminal fraud. Filing a false document is a felony under Penal Code section 115, the same statute under which Ortiz has been charged. LAPD’s Commercial Crimes Division operates a Real Estate Fraud Unit, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney maintains a dedicated Real Estate Fraud Section within its White-Collar Crime Division. 

Finally, every owner of Los Angeles County property should sign up for the County Registrar-Recorder’s property fraud alert system, which sends a free email notification whenever any document is recorded against a property the owner has registered. The service will not prevent a fraudulent filing, but it allows the owner to learn about the filing on the day it happens rather than months later when a sale or refinance is already in motion. Early notice materially shortens the timeline for obtaining relief and reduces the transactional damage a fraudulent lien can cause.

DA Ho has said his office will seek a court order to clear title on the affected properties as part of the criminal case. That is unusual and welcome relief for these specific victims, and it suggests an increasing willingness to treat title clearing as part of the criminal remedy rather than a separate civil burden for each homeowner.

The broader question is whether California should adjust the recording system to make this kind of abuse harder. Possible reforms include requiring a sworn declaration of contract existence at recording, requiring proof of contractor licensure for lien claimants who hold themselves out as providing services regulated by the Contractors State License Board, and imposing automatic penalties when a lien claimant fails to foreclose within 90 days. However, no action in Sacramento has focused on this issue yet. Senate Bill 255, which was passed in October 2025, requires every county to establish a recorder notification program and requires that all parties to a deed, quitclaim, mortgage, or deed of trust get a notification within 30 days of those documents being recorded. That will go into effect in January 2027, but would not affect mechanic’s liens.

On April 6, 2026, ABC reported that Marjorie Josaphat, one of the Benedict Canyon homeowners affected by the Ortiz scheme, was able to remove $100 million in mechanics liens filed by Ortiz’s company through a court action.

For now, the practical takeaway for Beverly Hills and Los Angeles property owners is to check title periodically and treat mechanic’s liens with urgency. 

Pooja S. Nair is a Partner and Chair of the Food, Beverage, and Hospitality Department at Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP. She represents clients in real estate litigation and complex business disputes involving contracts, employment, intellectual property, and fraud. Her insights have appeared in Law360, Daily Journal, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. Before joining ECJ, she led the Food and Beverage practice at TroyGould and practiced white-collar defense at Foley & Lardner. She also serves on nonprofit boards and has been recognized as one of Los Angeles’s Top Litigators and Trial Attorneys and Most Influential Women Lawyers by the LA Business Journal.

The post Mechanic’s Lien Fraud Rocks the Westside: Legal Takeaways appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Currently operating on one floor and serving 11 families, the nonprofit aims to raise $35 million to renovate its location at the former Hilgard House Hotel and triple its operation. There is currently a waitlist of 38 families wanting to be housed.

Before opening in 2025, UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital was the only children’s hospital in California that did not have a Ronald McDonald House. Hosting families from around the country and the world who face barriers to finding a residence while their children receive long-term clinical care, Ronald McDonald House Westside Los Angeles offers one hot meal every day, laundry services, a kitchen and community spaces to families in addition to free housing. 

“There’s a huge impact based on being open for one year,” Emily Juarez, development manager of Ronald McDonald House Westside Los Angeles, told the Courier. “You see families in the house, and you can see the stress on their faces the minute they walk into the house go down.”

Families receiving clinical medical care for a child at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Saint John’s Health Center are eligible to be housed at the Ronald McDonald House Westside Los Angeles for the duration of their child’s care.

The March 18 panel included Cedars-Sinai senior vice president and chief advancement officer Arthur Ochoa, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management managing director Tracey Gluck, California Landmark Group founder and president Ken Kahan and UniHealth Foundation president and chief operating officer Jennifer Vanore on topics ranging from the lack of housing aid for medically affected families to the value of philanthropy.

“We’re in an environment where resources for health care and reimbursement for health care providers continue to shrink and get squeezed in every way possible,” Ochoa said. “We are lucky to be in this part of town served by two extraordinary world-class academic medical centers, and at the same time, there is absolutely no reimbursement for the health care provider, for patients or their families for housing when people have to travel all the distance to receive care, and so the insurance companies aren’t paying for that, government isn’t paying for that, nobody’s paying for that. So, the idea that a group of committed philanthropists can help support the mission of Ronald McDonald House in providing that kind of support for people in the toughest times of their lives is pretty extraordinary.”

Proximate housing services are key in reducing a family’s stress while going through one of the most difficult experiences imaginable, Vanore said.

“When you look at stressors and stress being a satellite killer, the number two causes are a loss of a loved one or dealing with a catastrophic event related to health, and then the second is financial insecurity,” she said. “Nowadays, more and more parents are actually two-income families, and they’re very reliant on those incomes. So, if you have a family or a parent that has to be in that home for a year, they’re not able to work, that is a massive impact on their income for their family. It’s a sacrifice, and so being able to have a free place to stay really helps alleviate those stressors and those long-term mental health impacts on both the parents and the child.”

Gluck emphasized the lasting impact of philanthropy for both the receiver and the donor.

“Philanthropy as part of a wealth strategy,” she said. “I’m at J.P. Morgan, and we deal with high-net-worth individuals. Everybody can afford philanthropy, so making it a part of the strategy, along with involving the children and their children in the giving process, is very important because there’s a legacy, and they need to know what their family is focused on.”

Dr. Theodore Moore, a pediatric oncologist at UCLA, spoke after the panel and said that Ronald McDonald Houses not only provide urgent housing services to families, but can be essential for a patient’s care.

“We have a lot of therapy where you need to come for that therapy, but then you need to stay in the area for a minimum of 30 days of follow-up. Where do the families find a place to stay in Westwood or Beverly Hills or an area where they can afford and be with their whole family?” he said. “When you take care of a patient, you take care of the entire family, and Ronald McDonald Houses do this so well, the counseling, the play therapy, everything that’s there. You’re not going to get this with the family staying in a hotel somewhere. The whole family needs to be treated to be whole.”

The services provided by Ronald McDonald House are so impactful that families often have a difficult time leaving the community they’ve built with other families experiencing similar challenges when they are discharged from the house, said Kelly Herman, executive director of Ronald McDonald House Westside Los Angeles. Wheeler Hadden, director of operations of Ronald McDonald House Westside Los Angeles, remembered one moment between a family from Mexico and a family from China living in the house at the same time.

“Both families had a 7-year-old daughter who was receiving treatment and was inpatient when they first came, and now is outpatient. And they have both been there about the same amount of time, 10 or 11 months,” he said. “And you saw them in the kitchen, and the parents were cooking food respectively, in their own spaces. And the two girls started interacting. One girl asked her mom if she could share some of her food; her mom was cooking classic Chinese food, and the other girl shared home-cooked Mexican food. And they started sharing their food, the two girls. So just seeing that, it was beautiful.”  

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The six-story project is designed in a contemporary architectural style consisting of asymmetrical design, a facade featuring white concrete and smooth stucco, floor-to-ceiling windows with glass and curved balconies with aluminum railings. The project also includes an 8-foot non-illuminated sign facing the street and will have three units designated for low-income residents.

Pynoos said she dissented because the project was “out of context architecturally” with the street it’s on, despite commending the project’s designers on the development.

“The responsibility to maintain neighborhood character has shifted to this commission,” she said. “Durant is a street that still has a strong sense of place, even if there are some new, modern buildings on it. It feels cohesive. It feels residential. In Beverly Hills, that’s increasingly rare.”

The Beverly Hills Planning Commission approved a development plan review and density bonus permit to allow construction of the development in October 2025. The project is also located within a half mile of a major transit stop, located at Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards.

Kevin Murray, an associate with the project’s designer, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, argued that the development fits within the pattern of surrounding large-scale buildings in Century City and future Beverly Hills developments. He added that designers incorporated aspects of other buildings on Durant Drive, including street-facing courtyards and a central bifurcation.

“It should be noted too that in our immediate context, right at the end of the block here, we see Century City and just beyond our property will soon rise One Beverly Hills,” he said. “So when we approached the site, we wanted to make sure that we were finding rhythms that existed on the site that can keep us in scale while still providing innovative architecture here.”

The approval came after numerous residents in the surrounding neighborhood spoke out against the development, decrying state-mandated housing laws and arguing the project strips away the neighborhood’s charm.

“That is an ugly building design. It’s straight out of Huxley’s dystopic “Brave New World,” and is just another step in degrading the family character of this old neighborhood,” Robbins Drive resident Daniel Ditzhazy wrote. “Finally, this is just an implementation of the humiliating attack on local sovereignty conducted by the state of California…It forces us to put high-density residential structures in suburban communities such as Beverly Hills, where the residents oppose such things.”

Terrence Rodsky, who owns the adjacent property on Durant Drive, also questioned the development’s place in the neighborhood.

“This project, as currently designed, is not in good taste. Were it proposed for Miami Beach, it would be welcomed,” he said. “My other point in general is that if the commission is to approve this project as designed, you will jeopardize the right to object to future projects, as builders will cite 9945 Durant as carte blanche for anything they wish to construct.”

Commissioner Jeffrey Daniels voted to approve the project, citing the city’s need to build more housing to meet mandated housing goals from the state. He also commended the project’s design, saying it will bring something “new and innovative to the community.”

“Beverly Hills in particular, but Los Angeles as an entire region, needs to come up with more housing. And this is not like a personal preference, it’s a matter of existential survival,” he said. “So while I appreciate the concern among neighbors, who understandably have a very strong association with the quaintness of the neighborhood, that may not be a sustainable requirement going forward into the future.”

Commission Vice Chair Terri Smooke expressed concerns about whether the project’s design fits with the rest of the street, but commended the developers for incorporating elements from other buildings on Durant Drive. She added that the commission ultimately had to approve the project in order for the city to meet state-mandated housing requirements.

“So for the neighbors who are very concerned about this project, please understand that this commission does not have the ability to deny,” she said. “I am concerned, as I said, we don’t have the right to deny and I think it’s going to be problematic for many people on the street, because it is so different in mass and scale and design, frankly. But I do believe you’ve created something that’s really exceptional.”

Commissioner Evan Meyer said he voted to approve due to the city’s need to build more housing and commended the planners on the design and landscaping of the property.

In other business, the commission heard details about a proposal for a new three-story building with a restaurant and rooftop use for the new Tiffany & Co. flagship store, located at 360 North Rodeo Drive.  

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The decision overturned a denial of the same review and permits made by the Planning Commission in November 2025. 

The hearing, which lasted into the early hours of March 25, included nearly two hours of public comment. 

Developer Crescent Heights first submitted an application for the project in March 2024. In October 2025, the Planning Commission directed city staff to prepare language to deny the project, and in November 2025, the commission voted to deny the project. 

Commissioners cited concerns about, among other items, the ability of the Beverly Hills Fire Department (BHFD) to access higher floors and the potential for increased traffic causing delays for residents who may need emergency medical care. 

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) weighed in almost immediately following the commission’s October 2025 decision. In a Letter of Technical Assistance dated Oct. 29, 2025, HCD urged the commission to be “mindful of the stringent requirements for making findings of denial under the HAA.” 

The letter additionally stated that if perceived noncompliance of state housing law occurs, “HCD may notify the California Office of the Attorney General that the local government is in violation of state law.”

HCD sent another communication to the city following its November 2025 vote. In a Notice of Potential Violation (NOPV) dated Nov. 20, 2025, HCD refuted the commission’s reasons for denial. 

In order to deny Builder’s Remedy projects based on health and safety concerns, a city must provide written findings and overwhelming evidence demonstrating specific, adverse impacts on public health that cannot be avoided or mitigated. 

In its NOPV, HCD wrote that “there is no ‘significant, quantifiable, direct, and unavoidable impact’ related to traffic” nor “any evidence in the record that would suggest that emergency access to all floors of the building would be an issue.”

On March 23, the state sent a follow-up to the NOPV “to inform the city of further obligations under state law that were not mentioned in the November letter, including the burden of proof for conditions of approval under the HAA and potential fines under Government Code section 65914.2, which took effect on January 1, 2026,” it stated. 

According to the letter, under Government Code section 65914.2, local governments that were advised in writing of potential state housing law violations and are subsequently sued by applicants can face fines between $10,000 to $50,000 per unit. 

Applied to the Burton Way project, those fines could total between $2 million and $10 million. 

A report prepared by city staff for the March 24 meeting concurred with the state’s findings in its two previous letters.

In the report, staff notes that the BHFD reviewed the project and stated that they “do not foresee concerns with being able to provide emergency services” to the building. 

With regard to concerns that additional traffic will impede emergency services, the report states that “BHFD does not anticipate any disruption to services as a result of the project” and that “the level of service currently provided is not anticipated to change once the project becomes operational.”

During public comment, a group or residents calling themselves the Neighborhood Legal Fund requested that the council uphold the Planning Commission’s decision. They alleged that, contrary to staff and state findings, the project does not meet the state’s legal safety requirements. 

The group referred to a booklet they had prepared and submitted to council for the hearing. It states that an emergency pedestrian egress route for residents of 300 North Swall Drive, located in a 20-foot-wide alley, will be “completely blocked” during construction. Alleging that an analysis of the route was “vehicular only” and “deliberately omitted” the impact to pedestrians, the booklet states that “the council cannot adopt health or safety findings based on an incomplete factual record.”

The booklet additionally alleges that the alley blockage will violate California Fire Code, and that the geotechnical report on file for the project was written when it was proposed to be 20 stories. The project is now proposed at 26 stories.

The group independently commissioned a geotechnical report by Terraphase Engineering which recommended, in part, “that the anticipated static and seismic deformations of the planned foundations be re-evaluated” based on the updated height from 20 stories to 26 stories. 

Mayor Sharona Nazarian asked city staff how residents’ concerns would be addressed if the project were approved. 

“Can you fit a fire engine in the 20-foot alley?” she said. “Was there a foundation calculated for a 20-story building?”

City Planner Cindy Gordon responded that the next step would be for the developer to go through the architectural review process, then it could move toward acquiring a building permit. 

“That’s when the next phase would come into play with some of the technical studies … [if] the soils report or any geotechnical report was prepared based on old project data, they would be required to update those studies to ensure that the documentation provided to the city reflects the project that is proposed and that they intend to construct,” Gordon said. 

Gordon also said that “the city has every intent and interest in maintaining protections and ensuring adequate, egress and ingress” for residents of neighboring buildings. 

Representatives for the development expressed their satisfaction with the council’s decision. 

“The development at 8844 Burton Way will be the premier residential project in Beverly Hills,” Bruce Menin, a founding partner of Crescent Heights, told the Courier. “Crescent Heights is committed to bringing world-class architecture and much needed housing, including affordable housing, to Burton Way.”

Elliott Kahn, Crescent Heights’ West Coast managing partner and a resident of Beverly Hills, expressed his gratitude. 

“I want to thank the council for their leadership through the long and deliberative process,” he said. “So many members of the community came to support growth and the future of our city.”  

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On Oct. 6, 2025, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill (“AB”) 325, amending the Cartwright Act to directly address algorithmic price coordination. The law became effective Jan. 1, 2026, and makes California the most aggressive state in regulating pricing algorithms, across all industries. The legislation makes two specific practices illegal. First, it prohibits using or distributing a common pricing algorithm as part of an agreement to restrain trade. Second, it prohibits using or distributing such an algorithm if the person coerces another to adopt the recommended price or commercial term.

The proponents of AB 325 stated: “It doesn’t matter if price fixing happens behind closed doors or through artificial intelligence, it’s wrong either way. Californians face an affordability crisis, with basic needs like food and housing increasingly priced beyond their means. Unknown to consumers, digital tools are accelerating the “price crisis,” resulting in higher costs and fewer choices. AB 325 updates California’s antitrust laws to address modern technologies being used for illegal price fixing.”

AB 325 defines a common pricing algorithm as any methodology, including software or other technology, used by two or more persons that uses competitor data to recommend, align, stabilize, set, or otherwise influence a price or commercial term. This definition is deliberately broad. The statute does not distinguish between public and non-public competitor data, meaning that even algorithms using publicly available pricing information could violate the law if they facilitate coordination among competitors. The legislation applies across all industries operating in California, not just rental housing.

AB 325 also fundamentally changed how antitrust cases can be litigated in California. Previously, plaintiffs alleging price-fixing had to meet a high pleading standard, demonstrating facts that excluded the possibility that defendants were acting independently. Under the new law, plaintiffs need only show that the existence of a conspiracy to restrain trade is plausible. This relaxed standard makes it substantially easier for cases to survive early dismissal and proceed to discovery, where plaintiffs can obtain internal documents and communications that reveal coordination.

California paired this legislation with Senate Bill (“SB”) 763, which dramatically increases penalties for Cartwright Act violations. Criminal fines for corporations jumped from $1 million to $6 million per violation. Individual violators face penalties up to $1 million per violation, increased from $250,000. The Attorney General and district attorneys can seek civil penalties up to $1 million per violation. These penalties are cumulative, meaning they can be imposed in addition to other remedies available under California law.

The significance of this legislative framework came into focus even before the law took effect, as two large settlements were announced that dealt with algorithmic pricing. On Nov. 18, 2025, California Attorney General Bonta announced a $7 million settlement with property management company, Greystar Management Services LLC. As part of the settlement, Greystar agreed to stop using any software that uses competitively sensitive information to align rent prices.

On Nov. 24, 2025, the federal Department of Justice announced a settlement with RealPage for the company to change its business practices to cease having its software use competitors’ nonpublic, competitively sensitive information to determine rental prices in runtime operation and cease using active lease data for purposes of training the models underlying the software, limiting model training to historic or backward-looking nonpublic data that has been aged for at least 12 months.

The combination of new legislation, federal enforcement, and state prosecution creates new legal risk for landlords and other real estate companies using pricing algorithms. The practical implications extend beyond the real estate industry, as AB 325 can apply to any industry using algorithmic pricing. 

The legal landscape continues to evolve rapidly, with enforcement likely to intensify as prosecutors have additional tools in their arsenal to essentially catch up with technology. As artificial intelligence and machine learning become more prevalent in business operations, AB 325, and the federal and state enforcement mechanisms will govern a wide range of commercial activity. For businesses trying to set pricing with algorithms, the combination of AB 325’s broad prohibitions, dramatically increased penalties, and relaxed pleading standards creates substantial compliance obligations that require immediate attention. 

Pooja S. Nair is a Partner and Chair of the Food, Beverage, and Hospitality Department at Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP. She represents clients in real estate litigation and complex business disputes involving contracts, employment, intellectual property, and fraud. Her insights have appeared in Law360, Daily Journal, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. Before joining ECJ, she led the Food and Beverage practice at TroyGould and practiced white-collar defense at Foley & Lardner. She also serves on nonprofit boards and has been recognized as one of Los Angeles’s Top Litigators and Trial Attorneys and Most Influential Women Lawyers by the LA Business Journal.

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Homeowners’ associations or HOAs have become a dominant feature of the modern housing market, shaping both what communities look like and how people experience homeownership. According to CalMatters and Census Bureau data, 67% of all new single-family homes built in 2024 nationwide were in communities with HOAs, and California residents paid a median of $278 in monthly fees, among the highest in the nation. In many parts of California, buying into an HOA is the default for new homeowners, meaning that HOA obligations and limitations now operate along with more traditional obligations of property ownership.

HOAs in California are formed through private agreements but they exercise authority that directly affects how people use their homes and common areas in their neighborhoods or condominiums. HOAs exist through recorded declarations of covenants, conditions, and restrictions, along with bylaws and rules. HOAs are generally governed by HOA boards, which have the power to make sure their rules are followed, and to impose fines on homeowners who do not follow those rules. 

HOAs can govern a wide range of issues, including whether a homeowner may repaint a door, change landscaping, install solar panels, renovate a kitchen, rent out a unit, replace windows, park in a particular spot, or even keep certain items visible from the street. In many communities, HOAs also control access to shared amenities and impose mandatory monthly assessments.

AB 130 operates within the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act (the “Act”), which provides the statutory foundation for HOA governance statewide. The Act governs elections, assessments, meetings, records, and enforcement authority. It was designed to create uniformity and predictability within the HOA governance system, and to provide a mechanism for homeowners to appeal certain HOA actions. 

AB 130 is a significant addition to the structure under the Act. AB 130 sets limits to the enforcement authority of HOAs. Enforcement actions, in which an HOA can levy fines or impose compliance demands on homeowners, are one of the most common sources of HOA conflict. Disputes frequently arise over architectural rules, landscaping requirements, alleged noise violations, pet restrictions, use limitations, or maintenance standards. Historically, these enforcement disputes often turned on informal practices and managerial discretion by the HOA, giving HOAs wide latitude in enforcing regulations.

AB 130 creates additional due process rights for homeowners in enforcement actions by their HOA and sets a limit on the amount of fines that can be imposed. Under the statute, an HOA generally cannot assess a fine of more than $100 per violation, except for health and safety regulations. 

The fee cap means that an HOA cannot use the threat of fines as a significant source of financial leverage against homeowners to ensure enforcement. HOA proponents claim that this cap on fines may result in homeowners choosing to ignore the rules because they can only be fined once for a maximum of $100. If a violation threatens health or safety, higher fines may still be permitted, but the association must have a defensible basis for that conclusion and must make required findings. 

Additionally, HOAs must give homeowners a meaningful opportunity to cure violations before they can impose any fines or take other disciplinary action. At least 10 days before any meeting to assess a fine, the HOA must notify the homeowner in writing, and provide the meeting’s date, time, location, and the nature of the violation and requested fine. Homeowners have the right to attend the meeting and speak to the HOA board. 

If a homeowner cures the violation before the meeting, the HOA cannot discipline the homeowner or impose any fine. If curing the violation would take longer than the time between the notice provided and the meeting, the homeowner makes a financial commitment to cure the violation, and if they do so, the HOA may not assess a fine or take any other disciplinary action. 

After a meeting, if the homeowner and HOA reach an agreement, they must create a written resolution signed by both parties, which is enforceable in court as long as it is consistent with the HOA’s governing documents and the law. If the homeowner and HOA do not agree, and the HOA imposes discipline or charges a fine, the board has to provide written notification of the decision within 14 days. 

AB 130 formalizes the process for HOA fees and fines and gives homeowners more due process opportunities to cure or challenge fines. Additionally, the cap on fines of $100 for the same violation limits an HOA’s ability to use fines as a hammer to ensure compliance with rules. The statute’s impact is especially relevant in communities with high property values and complex developments. In these communities, associations frequently oversee architectural standards, renovation approvals, and use restrictions. 

At its core, AB 130 rebalances the power between homeowner and HOA by making enforcement harder to impose quickly and more difficult to use as leverage. In communities where HOA rules meaningfully affect renovations, aesthetics, and the day-to-day experience of living at home, the changes will have a significant impact. 

The post California HOA Reforms appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

In 2023 and 2024, a series of antitrust class action lawsuits targeted NAR and real estate brokerages and brought NAR’s rules and practices under scrutiny. These lawsuits alleged that NAR’s industry practices and rules unlawfully restrained competition and inflated costs for home sellers. In a federal case in Missouri, Burnett v. NAR, a jury held unanimously that NAR and the defendant brokerages “knowingly and voluntarily” engaged in a conspiracy with the goal of “raising, inflating, or stabilizing broker commission rates paid by home sellers” by following and enforcing NAR’s “Cooperative Compensation Rule.”

The jury awarded $1.8 billion in damages, which could have been trebled to $5.4 billion. In March 2024, NAR announced that it would settle the lawsuit rather than appeal. However, one remaining corporate defendant, HomeServices of America, is still litigating the case and not part of the NAR settlement. As part of the settlement, NAR agreed to pay $418 million and to make some changes to its rules and practices to address the antitrust concerns raised in the lawsuit.

Those changes affect long-standing rules about how homes are marketed, and agents are paid. The above-mentioned Cooperative Compensation Rule had required listing brokers to offer compensation to buyer brokers through the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS. Critics argued that this locked in commission structures that consumers rarely questioned or negotiated. 

Under the settlement, those MLS-based compensation offers were eliminated. Sellers can no longer advertise buyer-broker commissions through Realtor-affiliated MLS systems, and buyer agents must now enter into written representation agreements with their clients before showing homes. These agreements are required to clearly disclose how the agent will be compensated and by whom. 

Changes from the NAR settlement are most noticeable for home buyers. Beginning in July 2024, an NAR rule requires MLS participants working with buyers to enter into written agreements with their buyers. As a result, buyers are now being asked to sign paperwork earlier, sometimes before touring a single property. They may be asked to discuss compensation with an agent before they have fully settled on whether they want representation at all. 

Open houses have also taken on a more structured tone. In many markets, including Beverly Hills, brokerages are increasingly careful to clarify that the agent hosting an open house represents the seller, not the buyer, unless a separate agreement is in place. Sign-in sheets, written disclosures, and explicit statements about agency relationships are becoming more common. 

Listing practices have shifted as well. Because compensation is no longer displayed on the MLS, buyers and their agents must gather information more deliberately. Conversations about whether a seller is willing to offer compensation to a buyer’s agent now occur off-MLS and are often tied to negotiation strategy. This has the potential to change how offers are structured and how services are priced, particularly as buyers compare what different agents offer and how they charge.

The settlement has also curtailed certain pre-marketing practices, such as extended “coming soon” listings that limit exposure to a narrow audience. These rules aim to promote broader access and reduce the perception that insiders receive preferential treatment. 

What has changed most significantly is not the dollar amount of commissions, but the timing and transparency of the conversations surrounding them. The settlement has forced compensation discussions to move from the background to the foreground of a transaction. This shift does not eliminate negotiation leverage or professional judgment, but it does require that both be exercised more openly, with fewer assumptions and clearer documentation. 

NAR’s recent strategic plan emphasizes transparency, local flexibility, and consumer trust. However, one year into the rule changes, the actual impact of the rule changes on Realtor commissions appears minimal. Redfin reported in August 2025 that the average buyer’s agent commission for homes sold in October 2025 was 2.34%, compared to 2.45% one year ago. 

The post NAR’s Antitrust Settlement Is Impacting the Residential Real Estate Market appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

On October 10, 2025, Governor Newsom signed into law a first-in-the-nation disclosure requirement for digital alteration of real estate marketing materials. Assembly Bill (“AB”) 723, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, requires licensed real estate brokers and salespersons to clearly disclose when an image used in real-estate marketing has been digitally altered, and makes it a criminal offense to fail to make this disclosure. 

AB 723 adds a new Section 10140.8 to the Business and Professions Code, which governs licensed real estate professionals. The law provides that a real estate broker, salesperson, or person acting on their behalf “shall include in the advertisement or promotional material a statement disclosing that the image has been altered and a link to a publicly accessible internet website, URL, or QR code that includes, and clearly identifies, the original, unaltered image. The statement shall be reasonably conspicuous and located on or adjacent to the image and shall include language indicating that the unaltered images can be accessed on the linked internet website, URL, or QR code.”

If a digitally altered advertisement or promotional material is posted on an internet website over which the real estate broker, salesperson, or person acting on their behalf, has control, they “shall include the unaltered version of the images from which the digitally altered images were created in the posting” by posting a link to a publicly accessible internet website that includes, and clearly identifies, the original, unaltered image.

The term “digitally altered image” is defined in the statute to mean an image “that has been altered through the use of photo editing software or artificial intelligence to add, remove, or change elements in the image, including, but not limited to, fixtures, furniture, appliances, flooring, walls, paint color, hardscape, landscape, facade, floor plans, and elements outside of, or visible from, the property, including, but not limited to, streetlights, utility poles, views through windows, and neighboring properties.” However, the definition does not include images where only lighting, sharpening, white balance, color correction, angle, straightening, cropping, exposure, or other common photo editing adjustments are made that do not change the representation of the real property. For example, the use of a filter to adjust lighting would not trigger the disclosure requirement.

If digitally altered photos materially mischaracterize a home, an affected consumer could have claims for misrepresentation or violations of California’s real estate licensing laws and ethical rules for real estate professionals, which prohibit deceptive advertising. AB 723 is meant to supplement rather than rewrite these underlying rules. 

The Assembly Bill Analysis of the bill states that: “[t]he end goal of including a disclosure and an unaltered version of, or link to, an image is to alert consumers to look at the image with a dose of skepticism. This bill would help protect California’s consumers shopping for real estate by enabling them to know whether or not what they see in advertisements is indeed real, or if they need to investigate the actual condition of the property further.” 

Opponents of the bill argued that it was unnecessary and duplicative of California law prohibiting false or misleading advertising in real estate, and that brokers and salespeople would already be subject to disciplinary action by the Department of Real Estate. 

AB 723 is part of a broader legislative push in California to regulate artificial intelligence. Recent laws include the California AI Transparency Act (Senate Bill 942), which also goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, and which requires covered providers to offer AI detection tools and include disclosures that certain content is AI-generated. In the entertainment context, recent California laws require informed consent by performers for AI-created digital replicas, and prohibit use of a deceased individual’s voice or image via AI without consent of their estate. 

AB 723 reinforces the established principle that real estate advertising is a representation with legal consequences. Given the increasing sophistication of AI tools and their capacity for altering reality, real estate purchasers will have another tool to review listings, and licensed real estate professionals will have a further disclosure responsibility. 

The post California’s New Disclosure Rule for Digitally Altered Real Estate Marketing appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The commission voted 3-2 to deny the requests, with Commissioner Terri Kaplan and Chair Jeff Wolfe voting against the denial.

Developer Crescent Heights submitted an application for the Burton Way project in March 2024. The initial proposal was for a 20-story building with 40 affordable units. The application was revised to 26 stories and 22 affordable units earlier this year.

Commissioners Gary Ross and Myra Demeter and Vice Chair Lou Milkowski cited multiple bases for their denial on Nov. 5. 

Ross and Demeter both referenced the project’s feasibility. 

“I think that the applicant has played games with what is and isn’t feasible,” said Ross, citing the project’s reduction of affordable units and height increase. 

Ross added, “None of us really know what the law is in its vagaries and its changing contours, in what way that a judge or a court would interpret the law. I can only interpret the law the way that I see it.”  

Demeter said she had hoped the developer would agree to reduce the project from 26 stories back to 20 and was disappointed they did not do so. She also stated that she believed the project would be feasible at a lower height and with the original number of affordable units. 

“It’s disturbing, because I really came in here hoping that we could work out something,” said Demeter. “But unfortunately, I feel that what has been offered is not really going to work for me, and I don’t mind if it’s appealed to City Council.”

Milkowski cited his belief that the project will have an impact upon public health or safety because it “conflicts with the city’s general plan, use designation and zoning development standards, including density, outdoor living space and height.” 

“Specifically,” he said, “It’s a mammoth monstrosity that we haven’t seen elsewhere.”

Deliberations about the proposed project at 8844 Burton Way have been extensive and tense at times. On Oct. 21, the commission instructed city staff to draft language denying the project. That language was expected to be reviewed on Oct. 29 but was moved to Nov. 5. 

Following the Oct. 21 decision, the commission received a letter from the California Department of Housing and Community Development reminding the city, among other things, of “its obligations under the Housing Accountability Act and specifically the requirements for making findings of denial.”

There is now a 14-day appeal period during which anyone can appeal the commission’s decision to City Council.

Dave Rand, the attorney for the project developer told the Courier after the hearing that “The Planning Commission majority completely and flagrantly ignored the law and we are going to vigorously pursue our rights starting with an appeal to City Council and litigation if necessary.  The city is inviting the State to impose massive penalties for violations of state housing law.”  

The post Planning Commission Votes 3-2 Against Proposed Burton Way Project appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

It also conditionally approved, in a unanimous vote, a development plan review to allow for the construction of an eight-story, multifamily residential structure with 55 dwelling units at 232 Tower Drive owned by Leo Pustilnikov of Oak Investment Company, LLC and Beachside Suites, LLC.

Both projects will be exempt from further review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and both are being designed by Ottinger Architects. 

The votes represent the sixth and seventh Builder’s Remedy projects conditionally approved by the commission this month. On Oct. 9, the commission conditionally approved plans for two eight-story, mixed-use developments at 9467 Olympic Blvd. and 333-353 S. Beverly Drive and a 13-story mixed-use building at 9441 Olympic Blvd. All three properties are owned by Aflalo. 

On Oct. 14, the commission conditionally approved an 11-story structure at 401 N. Oakhurst Drive and a 12-story development at 346 N. Maple Drive. 

The project at 9430 Olympic Blvd. approved on Oct. 23 will take the place of an existing three-story office building. Of its 53 residential units, 11 will be reserved for low-income households. The development will also include 23 parking spaces in three levels of subterranean parking. 

On the first floor, a gym will be available to residents, and a common outdoor area will be located on the 13th floor. 

Beverly Hills resident Ari Tuchman, who advocated for increased privacy measures at South Beverly Drive, 9467 Olympic Blvd. and 9441 Olympic Blvd. developments, expressed his desire for the same measures to be taken at 9430 Olympic Blvd. 

“While this project may not abut single family directly, it is still very close to the block that I live on, which is El Camino, and it’s only a couple hundred feet away and so that’s kind of the reason and the basis for me coming here and addressing a couple concerns I have with this project,” he said, adding, “It’s my request that all of the conditions that were placed on the projects at Beverly and 9467 also be incorporated, by reference, to the extent feasible for this project.” 

Commissioner Terri Kaplan alluded to the fact that per state law, she has little choice but to vote in favor of Builder’s Remedy projects, regardless of her opinion about them.  

“I don’t necessarily like any of these projects, but I feel very constrained,” she said. 

Commissioner Myra Demeter recused herself from the vote on 9430 Olympic Blvd. because she owns property in the nearby vicinity. 

In discussing the Tower Drive project, Ken Dusick, a resident of Carthay Circle, spoke about the impact of the structure on his neighborhood. Dusick called the project “tawdry” and the evening’s proceedings “a hearing in form but not in substance.”

“I have to say that I feel, honestly, rather depressed about what I’m seeing and what I’m hearing … the sanction of the Builder’s Remedy is for the jurisdiction,” he said. “We in Carthay don’t live in that jurisdiction, though we are suffering the consequences of something we weren’t a party to, and that concerns me.” 

The property at Tower Drive is currently home to an eight-unit apartment building with two detached parking garages. The new structure will include 55 dwelling units of which 11 will be reserved for lower-income households.

Echoing Kaplan’s sentiments, Demeter noted that the project, like many Builder’s Remedy developments, is out of scale with the city. 

“This project is a Builder’s Remedy project and very different, not driven by the findings that we can approve a project by—it doesn’t fit any of the findings, it conflicts with the general plan, living space, height, setbacks, modulation, etc.,” she said. “Putting all that aside, we are obligated by the state to approve Builder’s Remedy projects that do not satisfy any of these findings.” 

Commissioner Chair Jeff Wolfe recused himself from the vote because he owns property near the proposed development. 

Both projects will now enter a 14-day appeal period during which they can be appealed to the City Council. 

The post Two More Builder’s Remedy Projects Move Forward appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The decision to delay a discussion regarding the 26-story mixed-use project at 8844 Burton Way came on the heels of a preliminary 4-1 vote by the commission on Oct. 21 to deny a development plan review and density bonus permit for the proposed new structure. Members of the commission on that date instructed city staff to prepare a resolution denying the project, and the Oct. 29 review was expected to result in the commission adopting a final resolution to deny the development. 

In its preliminary vote to deny the project, the commission cited as one of the deciding factors an alleged violation of California Health and Safety Code 17929, which prohibits the isolation of affordable housing units to a specific floor or area on a specific floor. 

Commissioner Gary Ross said at the time that the Burton Way project violated the “spirit” of the law if not the law itself, as affordable units would be spread throughout the bottom five floors of the building.

Attorney Dave Rand, representing the applicant, asked for a continuance at the Oct. 29 meeting because the full commission was not present (Commissioner Terri Kaplan was not in attendance), and what he called “the gravity of the situation.” 

“We believe the findings and the denial resolution were made in error, in violation of multiple state laws,” he said. “And we think given … the importance of your decision, it would be most appropriate to wait until there is a full commission present to be able to deliberate it.”

Rand also cited a letter sent to the commission by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) in response to its preliminary denial vote. The letter, dated Oct. 28, reminded the city of “its obligations under the Housing Accountability Act and specifically the requirements for making findings of denial.”

HCD specifically addressed the question of denying a project based on the dispersal of affordable units, stating that “dispersal requirements that are not required by state law and not found in the city’s objective standards cannot serve as a basis for denial.” 

The letter further suggested that the city work with applicants on conditions agreeable to both parties, as long as those conditions don’t render projects infeasible. 

Since the Oct. 21 meeting, the applicant for 8844 Burton Way submitted two revisions to the development, which included changes to further disperse the affordable units and to make them more comparable in terms of the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to those earmarked as market rate. 

Commissioner Myra Demeter said that she had not had the opportunity to look at the most recent revision and noted that she would “need a continuance” to get all the information. 

Multiple members of the public spoke in opposition against the continuance. 

A special meeting will be held on Nov. 5 to review the matter. 

In other business, the commission conditionally approved, in a unanimous vote, a request from developer Masoud Netty of Wilshire Rodeo Company, LLC, for a development plan review and density bonus permit to allow for the construction of a 19-story, mixed-use development with 30 residential units at 145 S. Rodeo Drive.

It also conditionally approved a request from developer 9229 Wilshire Skyline, LLC for a development plan review, conditional use permit and density bonus permit to allow for the construction of a 14-story, mixed-use development consisting of 116 residential units, commercial uses and a 60-room hotel at 9229 Wilshire Blvd. 

The buildings are the eighth and ninth Builder’s Remedy projects to be conditionally approved by the commission since Oct. 9. 

Designed by Los Angeles-based architecture and design firm Cara, the development on South Rodeo Drive will replace an existing two-story office building. At 237 feet tall, the new project will include three levels of subterranean parking levels with 54 spaces as well as an additional subterranean level to potentially accommodate a restaurant kitchen, mechanical equipment and a residential screening room.

Six of the building’s 30 residential units will be reserved for low-income households.

In the proposal brought to the commission for deliberation, all six affordable units were located on three floors. During discussion, the commission requested that the applicant disperse those units more broadly, citing the same concerns they cited in their initial denial of the Burton Way project. 

Ryan Leaderman, an attorney representing the developer, said that despite the further dispersal of affordable units not being required by state law, the applicant would agree to the commission’s request “in the spirit of compromise.” 

During public comment, residents expressed opposition to the project, voicing concerns about increased traffic, noise and congestion, particularly during the construction of the project. 

“I understand that the Planning Commission has limited discretion to deny the project … but the Planning Commission can and should impose conditions to at least try to ease our burden of the outrageous idea of a 19-story, completely out of proportion building that, without the Builder’s Remedy tragedy would never, ever have been built,” said Michelle Bellen, who identified herself as a resident of South Camden Drive.

The development at 9229 Wilshire Blvd. designed by Los Angeles-based architecture firm SPF:architects, will replace a two-story commercial building. Three subterranean parking levels would provide 140 shared parking spaces. The residential units would occupy most of levels two through 10, and a hotel would occupy levels 11 through 14. 

A hotel operator hasn’t yet been identified. 

The developments on South Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard are now open to a 14-day appeal period. 

The post Planning Commission Continues Hearing on Burton Way Project appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“A lot of people are interested in building ADUs,” said Chloe Chen, the city’s principal planner, at the farmers’ market event. “We are encouraging them as alternate options for housing.” 

The booth, which received about a dozen visitors, was part of an ongoing initiative to spread the word about how to build an ADU, the regulations that govern them and what the process looks like in Beverly Hills. 

According to Chen, the Housing Element requires the city to achieve an average of 20 ADUs per year by the end of 2025 or face penalties. 

The need for more housing comes from the city’s Housing Element, which was certified by the state in May 2024. The certification followed three years of attempts by Beverly Hills officials to draft a document that met the state’s requirements, including four formal rejections from state officials and dozens of amendments. 

The final document requires the city to allow approximately 3,100 new housing units by 2029.

Among the programs that city staff were promoting at the Sunday market were the Incentive ADU (IADU) program and the city’s preapproved ADU plans. 

The IADU program allows owners of single-family lots of 13,000 square feet or larger to build one additional ADU above what is permitted by state law, with certain requirements. The structure cannot be larger than 800 square feet. It may be detached or attached to the home and at least one ADU on the property must be deed-restricted for rental use, with a minimum term of 12 months. 

IADUs must have separate entrances and bathrooms, and full kitchens. They must  include a parking space unless the property is within a half mile of public transit, within an architecturally or historically significant district, in an area where on-street parking permits are required and not provided to the occupant of the ADU or if they are within one block of a car-share vehicle pickup location. 

IADUs cannot be sold separately from the primary residence. 

The city currently has five preapproved ADU plans available on its website. Created by individual designers and architecture firms, the plans include architectural, structural and electrical designs that comply with city requirements and are approximately 70% complete for permitting. 

For households interested in building ADUs, the preapproved plans offer an option to move the process along more quickly. 

As part of their program to promote the option in the city, staff has made detailed guidelines for what is permitted in the Central Area of the city, the Hillside Area and the Trousdale Estates, as each region has slightly different regulations. 

For instance, the maximum size for attached or detached ADUs in the Hillside Area is 1,400 square feet or the site’s remaining maximum allowable floor area, whichever is less. In the Trousdale Estates, the maximum size is 850 square feet for a studio or one-bedroom ADU and 1,000 square feet for anything larger, or the site’s remaining maximum allowable floor area, whichever is less. 

Residents of the Trousdale Estates pushed back against proposed changes to regulations governing ADUs last year, expressing concerns that amendments to height restrictions would negatively impact neighborhood views. 

Chen noted that recent changes to city regulations allow for some two-story ADUs and for converting garages to ADUs. 

In addition to their booth at the farmer’s market, city staff was present at Beverly Hills’ National Night Out event in August and has been posting information about ADUs on social media. 

Chen was pleased to find that residents saw the social media posts and came to the booth. 

“I’m so glad it’s working,” she said. 

More information about the program can be found on the city’s website at beverlyhills.org/adu and beverlyhills.org/preapprovedadu. 

The post Outreach Efforts to Encourage ADUs Extend to Farmers’ Market appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The ventures are both multi-family residential buildings: an 11-story structure at 401 N. Oakhurst Dr., and a 12-story development at 346 N. Maple Dr. 

Developer Leo Pustilnikov is the primary applicant for both projects. 

Dave Rand, an attorney representing Pustilnikov, expressed his satisfaction with the commission’s vote. 

“We were very pleased at the decision by the Planning Commission,” he told the Courier. “The city has made a clear, deliberate decision to follow the law, and we’re grateful that was the outcome.” 

At the meeting, Commission Chair Jeff Wolfe said that the city has very little discretion with regard to approving Builder’s Remedy projects. 

“In a nutshell, while I may agree with all the [opposition] from the residents, while I may have all of the same concerns, I still feel, sitting here as a commission, we are bound by both the municipal code, bound by state law and therefore the law compels me to support the project[s] with the conditions as specified,” he said. 

Applications for both projects were submitted to the city in April 2024. Currently, the lot at 346 N. Maple Dr. houses an eight-unit apartment building and detached six-car garage. The new, 124-foot building will have 65 residential units, 13 of which will be reserved for low- and very low-income households. The project will include 15 parking spaces and a one-level subterranean garage. 

The approximately 7,700-square-foot lot at 401 N. Oakhurst Dr. is now home to a six-unit apartment building and a detached six-car garage. The new project will feature a 131-foot building with 25 residential units, five of which will be reserved for low- and very low-income households. It will include 14 parking spaces and a one-level subterranean garage.

At the Oct. 14 meeting, multiple members of the public spoke in opposition to the ventures. 

“These two developments affect our lifestyle extremely,” said a resident of North Maple Drive. “Right now, as the parking exists, people have to drive four times around the block to find a parking spot to come and visit me or provide me services … [imagine] what life will be after these developments—forget about developing it—but after it’s developed, what will happen to parking and traffic?”

At the meeting, Rand emphasized that the North Maple Drive building will help the city fulfill the requirements of its state-issued Housing Element. 

“This particular project includes a very high percentage of affordable units that will be helpful to the city as you meet your [housing] requirements and demonstrate to the state that the affordable obligations, that are getting only greater and greater imposed on cities, are being met here in Beverly Hills,” he said.

Beverly Hills is required by the state to create capacity for over 3,100 new housing units by 2029. 

Prior to making a motion for the approval of the North Maple Drive project, Commissioner Terri Kaplan encouraged residents to voice their opinions about Builder’s Remedy to state policymakers. 

“For those members of the public who will be directly affected by this project, who have shown up to this meeting today or written to us or who are viewing or listening, thank you for participating,” she said. “As to what else you could do, it’s entirely within your discretion, if you object to the state law that places us in this position, you may write, and probably should, to your elected officials in Sacramento, including the governor.” 

Following the commission’s vote, there is a 14-day appeal period during which anyone can file an appeal to the decision. If an appeal is filed, the issue will go to the City Council. If no appeal is filed, the commission’s ruling is final. 

The post Planning Commission Approves Developments on N. Maple and N. Oakhurst Drives appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The plans include an 8-story mixed-use development at 9467 Olympic Blvd., another 8-story mixed-use development at 333-353 S. Beverly Dr. and a 13-story mixed-use development at 9441 Olympic Blvd. All three properties are owned by Samuel Aflalo of Olympic & Beverly, LLC and Fisch Properties, L.P. 

“We appreciate staff’s diligence and the city attorney’s diligence as well, with respect to the project,” said Ryan Leaderman, an attorney representing the projects, at the Oct. 9 meeting. “As you know, we’re in a housing crisis. The city’s population has actually decreased over the past 50 years, and with that in mind, that’s one of the reasons why we have to strengthen housing laws right now.” 

All three new developments take advantage of California’s Builder’s Remedy law, which allows new developments to bypass certain municipal building and zoning codes in exchange for providing affordable units if a city does not have an approved housing element in place. 

There are currently 14 Builder’s Remedy projects in various stages of development in Beverly Hills. 

Plans for the projects on Olympic Boulevard and South Beverly Drive were submitted in September 2024. The 9467 Olympic Blvd. lot, which is currently being used as a grocery store and parking lot, will house an 85-foot-tall building, 17,085 square feet of which will be designated for commercial and restaurant use. 

Of 105 residential units in the building, 21 will be reserved for low-income households. The remainder, which will be available at market rate, will include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The development will feature a rooftop courtyard, private balconies and three levels of subterranean parking with 180 parking spaces.  

The development on the approximately 38,500-square-foot South Beverly Drive lot, which is currently being used as office space and parking, will also feature an 85-foot building, with 16,099 square feet designated for commercial and restaurant use. 

The 135 available residential units will include 27 designated for low-income households and a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units available at market rate. Three levels of subterranean parking will provide 263 parking spaces, and the building will include a gym, community room and rooftop courtyard with a pool.

At just over 143 feet, the development at 9441 Olympic Blvd. will be the tallest of the three. Currently, the site houses a two-story office building. When its new development is complete, it will feature over 4,000 square feet for commercial use, and 15 out of 75 total residential units will be designated for low-income households. 

Echoing the sentiments of many Beverly Hills residents who will be impacted by Builder’s Remedy projects in the city, 24 households from a nearby block of El Camino Drive submitted a signed letter to the Planning Commission expressing their concerns about traffic and privacy. 

The letter focused on the impacts of 333-335 S. Beverly Dr. and 9467 Olympic Blvd. Resident Ari Tuchman, who penned the letter, spoke at the Oct. 9 meeting. He emphasized that residents were not seeking to deny the developers their projects, but rather to place parameters on certain elements. 

“Nobody’s denying anybody’s right to their use and enjoyment of the property, but I think Mr. Aflalo and Mr. Leaderman would agree that that’s a two-way street, and that it also applies to us as it applies to them,” he said. “Our letter is so reasonable and is so understanding, and we’re asking for so little.”

As approved, amplified sound will be prohibited in outdoor open space areas in all three developments. Common outdoor areas will be permitted to be used from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends and holidays, and barbecues on individual balconies will be banned. 

Sound and sight barriers will also be required of all three properties, including a 6-foot sound barrier on rooftop areas facing residential properties and 4-foot opaque or translucent barriers on balconies and common outdoor living spaces. 

There is now a 14-day appeal period during which anyone can file an appeal. 

“If an appeal is filed, the next step would be a City Council hearing,” said Beverly Hills Director of Community Development Michael Forbes in an email to the Courier. “If no appeal is filed, the Planning Commission’s decision is final.”

The developer will then prepare and submit building plans to the city for review.  

The post Olympic Boulevard Builder’s Remedy Projects Move Forward appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The commission voted unanimously to approve the design for the building, which will be developed at the former site of The Stinking Rose restaurant.

The project will include 140 residential units, 22 of which will be earmarked for very low-income and moderate-income households. Reaching a height of approximately 86 feet, the new building will feature a rooftop deck with a bar, pool and lounge, as well as three levels of subterranean parking.

Developer 55 Del Norte, LLC initially proposed a five-story mixed-use building with 105 residential units, which was approved in June 2023. That design was modified following changes made to California’s State Density Bonus Law in 2024, which allows developers to construct additional units than would otherwise be permitted if they include a certain number of affordable housing units in a proposed new development.

The law was put in place to encourage the creation of more affordable housing in the state.

At its March 13 meeting, the Beverly Hills Planning Commission approved the updated design for 55 N. La Cienega Blvd. in a 3-2 vote, with conditions. On July 1, the Beverly Hills City Council held an additional review of the project at the request of then-Mayor Lester Friedman and then-Councilmember John Mirisch. The council approved the development in a 4-1 vote. 

Members of the Architectural and Design Review Commission at their Sept. 17 meeting were tasked with considering the building’s façade elements, including signs, walls, fences and landscaping.

According to a staff report, the building will be designed in a modern, contemporary architectural style and will use a variety of exterior materials, including mostly monochromatic white marble tiles and white stucco. The center of the building and its private balconies will be recessed. 

On the rooftop and in common balcony areas, drought-tolerant landscaping will feature flowering plants and trees. Along the rear property line, which overlooks Le Doux Road, a 20-foot hedge will serve as a privacy buffer. 

Most commissioners expressed their appreciation for the development’s aesthetics. 

“I think this is a really attractive project,” said Commissioner Evan Meyer. “With any of these projects at this scale and size, it’s tricky to get that feeling of, sort of, reducing mass. So, I think what you’ve done here with the modulation, recessing that centerpiece, bringing up the landscape to the second floor and higher levels … [is] very nice.”

Commissioner Jeffrey Daniels, FAIA, said that the development will bring much-needed housing stock to the city. 

“I want to applaud the whole team for bringing a project like this,” he said. “I think the city desperately needs additional housing, and … the addition of a large-scale residential component [in that area] can only be a good thing.” 

Noting that she would like to see more color and more trees in the project, Vice Chair Terri Smooke nevertheless called the project “lovely.”  

“Since the materials you’ve selected are all very calm, very pale, if you could figure out ways to just bring in some [color], maybe through greenery,” she said. “I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but just to animate the building more than it is right now.”

According to Michael Forbes, the city’s Director of Community Development, all city approvals required for the project are complete, with the exception of building permits. Construction drawings have been submitted to the city and are under review. 

“Once plan review is complete and approved, building permits for the project can be issued,” Forbes said in an emailed message. “However … it is the developer’s decision based on economic and other factors to determine when they want to pull permits and begin construction, and we do not have any indication of when that will be for this project.” 

The post Development at 55 North La Cienega Moves Forward appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

All members of the commission voiced their enthusiasm about the project.

“I think it’s a beautiful project,” said Commissioner Gary Ross. “It’s within the scope and scale of our zoning laws, and it will activate that part of our city.”

Commissioner Demeter added that the project will represent an improvement to the head of the Golden Triangle. 

“I want to thank everybody for all the different points of view and all the different ideas, because you’ve come up with a very creative concept, very different … I love it, “she said. “I think it’s great.”

The Louis Vuitton Rodeo Drive Experiential Flagship store will encompass 105,214 square feet. It will include rooftop open-air dining, subterranean parking, two pedestrian bridges and a pedestrian tunnel, and will reach a maximum height of 60 feet. 

The project is separated into two components, one with an entrance on Rodeo Drive (the “Rodeo portion”) and the other with an entrance on Beverly Drive (the “Beverly portion”). 

At 45,433 square feet, the Rodeo portion is designated for retail use and will include over 6,000 square feet carved out for important clients. Special events will be hosted on the rooftop of the Rodeo portion. 

The Beverly portion, at 54,723 square feet, will feature the exhibition space, a gift shop, a café, a fine dining restaurant and operational space. The first of its kind in the U.S., the exhibition space will spotlight Louis Vuitton’s history as a leader of culture, art and design.

Access to the exhibition space will be by reservation only, with a maximum of 1,500 admissions per day Monday through Saturday and 1,169 on Sundays. The fine dining restaurant is also planned to be reservation only. 

LVMH has owned the project site since 2018. The site, which is comprised of four separate legal parcels and is currently comprised of four existing commercial buildings, was originally proposed to house the Cheval Blanc Beverly Hills. 

During the Sept. 25 meeting, the Planning Commission requested that the developer create a designated drop-off spot for individuals with disabilities, to which the developer agreed. The commission also requested that employees of the new development be discouraged from parking on residential streets, acknowledging that it may be difficult to enforce. 

Discussing the private loading drive located on North Beverly Drive, commissioners added a requirement that passenger vehicles may only exit southbound, and that a warning system will be installed to ensure pedestrian safety. 

Construction is expected to start in the second half of 2026 and conclude in the second quarter of 2029. 

The post Planning Department Votes to Approve Louis Vuitton Flagship appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

SB 79 establishes statewide zoning standards for land within half a mile of a major publicly funded transit-oriented development (“TOD”) stop, which will override many local density and height restrictions and permit multiple-story projects of up to nine stories in areas that would otherwise remain limited to smaller structures. A TOD stop is defined as a major transit stop served by heavy rail transit, very high frequency commuter rail (72 trains per day across both directions), high-frequency commuter rail, light rail transit, or specified bus service within an urban county. The law provides Tier 1 zoning for heavy rail lines, and Tier 2 zoning for light rail lines and dedicated bus corridors. New developments in Tier 1 zones may be built 6 to 9 stories high, while new developments in Tier 2 zones may be built 5 to 8 stories high.

SB 79 was introduced on Jan. 15, 2025. It passed the Senate floor on June 3, 2025 by a 21-13 vote. It passed the Assembly floor on Sept. 11, 2025 and then passed a concurrence vote the following day. SB 79 follows a seven-year campaign by Senator Scott Wiener to push the bill forward after previous versions died in committee.

On June 23, 2025, Mayor Sharona Nazarian submitted an opposition to the State Assembly on behalf of the city of Beverly Hills. That opposition criticized SB 79’s shift away from locally-driven planning and delegation of zoning authority to transit agencies. She also stated that “in a built-out, compact city like Beverly Hills, SB 79 would have far-reaching and disruptive consequences,” and would undermine years of deliberate planning. SB 79 was also opposed by the League of California Cities and California State Association of Counties. The Los Angeles City Council also passed a resolution opposing the bill on March 28, 2025, similarly citing the need for local control and desire to preserve the character of local neighborhoods.

Supporters of the legislation, including Streets for All, claim that SB 79 will bring up to $1 billion to the city of Los Angeles alone due to projected increased property tax revenue from construction. YIMBY (“Yes in my backyard”) organizations contend that SB 79 addresses multiple statewide priorities, including supporting new housing, reducing car reliance, and maximizing infrastructure investments. 

Weiner stated that SB 79 “tackles the root causes of California’s affordability crisis by allowing more homes to be built near major public transportation stops and on land owned by transit agencies—bolstering transit use, slashing climate emissions, and supporting public transportation in the process.”

SB 79 builds on recent legislation attempting to streamline development, and particularly CEQA reforms signed into law on June 30, 2025, which created a new statutory CEQA exemption for infill housing development projects. Additionally, SB 423, also authored by Senator Weiner, extended SB 35 to continue a streamlined approval process for new affordable housing projects and expanded that to mixed-use projects.

The reduction in local control will be a challenge to Beverly Hills. The city has long exercised strict authority over zoning, design standards, and planning decisions, reflecting both community values and property market dynamics. SB 79 shifts that balance by permitting the imposition of state standards. While the city retains the option to adopt an alternative transit-oriented development plan, any such plan must meet or exceed the state’s housing targets and be approved by the Department of Housing and Community Development (“HCD”). 

The most immediate impact lies along Wilshire Boulevard due to the new stations on the Metro Purple Line at Wilshire/La Cienega and Wilshire/Rodeo. Parcels near these stations will become eligible for increased height and density allowances, which could enable development on a new scale for the city. 

Governor Newsom now has until Oct. 12 to sign or veto SB 79. If, as expected, it is signed into law, SB 79 will take effect on July 1, 2026. Starting on that date, SB 79 will require a housing development to be an allowable use on any site zoned for residential, mixed, or commercial development within one-half mile of a Tier 1 or Tier 2 TOD stop for cities with a population of at least 35,000, and one-quarter mile for cities with a population of less than 35,000 unless the local agency adopts an ordinance or local TOD alternative plan deemed compliant by HCD before July 1, 2026. 

Pooja S. Nair is a Partner and Chair of the Food, Beverage, and Hospitality Department at Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP. She represents clients in real estate litigation and complex business disputes involving contracts, employment, intellectual property, and fraud. Her insights have appeared in Law360, Daily Journal, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. Before joining ECJ, she led the Food and Beverage practice at TroyGould and practiced white-collar defense at Foley & Lardner. She also serves on nonprofit boards and has been recognized as one of Los Angeles’s Top Litigators and Trial Attorneys and Most Influential Women Lawyers by the LA Business Journal.

The post Controversial SB 79 Bill Awaits Newsom’s Signature appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The mixed-use development, which is being built by developer Crescent Heights, was originally proposed to be 20 stories and 223 feet tall. The new plans propose a building that reaches 26 stories and just over 309 feet. 

Residential density in the building has not changed from the originally proposed 200 units, ranging in size from studios to three-bedroom apartments. Of those, 22 units will be earmarked for affordable housing, up from 20 in the previous proposal. The affordable units will include 14 reserved for extremely low-income households and eight for moderately low-income households. 

The newly revised plans for the Burton Way development also include 318 parking spaces, 24 bicycle parking spots and 42,226 square feet of open space, including a rooftop deck. The building will occupy 492,029 square feet in total.  

According to the website for LARGE Architecture, the firm designing the project, the development will also include private theaters, yoga studios and clubhouses.

The development is one of 14 Builder’s Remedy projects currently under review by Beverly Hills. Several are involved in lawsuits against the city, while others have received one or more notices that their applications are incomplete. 

Revised plans for 8844 Burton Way were submitted in March of this year, and again in July. 

“We’re excited to bring a world-class project like 8844 Burton to Beverly Hills,” said Elliott Kahn, a partner at Crescent Heights, in a statement to the Courier. “It includes 200 much needed homes at a variety of price points, including severely lacking affordable housing. On one of the most prominent multi-family corridors of Beverly Hills, the wide landscaped medians and bike lanes are uniquely suited to this exact kind of multi-family housing.”

Developer Crescent Heights is not the first builder in Beverly Hills to expand their vision in recent months. In August, a Builder’s Remedy project at 125-129 South Linden Dr. submitted revised plans that brought the development’s height from 19 to 36 stories, with 20 new residential units and seven new hotel rooms. 

That same month, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin ordered the city to process the application for the development on South Linden Drive, finding Beverly Hills in violation of the state’s Housing Accountability Act and Permit Streamlining Act. 

Kin’s decision regarding South Linden Drive is expected to set a precedent for other, similar complaints. 

The post Burton Way Builder’s Remedy Project Increases to 26 Stories appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The project at 125-129 South Linden Drive was previously proposed as a 19-story structure containing 65 housing units, 73 hotel rooms and a restaurant. On Aug. 27, the developer announced that the contemplated project is now 36 stories tall, with 185 new residences and 80 hotel rooms.  

“This project represents a bold vision for the future of Beverly Hills,” said developer Leo Pustilnikov in a statement. “We are proud to deliver both market-rate and affordable housing, as well as a new luxury hotel that will strengthen the local economy. With the court’s green light, we are prepared to move swiftly toward breaking ground.”

A statement announcing the new scale of the development said the project has been “re-envisioned at a transformative scale,” citing the impact of AB 1893. That statute, signed into law in September 2024, broadens the allowable scope of Builder’s Remedy projects.

“Builder’s Remedy law provides the city extremely limited discretion to deny a project and if the city violates the law in denying or delaying a project, the penalties are potentially very steep,” Dave Rand, an attorney representing Pustilnikov, told the Courier. 

In response to the amended plans for the South Linden Drive project, Michael Forbes, Beverly Hills Director of Community Development, said in a statement to the Courier, “We have not yet received an application for the revised project, and are not in a position to comment on it until we have received an application and had a chance to review it.”

Pustilnikov and 9300 Wilshire, LLC submitted a preliminary application for 125-129 South Linden Drive in October 2022, followed by a Developmental Plan Review (DPR) application in April 2023. The DPR was deemed incomplete by the city on the grounds that it contained changes to the preliminary application, initiating a sequence of communications between the developer and city staff. 

Two lawsuits were filed against the city regarding the development, in June 2024 and September 2024. After consolidating the complaints, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin on Aug. 12 ordered Beverly Hills to process the developer’s application. Kin also found the city to be in violation of the state’s Housing Accountability and Permit Streamlining Acts.

The city is currently reviewing 14 Builder’s Remedy applications. Of those, at least six have filed lawsuits against the city. Others received notices that their applications were incomplete, and still more are involved in discussions with the city concerning Environmental Impact Reviews. 

Kin’s decision regarding South Linden Drive is expected to set a precedent for other, similar complaints. 

The post Proposed Builder’s Remedy Project Increases Height to 36 Stories appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

 The Courier has asked attorney Pooja S. Nair for a recap of this high-profile case and what is at stake at a critical hearing this fall. 

On June 23, 2025, Compass filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Zillow in the Southern District of New York (Case No. 1:25-cv-05201). The lawsuit challenges the Zillow Ban, which Zillow has framed as its new Listing Access Standards designed to provide maximum information to homebuyers. 

According to the complaint (which cites Zillow’s own investor presentations), Zillow has 66% of the real estate audience share for the U.S. market, and 64% of the average daily app users. The Zillow Ban requires that any home that is publicly marketed be entered into a multiple listing service (MLS) and syndicated to Zillow within one business day. Failure to do so would result in the listing being blocked from appearing on Zillow and Trulia. The definition of a publicly marketed home is broad.

In the lawsuit, Compass describes its 3-phased marketing strategy, in which Compass provides a staging ground for listing. In phase 1, the listing is presented as a Compass Private Exclusive on Compass’ internal platform, only available to Compass agents. In phase 2, the listing moves to the “Coming Soon” phase, where it is posted to Compass’s public home search platform. In Phase 3, the listing is shared with the MLS database, and distributed to Zillow and other aggregators. The Zillow ban would make the first two phases of Compass’s marketing strategy obsolete in that any homes that were listed in Phase 1 and 2 would be banned from appearing on Zillow. Compass emphasizes that by eliminating those early phases, the Zillow Ban is stripping away at customer’s ability to test the waters in a more curated environment before launching into the wider marketplace.

Compass alleges that the Zillow Ban would make it hard “indeed nearly impossible for home sellers to sell their home outside of Zillow, in an effort to force all listings to be on Zillow where Zillow makes money selling leads off the homeowners’ listings.” It further alleges that the Zillow Ban makes it impossible for Zillow’s competitors to carry unique inventory and removes privacy benefits, because it forces homeowners to weigh the benefits of a private risking over the tremendous risk of never being able to list the property on Zillow.

Compass alleges that Zillow conspired with Redfin and eXp Realty to get those competitors to adopt and adhere to the Zillow ban. Compass further alleges in the Complaint that the Zillow Ban violates the antitrust laws by allowing Zillow to leverage its monopoly power to impose the Zillow ban on the market, and simultaneously entering into anticompetitive agreements with its competitors to do the same. Compass seeks a judicial declaration that Zillow’s conduct violates antitrust laws, and an injunction prohibiting Zillow from implementing and enforcing the Zillow ban, in addition to damages for Compass.

The case is before U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in the Southern District of New York. After Compass quickly moved for a preliminary injunction and filed a motion to expedite discovery on June 27, 2025. The court approved an order for limited expedited discovery. On July 17, 2025, Zillow filed its opposition to the preliminary injunction.

Zillow’s opposition argues that “the antitrust laws do not permit Compass to force Zillow to deal with Compass on its preferred terms or support hidden listings which harms customers and Zillow.” Essentially, Zillow argues that the motivation of Compass’ lawsuit is about protecting its own hidden funnel, to the detriment of consumers. Zillow’s framing positions itself as a democratizer of real estate data, compared to Compass as an outdated entity focused on exclusivity.

The lawsuit is currently in the expedited discovery stage, with the parties trading arrows, designating experts, and engaging in heated discovery practice. Compass’ evidentiary hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction will be on November 18, 2025, and the hearing will be extremely hard fought. Between now and then, both sides will likely marshal economic experts, industry insiders, and competing visions of how the real estate marketplace should function. The litigation is already attracting close attention from industry professionals, who see it as a referendum on how much control one platform should wield over how homes are bought and sold.

The long-term implications of the lawsuit could have a major effect on Beverly Hills and other luxury markets, which have historically used tools such as office exclusives, whisper campaigns, and staged rollouts to market ultra-high-end properties where privacy matters. Under the Zillow Ban, those phased strategies would be eliminated because any public marketing would trigger the one-day MLS rule, and prevent the seller from ever using Zillow, making utilizing the Compass phase 1 and phase 2 tools prohibitively risky. This is because if a home does not sell in those phases, the homeowner could risk never having it listed to the wider Zillow audience.

This case also fits into the larger wave of antitrust challenges against digital platforms. Courts and regulators are already wrestling with whether companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple are misusing their roles as gatekeepers to stifle competition. Compass is essentially arguing that Zillow falls within the same category as tech giants whose control over market access has been  checked by the courts under the antitrust statutes. 

Over the next three months before Compass’s preliminary injunction hearing, the stakes remain high. For Compass, a win could preserve its phased strategy and limit Zillow’s influence over how the industry markets homes. For Zillow, victory would reaffirm its authority to set industry standards. However it is resolved, the Zillow Ban antitrust suit is a test case for the future of how real estate will be marketed, and its outcome will be especially influential in luxury markets. 

Pooja S. Nair is a Partner and Chair of the Food, Beverage, and Hospitality Department at Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP. She represents clients in real estate litigation and complex business disputes involving contracts, employment, intellectual property, and fraud. Her insights have appeared in Law360, Daily Journal, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. Before joining ECJ, she led the Food and Beverage practice at TroyGould and practiced white-collar defense at Foley & Lardner. She also serves on nonprofit boards and has been recognized as one of Los Angeles’s Top Litigators and Trial Attorneys and Most Influential Women Lawyers by the LA Business Journal.

The post Zillow Ban Lawsuit Tests Antitrust Application to Real Estate appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

After nearly three hours of presentation, public hearing and deliberation, commissioners voted unanimously to approve staff’s recommendation to adopt the resolutions that would formally recommend the project to City Council for approval. 

The project is part of Hudson’s Bay Company’s (HBC) plans for a two-block, mixed-use development at 9600 Wilshire Blvd. that includes the historic Saks Fifth Avenue property. 

HBC—the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue—submitted revisions to the original plan in November after residents from the southwest neighborhood of Beverly Hills voiced their concerns about the project’s impact on traffic. 

This is the fourth time a public hearing has been held for the proposed project. During its presentation, staff addressed follow-up items from the July 24 meeting and reviewed several resolutions. 

During public comment at the commission’s last meeting, on July 24, speakers expressed concern related to labor and workforce practices, environmental review, traffic congestion, and the level of engagement between the applicant and the community. Commissioners decided that additional review was needed regarding land use, identification of potential vehicle pullout areas alongside Wilshire Boulevard, reduction of construction-related noise and projected traffic impact. 

To address the concerns raised at the July 24 meeting, the commission brought back the plan for public hearing on Aug. 14 with several revisions to the conditions of approval and draft Specific Plan. 

Staff addressed four follow-up issues that commissioners brought up at the last meeting. First, staff decided not to recommend vehicle pullout areas along Wilshire Boulevard because they would reduce sidewalk space and potentially violate the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. For additional noise mitigation, the applicant added a requirement to the Construction Management Plan for sound-dampening shields on mobile equipment that is stationary for extended periods. Regarding southbound turn restrictions, staff consulted with BHPD and confirmed these are enforceable with proper signage in the public right of way. To ensure compliance, they revised Condition 72 to explicitly require city-approved signage installation. Finally, the city’s traffic consultant, Fehr & Peers, prepared a supplemental trip generation memorandum. The analysis found that even if fewer total car trips are generated by the project, local residential streets could see more traffic. 

Additional amendments were made to the plan’s conditions for clarification and consistency in the applicant’s use of language. 

Douglas Adams, a representative for the project and senior vice president of development at Saks Global, assured the commission of maintaining dialogue with the southwest Beverly Hills neighborhood to improve existing traffic conditions. 

“Over the past three hearings and two study sessions before that, we believe we have demonstrated this project is well-thought-out and will enhance the southwest neighborhood and the city overall,” said Adams. 

President and CEO of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce Todd Johnson spoke on behalf of the chamber for its support for the plan. 

“The chamber has supported this project from day one,” said Johnson. “Saks has been there [on Wilshire Boulevard], I believe, 85 years. The continuation of this project will ensure that it will be here another 85 years.” 

Representatives from the Southwest Homeowners Association and others expressed concern with the project, including health and environmental risks, noise from construction, sign enforcement, labor practices and street closures. 

During deliberations, Commissioner Gary Ross recognized the traffic concerns for southwest residents but was overall in favor of the project. 

“Something has to go there to develop that area. It’s unsightly, it’s lying fallow, it’s not on-brand with our city, and what the applicant wants to do is very much not just on-brand but pays homage to the history of the Saks building there,” said Ross. 

“This is a good project that in my opinion would enhance not just the entire city but the daily lived experience of those currently live in the southwest and those who will hopefully become new residents of the southwest,” said Commissioner Terri Kaplan. “That is not to say that I am not aware and empathetic to the significant impact that the current residents will experience as we potentially move forward with this.”

Commission Vice Chair Lou Milkowski sympathized with the complaints brought forth in previous meetings but believes that “the laundry list of conditions that we are proposing satisfies a lot of my concerns and hopefully a lot of concerns of our residents.”

Commission Chair Jeff Wolfe stated that the construction and traffic issues are the ones he’s had to overcome. 

“I believe that the benefits of the project will outweigh the construction impacts,” said Wolfe, who spoke similarly about the traffic impacts. 

“Cities have to move on, cities have to progress, and some of that is going to have negative impacts on certain elements and certain aspects of the city,” said Wolfe. 

The fate of the project now lies in the hands of City Council, which will make the final decision on the two-block development that has sparked months of debate between supporters and concerned residents.  

The post Planning Commission Approves 9600 Wilshire Boulevard Specific Plan Project appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The council unanimously approved the request of developer Cain International (“Cain”) to establish a Community Facilities District (CFD) including two improvement areas within One Beverly Hills, to issue the requested bonds and to levy special taxes on entities within the CFD to repay those bonds.

The bond authorization is broken down into two parts. Cain has requested approximately $315 million in net proceeds to reimburse the cost of constructing the approved public improvements. The city has determined that a gross bond authorization of $390 million is necessary to generate this amount. The remaining $160 million will facilitate a future City Council’s ability to finance major repairs, replacements or enhancements to public infrastructure in proximity to the One Beverly Hills project site.

Councilmember Craig Corman recused himself from the discussion and vote because he is a member of a nearby country club.

Cain will cover all costs related to the creation of the CFD and bonds. In addition, the city will receive a $15 million contribution from the developer to be used at the city’s discretion, with certain limitations, as well as an Environmental Mitigation and Sustainability fee between 2% and 4%.

Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona Nazarian negotiated the contribution up from $10 million during the Aug. 19 meeting. According to Jeff Muir, the city’s director of finance, the contribution will be paid when the first series of CFD bonds are issued.

Nazarian reflected on the significance of the council’s actions in a statement to the Courier.

“In Beverly Hills, we must lead with vision as we plan for the future of our city,” she said. “I’m delighted that we were able to reach a unanimous vote that not only ensures the completion of this unique and important anchor project, but also delivers meaningful public benefit to our community. The additional upfront funding and EMS fees will provide critical resources to continue strengthening public safety, investing in infrastructure upgrades, and enhancing the quality of life for our residents for generations to come. We are grateful for this partnership.”

Cain’s Managing Director Larry Green told the Courier in a statement, “We are pleased the city has taken this important step toward establishing a Community Facilities District, a key part of the public improvements for the One Beverly Hills project. This unanimous vote reflects not only the strong partnership between Cain and the city of Beverly Hills, but also the incredible support of the community that made this milestone possible. With the CFD in place, we will be building best-in-class infrastructure that delivers meaningful benefits to the community, including enhanced safety and security, improved streets, and upgraded public spaces. The council’s action demonstrates a shared commitment to the city’s future and ensures continued progress on this transformative development. We thank the Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Councilmembers for their partnership, and we are grateful to the community for their support as we work together to advance One Beverly Hills.”

One Beverly Hills is a mixed-use project on a 17.5-acre parcel that encompasses the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. Once complete, the development will include a new Aman Hotel, two residential towers, boutiques, casual dining, a conference center and approximately 10 acres of botanical gardens and open space.

The development broke ground in February 2024 and is expected to be completed in 2028.

Cain petitioned the city in the fall of 2024 to form a CFD to assist with financing certain elements of the project, including public infrastructure improvements and ongoing maintenance services. According to representatives for the project who spoke at the Aug. 19 meeting, the amount requested through bonds accounts for 3% of the project’s total financing.

Beverly Hills residents who live outside of the CFD will not incur any taxes related to the bonds, and no money will come out of the city’s general fund. If the developer defaults or goes into bankruptcy, the city will not be liable for the bonds.

The proposal falls under the state’s Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act, which allows local agencies to finance public improvements and services through the establishment of CFDs and special taxes levied only on properties that will benefit from the improvements.

In a letter to the city, former Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Roos, who co-authored the act with then-Senator Henry Mello, said that the city’s bonds plan is in accordance with the intent of the legislation.

“I commend your City Council for considering this prudent and effective financial tool,” Roos wrote. “Your approach is entirely consistent with the intent and protective nature of Mello-Roos and it reflects a commitment to smart growth and fiscal responsibility that will benefit your community for generations to come.”

Infrastructure improvements covered by the bonds will include work on such facilities as roadways, tunnels, parks, bike trails and traffic signals. Services and incidental expenses would include the maintenance, design, landscaping and repair of certain facilities.

During public comment, residents spoke both in favor and against the issuance of bonds. Those in favor emphasized the fact that the city will not incur any debt, and that the financing will support a development of which many in the city are in favor.

Those opposed argued that the developer appeared to be asking for a large sum of money and it was unclear what the city would receive in return.

The City Council will hold a second reading and adoption of the special tax ordinance on Sept. 9. Bonds will not be issued until the project is nearer to completion.

The post City Council Approves Up to $550 Million in Bonds for One Beverly Hills appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

At issue is a 19-story development that will include 165 residential units, 33 of which will be designated as affordable for lower-income households. It will also include a hotel with 73 rooms and a hotel restaurant. A spokesperson for 9300 Wilshire and Pustilnikov characterized the ruling as a “vindication” that will “bring much needed housing, at various income levels, to the city.” 

In contrast, Beverly Hills City Attorney Laurence Wiener said that the city is “very disappointed” with the ruling. 

“We believe that we had legitimate, good faith arguments that this development lost its privileges under the ‘builders remedy’ law and needed to conform to our general plan and zoning laws,” he told the Courier in a statement. “It is unfortunate that the state has seen fit to take a good deal of local zoning out of the hands of cities and mandated higher density in order to promote more affordable housing.”

The application for the 125-129 S. Linden Drive project was first submitted to the city in a preliminary application in October 2022. A developmental plan review (DPR) application was submitted by the developer in April 2023, which contained some changes to the initial plan. 

The DPR was deemed incomplete by the city, setting off a series of communications between the developer and city staff. According to the Aug. 12 ruling, at least six letters of incompleteness were sent to the applicant by the city. 

Many, if not all, of those letters stated that the project no longer qualified for Builder’s Remedy protections, alleging that the preliminary application had lapsed. 

In June 2024, the state’s Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) sent a letter to the city refuting its claim that the preliminary application had lapsed and directing the city to process the project. HCD then sent a notice of violation to the city in August 2024, stating that Beverly Hills’ “failure to accept the application for processing is in violation of state housing law,” according to Kin’s ruling. 

In December 2024, HCD sent a second notice of violation regarding the city’s overall practice of processing Builder’s Remedy projects. The department wrote that a “preliminary application remains vested unless the number of residential units or square footage of construction changes by 20 percent or more.”

Two lawsuits were filed against the city regarding the Linden Drive project, both requesting a writ of mandate to compel the city to approve the project. The first was filed in June 2024 by Californians for Homeownership, Inc., and the second was filed in September 2024 by 9300 Wilshire. The complaints were consolidated in Kin’s ruling. 

Builder’s Remedy projects have proven contentious in Beverly Hills. Because the projects are often out of compliance with the city’s size, height and density regulations, some residents and elected officials have argued that they do not conform to the rest of the city. 

The city has received applications for 14 Builder’s Remedy projects. At least six developers of those projects have filed lawsuits against the city, including the Linden Drive developers, challenging determinations made against them by the city. 

Other projects have received incomplete notifications, and still more are engaged in back-and-forth communication with city staff regarding the necessity of Environmental Impact Reviews. 

The decision in the Linden Drive lawsuit is expected to set a precedent for other complaints regarding Builder’s Remedy projects in Beverly Hills.  

The post City Responds to Ruling in Linden Drive Case appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

As the city of Los Angeles stands, people are now in rebuild mode. Even if you were not directly affected by the fires, you were affected. People have come together in unity, and through this shared grieving process, a renewed sense of love and respect has emerged for this extraordinary city and for all that live here. It feels like the younger generation is stepping up with inspiration and the needed energy to help get their lost communities and homes back. This is true of a group of older generations as well, but we are also seeing many in later life stages using this tragedy to downsize or change geographics, maybe even to an unknown area. Some feel if they have to start over and cannot have their known safety and familiarity, then they want to completely start fresh. Or, they may decide to preemptively make lifestyle shifts to align with retirement plans they had been considering for the years to come. Some people are even leaving the city altogether to be closer to family or try a new chapter. It seems like human nature makes these changes and jumps into action, and it comes into fruition in different ways for different people as we are witnessing.

Through it all, we have seen remarkable resilience — both in humanity and the overall market. Over two dozen homes sold for $20 million or more in Q1 2025 just after the January fires, and 310 homes sold for between $5 million and 11 million. Right now, it still seems insurance has helped place many of the displaced families. In the next several months we will see another uptick in sales as these fire victims will need to make permanent moves and decisions once they see that the rebuilding of these devastated areas is projected to take at least five years to completely rebound.

Where are the buyers settling in is another question I’m often asked. Many buyers have migrated to areas like Los Feliz, the Valley, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. Some went into rentals in beach areas like Manhattan and Laguna Beach. Brentwood was the initial beneficiary of post-fire relocations, but the demand for homes has since spread citywide, reshaping both pricing and inventory across all of Los Angeles. The one thing that rings true for all the fire victims and non-fire victims alike is that the “Three Ds” have now turned into the “Four Ds” of what drives the real estate market: death, debt, divorce and now disaster. We will see a rebound from this disaster like every drastic fall. Whether it’s a financial crisis or just a cyclical change, “What goes down must come up.” In a metropolis as great as the special Los Angeles, one of the greatest cities in the world, we are sure to see a market recovery, and also some may regret not getting involved in the opportunity that arose from the destruction.

So … how is the real estate market in Los Angeles? Resilient, active, and full of heart. Despite the major setback, the market remains strong—driven by deep community ties and an unwavering belief in the city’s future. Sales are down just 3% since the fires, a remarkable indicator of stability given the scale of destruction. Leases, new acquisitions and re-trades are fueling activity, and momentum is building as buyers, developers and displaced families work to restore these neighborhoods—one lot, one family and one project at a time.

It’s been just four months since the tragedy, yet homeowners are securing insurance, properties are changing hands, and permits are being pulled. While questions remain about what, where, and how to rebuild, progress is well underway. We will all wish we bought in 2025. History is being written in real time—by those committed to seeing Los Angeles rise again. 

Specializing in high-end real estate, Rayni Romito Williams has established a remarkable record with more than $17.1 billion total career sales with her partner and husband, Branden Williams. Her in-depth knowledge of market trends and luxury inventory, paired with her energetic and confident disposition, has made her one of the nation’s top-producing female agents.

The post How is the Real Estate Market in Los Angeles? appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“Rather than coming to grips with the fact that petitioner’s project is subject to the HAA’s Builder’s Remedy, the city has engaged in a course of conduct that is riddled with violations of state housing law,” both lawsuits state. 

The lawsuits challenge determinations made against proposed projects at 8800 and 8820 Wilshire Blvd. and seek to compel the city to approve the applications. 

The complaints bring the total number of Builder’s Remedy lawsuits against the city to four.

In response to the two new lawsuits, Beverly Hills City Attorney Laurence Wiener told the Courier, “We are confident that the city has treated the projects appropriately. Unfortunately, these projects increased their building construction area by more than 20 percent which disqualifies the projects from the Builder’s Remedy process.” 

The proposed developments on Wilshire Boulevard would stand side by side between Robertson Boulevard and Clark Drive. At 19 stories tall, each includes retail space and residential units. The 8800 Wilshire project proposes 139 units, 17 of which would be designated for affordable housing. The development at 8820 Wilshire seeks to build 134 units, 16 of which would be designated for affordable housing.

Preliminary applications for the projects were first submitted in December 2023. At that time, Beverly Hills did not have an approved housing element in place, allowing developers to apply for so-called Builder’s Remedy projects that sidestep certain local building and zoning codes in exchange for providing affordable units. 

In September 2024, development applications were submitted. In response, the developer received two back-to-back letters from Beverly Hills stating that the applications were incomplete, and that the project no longer qualified for Builder’s Remedy due to alleged missed deadlines and changes made to each project’s plans. 

In the lawsuits, the developer argues that the changed plans were within their rights under state law and municipal code, and that all paperwork was submitted in a timely manner. 

The developer later resubmitted both applications and appealed the city’s determinations to no avail. 

Ryan Leaderman, an attorney for the developer, said that the city violated state law that dictates the terms under which a Builder’s Remedy application can be denied. 

“The statute … does not say you can’t change your project,” he said. “The city is reading in a requirement that doesn’t exist in the law.”

Builder’s Remedy projects have been a source of contention in Beverly Hills, with some residents and officials arguing that they are out of sync with other buildings in the city.

There are currently 14 Builder’s Remedy projects under review by the city, all of which are in various stages in the application process. Seven have received letters from the city notifying them that their applications are incomplete, and five are engaged in back-and-forth communication regarding the necessity of Environmental Impact Reviews. 

In addition to the lawsuits regarding 8800 and 8820 Wilshire Blvd., the city is facing two complaints regarding its denial of a Builder’s Remedy project at 125-129 S. Linden Drive. Developers for that project are seeking to build a 19-story, mixed-use development with 165 dwelling units and a hotel.

Leaderman, who represents two other Builder’s Remedy projects whose applications have been denied, said that those are also “likely headed towards litigation.”

The city has not filed a response to either of the Wilshire Boulevard complaints. Both cases are set to go to court for trial setting conferences in early July. 

The post City Faces New Lawsuits Over Builder’s Remedy Projects on Wilshire Boulevard appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 in 2023 and emerged from a financial restructuring process last September, but the company has continued to face significant challenges. According to a May 5 letter addressed to pharmacy benefit managers from Owen McMahon, Group Vice President of Enterprise Pharmaceutical Purchasing at Rite Aid, “These challenges have only intensified as a result of the rapidly evolving retail and healthcare landscapes in which Rite Aid operates.” 

On that same day, the chain once again filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Many locations will be shuttered nationwide, but the Canon Drive location was not listed in its recent store closure list as of a May 9 filing. 

Zach Zalben, a commercial real estate developer who owns many pharmacy locations, tells the Courier that the Canon Drive location is likely in the 10 ten highest pharmacy sales (rumored to be in the $25 million range) of any retail pharmacy in the United States.  

The property on which Rite Aid sits is owned by the Charles Company, a West Hollywood-based commercial and residential real estate development firm run by Mark and Arman Gabay. The 24,553-square-foot brick structure was built in 1967 as a retail pharmacy and a Crown Books, for those who remember. According to documents reviewed by the Courier, Rite Aid’s lease expires at the end of 2025, with an option to extend for an additional five years. 

 “If they don’t have that many years left on the lease, what will happen is that the landlord will be the one who really has the opportunity to call the shots,” commercial real estate agent Richard Rizika told the Courier. “What often happens is someone will come in, like a CVS or Walgreens, and say, ‘I agree to go ahead and take that over, as long as you give me the time to negotiate with the landlord to get a longer lease term.’”

“I think the landlord and the creditors of Rite Aid should come up with a collaboration where both the fee simple owner and the leaseholder, Rite Aid, win,” another prominent Beverly Hills developer told the Courier. “It probably should involve the developer just paying Rite Aid to walk away from their below-market lease so they can put a worthwhile development there. I think they’re keeping the Canon location in the near term, and because it’s such a good lease and such a good store, I think this is one of very few Rite Aids that survive.”

Rite Aid has notified customers that most of the stores slated for closure will stay open for at least the next few months.  With many of their locations, Rite Aid is looking to sell its prescriptions, pharmacy front-end inventory, and other assets to new owners. For the time being, they will continue to offer pharmacy services, but the company stated it is working to ensure a “smooth transfer of customer prescriptions to other pharmacies.”
Rite Aid has not responded to requests for an official comment about the Canon Drive location. But, “Alice,” a shift supervisor at the location who did not want to provide her last name, told the Courier, “It’s a roller coaster …“We know that they’re all closing but we don’t know exactly when.” 

The post Beverly Hills Rite Aid Not Listed Among Bankruptcy Closures appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The new maps—which label regions in the state as moderate, high or very high fire hazard severity zones—designate approximately 260 additional acres of Beverly Hills as very high, according to Jim McDougald, Assistant Deputy Director, Cal Fire Community Wildfire Planning and Risk Reduction. 

Those new areas, said Trevor Richmond, Beverly Hills Assistant Fire Chief – Fire Marshal, are predominantly south of Sunset Boulevard. 

“Prior to the new map coming out, the very high zone was north of Sunset,” Richmond said. “So, you’ll look at the new map and you’ll see that the [very high area] is actually extended.” 

In most of Beverly Hills, the new border of very high fire hazard severity zones runs, roughly, east to west between Lomitas and Elevado Avenues. On the old map, that border ran roughly along Sunset Boulevard. 

To determine what zone their home falls in, if any, residents are advised to type their address into the official map on the Cal Fire website.

Richmond notes that the city has been working to get granular with the borders as some Beverly Hills lots appeared to be “cut in half,” he said, by the boundaries between very high and high zones issued by the state. 

Richmond is also collaborating with a city staff member who works with geographic information systems to examine lots one at a time and determine each property’s correct zone. 

“We’ve gone through all the lots that are half in, half out, and we’ve typed in those addresses [and] readjusted the maps to reflect more accurately what zone each lot is in,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of work to make it really clear.”

The city plans to distribute a flyer within the next several weeks that shows those designations, as well as post the information on their website. 

The new maps were created by Cal Fire using updated systems. Those systems allow experts to more accurately account for wind patterns, including speed and direction, that are likely to blow embers from high vegetation areas into urban or non-wildland areas. The new borders in Beverly Hills reflect that increased predicting ability.

“What the model does now that it didn’t do before is mapping, basically, where the embers from that adjacent vegetation are going to land,” McDougald said. 

Work on the new maps has been ongoing since 2022. It came on the heels of a state bill that required Cal Fire to create fire hazard severity zone maps for Local Responsibility Areas (LRA), where the local government is responsible for wildfire protection, in addition to State Responsibility Areas (SRA), where the state is financially responsible for wildland fire protection and prevention.

“We did the SRA adoption first,” McDougald said. “The SRA was finally adopted and went into effect April 1, 2024, and then we started on the Local Responsibility Area.”

Individuals whose home or property is located in very high severity zones are required to comply with laws that govern so-called defensible space, which refers to maintenance regulations for the area around the structure. 

Those regulations include reducing intense fuel within 5 feet of the structure and managing vegetation that exists up to 100 feet from the structure. 

Richmond said the Beverly Hills Fire Department (BHFD) plans to conduct an ongoing public education campaign to help residents understand the new maps and requirements, particularly homeowners who are newly affected by the very high fire hazard severity zone. That might mean a lighter touch with code enforcement as more information is provided to residents. 

“Over the next couple years, it’ll be a public education, probably, versus a code enforcement issue,” he said. “After a couple years … we’ll apply the code and begin the code enforcement.”

Beverly Hills also recently released an updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP). The plan will allow residents to be more prepared to face natural disasters, including wildfires. 

According to a statement from the city, members of the community are invited to respond to the plan between April 21 and May 5. In order to qualify for grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the plan must be adopted as a prerequisite. 

Residents interested in looking up their home to see where it falls on the new Cal Fire maps can use this link: https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/community-wildfire-preparedness-and-mitigation/fire-hazard-severity-zones.

Residents interested in viewing and responding to the LHMP may visit: https://www.beverlyhills.org/1447/Hazard-Mitigation-Plan-Update or email comments to hazardmitigation@beverlyhills.org. 

The post State Modifies Fire Hazard Severity Zones in Beverly Hills appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

From wildfire-prone canyons to shifting climate patterns and soaring premiums, the insurance landscape in California is evolving fast. Whether you’re a seasoned investor, a first-time buyer, or a real estate professional, understanding the new rules of the game is no longer optional—it’s essential.

Wildfires and Premium Spikes: The New Normal

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: wildfire risk. California’s beautiful terrain—its sun-soaked hills, enviable landscapes, and ocean breezes—also makes it one of the most fire-prone regions in the country. Over the past decade, we’ve seen record-breaking wildfires, and insurers have taken notice.

The result? Many companies are reducing their exposure in high-risk areas—or exiting those markets entirely. That leaves homeowners facing steep premium increases or worse, non-renewals. Policies that cost $1,500 a year may now exceed $6,000—or be canceled altogether.

So, what’s fueling the fire behind these rising rates? Along with increased wildfire activity, reinsurance (insurance for insurers) has become more expensive. On top of that, state regulations now require insurers to hold higher financial reserves for potential catastrophe claims. And all of that gets passed down to—you guessed it—the homeowner.

Know Your Fire Hazard Zone Before You Buy

Thinking about buying a hillside home with panoramic views? Make sure you know its Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) rating first. CAL FIRE has mapped every inch of California, assigning each area a fire risk level: moderate, high, or very high.

You can access these maps at osfm.fire.ca.gov or check with your local city planning department. If a property falls in a high or very high zone, it may require fire-resistant construction, defensible space clearance—and extra scrutiny from insurance carriers.

Pro tip for agents and buyers: Check this info early in the buying process. It can influence both insurability and cost, which in turn affects your bottom line.

What Your Policy Might Not Cover

Here’s where things get tricky. Even if you manage to secure a standard homeowner’s policy, it may come with more exclusions than you expect. Coverage limitations are becoming more common, especially for:

•Smoke damage

•Landscaping or detached structures

•Temporary housing (loss of use)

•Sewer backups

•Earthquake damage (typically not included unless added separately)

In other words, reading the fine print isn’t just smart—it’s vital. Ask your insurance broker to break down exclusions, sublimits, deductibles, and what exactly happens when disaster strikes.

The California FAIR Plan: Last Resort, Not Last Minute

If you can’t get coverage through traditional carriers, the California FAIR Plan may be your safety net. It offers basic fire insurance for properties in high-risk areas. But let’s be clear—it’s not a comprehensive homeowner’s policy.

Most homeowners pair the FAIR Plan with a Difference in Conditions (DIC) or “wraparound” policy that adds liability, theft, water damage, and other essentials. Together, these two policies mimic standard coverage—though often with higher premiums and less flexibility.

A few things to keep in mind:

•The FAIR Plan has coverage caps and may limit protection for personal property.

•Approval times have historically been long, but we’re currently seeing faster turnarounds—sometimes same day.

•Uploading clear, date- and time-stamped front-view photos of the property showing the street number is key to speeding things up.

Moral of the story? Don’t wait. Start the insurance process as early as possible.

Why Standard Coverage May Fall Short

Gone are the days when an HO-3 policy had you fully covered. Today’s policies are customized based on location, fire history, roof condition, updates on plumbing, electrical panel, heating and more.

To fully protect your investment, consider these add-ons:

•Extended replacement cost (for inflation-adjusted rebuilds)

•Ordinance or law coverage (to comply with new building codes)

•High-value riders (for jewelry, fine art, or collectibles)

If you’re in a fire-prone area, ask your broker about discounts for mitigation features like defensible space, fire-resistant roofing, hardscape barriers, and monitored alarm systems. These can help offset premium increases.

Insurance and Escrow: Timing Is Everything

Here’s a tip that can save deals—and sanity: start shopping for insurance as soon as escrow opens. Seriously.

Too many transactions get delayed (or derailed) because insurance wasn’t locked in early enough. Lenders require proof of insurance before funding a loan. And it can’t be just any policy. It must meet their criteria: replacement cost, capped deductible, and minimum coverage thresholds.

While higher deductibles might save you money on premiums, lenders may not accept them. And if your policy doesn’t meet their requirements, they can impose “force-placed” insurance—at double or triple the cost.

Timing matters even more for homes near brush or with high replacement values. These often take longer to underwrite, so early action is critical.

Also, don’t assume lender-required coverage is enough. Work with your insurance professional to make sure you’re truly protected—not just mortgage compliant.

Final Thoughts

In a state as breathtaking—and complex—as California, protecting your property means more than checking a box. It’s about crafting an insurance strategy that’s as tailored as your real estate goals. Here insuring your property isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. It requires diligence, savvy, accountability, open-mindedness and some patience wouldn’t hurt.

Whether you’re buying a $25 million estate in Beverly Hills or a rustic retreat in Topanga Canyon, your coverage should reflect the value, uniqueness, and risk profile of your home. With the right team and informed choices, you can enjoy the Golden State’s rewards—without getting burned by its risks.  

The post Insuring the Golden State: What Every California Property Owner Should Know appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Commissioners agreed that the plan, known as the ministerial permit process, is a mutually beneficial one. Developers will be able to move their projects along faster, and city officials will have more say in the projects, some of which exceed the city’s existing development standards, such as height limitations. 

“What we are trying to do here is incentivize [developers] to moderate what they’ve requested in exchange for a quicker process and certain restrictions that they are not currently subject to under the Builder’s Remedy authority,” said Commission Chair Terri Kaplan.

Beverly Hills is currently processing 14 Builder’s Remedy projects. Submitted when the city did not have a certified housing element in place, those projects avail themselves of a state law that allows developers to sidestep some municipal development codes by providing a certain number of affordable housing units. 

Some residents and officials in Beverly Hills have opposed Builder’s Remedy projects, saying they’re out of scale with other buildings in the city. The city has little discretion in approving or denying the applications. 

However, the projects are subject to a discretionary review process, which can take six to 12 months. The ministerial permit process would allow developers to skip that process provided they adhere to permitting standards set by the city. Under the ministerial process, public hearings would be eliminated, as would the requirement for review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The prospect of a ministerial permit process was first discussed by the City Council on Jan. 28 at a Study Session. Councilmembers were largely in favor of the idea and sent the issue to the Planning Commission for a hearing. 

During the March 27 meeting, the city’s Principal Planner Cindy Gordon presented staff recommendations for standards that developers of Builder’s Remedy projects would need to meet  to be eligible for the ministerial permit process. 

Those include a building height limitation of 85 feet, measures to restrict visibility from balconies that overlook residential areas, prohibitions on the use of common outdoor areas past 10 p.m. and a ban on amplified sound in all outdoor areas, including balconies. 

Nearly a dozen individuals who live and work in the city spoke during public comment. Most were in favor of the ministerial permit process. 

Several members of Unite Here Local 11, a union that represents hospitality workers in Southern California, asked commissioners not to allow hotels to utilize the ministerial permit process, arguing that it would misappropriate laws intended to create more housing. 

Speaking through a Spanish translator, David Jolla, an employee of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, said, “Housing laws should be used to encourage housing.” 

“Sometimes attempts to streamline housing are highjacked in the service of high-end commercial development of hotels,” he said, citing a project in Santa Monica that began as a residential development and later added a hotel. 

During discussion, commissioners requested small changes to staff’s proposed language. Commissioner Gary Ross asked that references to amplified sound specify prohibitions on rooftops as well as balconies. 

Ross also asked that the proposed standards reference existing city code that details restrictions on beaming light. 

Kaplan and Ross both asked staff to check whether developers are required to provide the same quality appliances to market rate units and affordable housing units. 

“I think that the level of finishes is required to be equivalent between a market unit and an affordable unit,” said Kaplan, “which suggests to me that the state’s intention and law is that the level of finishes and the specific brand name of the appliance” be the same in both types of units. 

City staff will now draft an ordinance that will come back before the Planning Commission before going before the full City Council.  

The post Planning Commission Agrees to Ministerial Permit Plan appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

While the Aman brand didn’t originate  in Indonesia, it certainly established its foundation there, with much of its hospitality heritage stemming from the Southeast Asian country’s architectural vernacular, as well as the rich Eastern philosophies of wellness. The Aman brand debuted with the opening of Amanpuri in Phuket, Thailand, in 1988, followed by the opening of Amandari in Indonesia’s Balinese cultural capital of Ubud in 1989. In the years since, Aman opened Amankila and Amanusa in 1992, Amanwana in 1993, Amanjiwo in 1997, and launched a sailing yacht, Amandira, through the area in 2015.

“Indonesia is the heritage and background of the Aman brand,” says Jann Hess, the General Manager of Amankila and Regional Director of Aman Indonesia. “The strongest DNA of the brand comes from the people here, and the ethos of how the brand always aims to blend in with local culture stems from here too.”

While these Aman properties are all well-established, the region’s increasing popularity over the years has made it prime for new development, as well as for people to rediscover the foundation and heart of the Aman brand, with the U.S. bringing more visitors to Aman’s properties than any other region. “Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands and more than 700 spoken languages, as well as breathtaking landscapes and culture,” says Hess. “It’s also 3,600 miles wide from east to west, so it takes some time to fully explore.” Here, the experienced hotelier, who has spent the last decade with Aman Resorts, guides us through what makes each property particularly unique—as well as what’s ahead for these legacy properties.

Amandari— An Enchanted Forest Haven

“In the beginning days of the Aman brand, the idea was that the resorts would feel like homes where you are welcoming friends,” says Hess. Nestled in Bali’s uplands, about 15 miles from the sea, Amandari is surrounded by Bali’s most verdant landscapes, filled with Hindu temples and shrines, rainforests, and numerous craftspeople and artisans. Here, spacious suites offer a variety of residential-inspired configurations, complete with private pools that reflect the tonal greens of their surroundings, as well as open-air rooms for seamless integration with the outdoors to let in views of the Ayung River Gorge and River Valley, rice paddies or landscaped gardens. Materials like teak, marble, as well as thatched roofs and coconut define the building palette.

“At Amandari, you can see how from the beginning, the Aman brand always developed in a way that blended in with what was already around it. It sets the standard for all the resorts to follow,” says Hess. Today, guests at the property can visit the neighboring village filled with galleries and artists; be led by an Aman guide through local markets; explore the nearby iconic temples; go on a cycle journey through rice fields; trek alongside a picturesque lake; experience Balinese spiritual counseling; or simply bask in the environment and absorb the stunning nature.

Amankila—A New Home for Aman Lovers

Historically, Bali was divided into nine kingdoms, each ruled by a different royal family. Set in the ancient kingdom of Karangasem, on the eastern side of Bali, Amankila is set among some of the island’s most culturally significant sites and compelling landscapes. “It’s hard to find a place more unique than this,” says Hess. “Bali is quite large [about 2,230 square miles], but there’s so much you can do here without going too far.” Hess points to Balinese cultural experiences like visiting one of the water palaces, Tirta Gangga, hiking along the stunning gray-sand coastline, as well as snorkeling and diving.

First built in 1992 by architect Ed Tuttle, who is responsible for other Aman resorts like Amangani and Amanzoe, the property has long inspired guests with its cliffside home featuring sweeping views of the Lombok Strait, as well as its intimate accommodations with canopied beds, soaking tubs and private terraces. Now, Amankila is creating just nine exclusive residences, designed by Singapore-based Studio NvS. The expansive properties range from 29,000 to 61,000 square feet, boasting outdoor terraces, private pools and an elevated hillside position to take in sweeping ocean views.

“Each villa is being designed to host multigenerational families and/or groups of friends,” describes Hess. “They’re created on a large scale, each comprised of elegant pavilions and seamlessly blending with the rest of the resort.”

Residences will range from three to five bedrooms, with homeowners having the option to add additional pavilions for spaces like an office, media room or meditation lounge. Owners will have full and preferred access to all hotel amenities and services, in addition to the Aman Private Office, which provides global services across the entire Aman portfolio.

Aman Villas at Nusa Dua—An All—Villa Resort for a Truly Exclusive Stay

Golden beaches, oceanside temples and frangipani-scented hillsides set the background at Aman Villas Nusa Dua, where each private, two-story villa comes with a team of two butlers and a private chef. The all-villa resort feels more like its own private residential enclave, where its seven homes, ranging from 45,552 square feet to 58,727 square feet, occupy a total of 153 private acres. Since opening in 1992, the property has been catering to guests seeking customized experiences in a unique setting. Its position on Bali’s southernmost peninsula provides proximity to the Bali National Golf Club as well as some of the island nation’s most stunning white-sand beaches. Complementing the stunning setting, the architecture of the villas comes from Kerry Hill Architects, who have designed Aman resorts across the world, including the forthcoming property in Beverly Hills. “Kerry Hill’s work, especially in these early Aman properties, really set the tone for the brand, and you can see how decades later, not only is it still relevant, but it’s also still inspiring,” says Hess.

Amanjiwo—Where History Meets a Contemporary Sense of Serenity

Overlooking the world’s largest Buddhist sanctuary, in the bucolic bliss of central Java, Amanjiwo draws guests with its tranquil setting and natural attractions. “The resort overlooks the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Borobudur, which is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple,” says Hess. “There’s a feeling of serenity when you’re here, so much so that ‘Amanjiwo’ actually translates to ‘Peaceful Soul.’” Here, the resort’s 33 rooms form a semi-circle around the central spaces, with views looking out to the cascading rice paddies, Kedu Plain, and four volcanoes. The inland setting, just 35 miles from the coast, is deeply immersed in the island’s rich culture, with guests frequently coming to experience Aman-led private visits to Borobudur, trekking into the nearby mountains, or simply resting in the tranquil landscape and lounging by the pool.

The architecture of the property deeply reflects its storied surroundings, with legendary architect Ed Tuttle designing accommodations with local stone, gracious pavilions and walled gardens. “Ed Tuttle was also the architect of the first Aman, Amanpuri in Phuket, and helped establish the brand’s design vocabulary, looking to merge modern comforts with historic and Indigenous attributes,” says Hess.

Although the options for accommodations range as large as the Dalem Jiwo Suite with two bedrooms, each in their own pavilion, a Javanese-stone swimming pool, two outdoor lounging bales and nearly 13,000 square feet of private space, those seeking to make their refuge even more personal have the option of purchasing one of the forthcoming private residences at Amanjiwo. “We’re currently in the process of creating four villas, each in the language of the current property and Ed Tuttle’s direction,” says Hess. “We’ll never create more than four, though, because it’s important that the property stays small and doesn’t impose on the protected UNESCO site.”

Construction of the villas is already underway, with options for three or four bedrooms, and designs by Sydney-based Manasara architects, who have created various residences and projects throughout Indonesia. The residences will be placed above the hotel for elevated views, and each will feature pavilions for bedrooms, living and dining, as well as expansive terraces and gardens, complete with an 18-meter private pool. Lots range from approximately 30,200 square feet to 37,700 square feet, but should owners ever feel the need to leave their environs, they have full access to all of the amenities at the Aman resort.

Amanwana—Tented Luxury on the Remote Moyo Island

There are tented camps, and then there are the tented camps that Aman creates. Those familiar with Amangiri’s Camp Sarika experience will recognize the full-nature immersion that Aman creates with its camp-style retreats. At Amanwana, instead of being surrounded by a boundless desert oasis, guests have the unique experience of waking up on Moyo Island. Measuring 135 square miles and accessible only by boat or helicopter, the island is part of the Moyo-Satonda National Park and offers calm turquoise waters, lush savannahs and rich forests. Here, just 17 tents rest in a tranquil bay on the western coast of the island. Each of the permanent tents measures 625 square feet and features plush beds, picture windows, wooden decks, full bathrooms with showers, and views of either the ocean or the jungle. “It’s unique that Aman can offer these five resorts in one country for guests to experience,” says Hess. “Each one is designed in complete harmony with its setting to offer something different to each guest. Of course, they can be experienced individually, but when a guest books stays across multiple properties, we can really create a personalized itinerary so that each retreat offers meaningful culture, memorable experiences, and the Aman-level of luxury.”

While the untouched setting of Amanwana is perfect for swimming with whale sharks in the Saleh Bay, scuba diving and snorkeling in the nearby untouched reefs, trekking through the jungle to explore hidden waterfalls, or experiencing a massage at the open-air spa set among tamarind trees, the emphasis here is always on the feeling of being a million miles away in a place still almost completely undiscovered by mainstream travelers.

Amandira and Aman By Train— Journeys Off the Beaten Path

Launched in 2015, the luxury sailing yacht Amandira is the most recent addition to the Aman Resorts portfolio in Indonesia. “This custom-built, two-masted sailing yacht is modeled after a traditional Indonesian Phinisi sailing and diving vessel,” says Hess. “It’s a fantastic complement to our properties on land because it gives our guests such a unique way to see Indonesia and its many islands from a different standpoint.”

Itineraries for Amandira include journeys to the Spice Islands, where powder-white-sand beaches merge with volcanic mountains and uninhabited shorelines, as well as the Komodo Cruise Expedition, where guests track and photograph the elusive Komodo dragon in its UNESCO-protected home of the Komodo National Park. Both journeys are offered only a few times a year due to weather, but each includes an incomparable stay aboard the 52-meter Amandira, where just five cabins ensure an intimate experience, and a crew of 14 ensures top-tier service.

“For another unique Aman experience, we have the Aman train journey,” says Hess. “It’s something we came up with during the pandemic that’s become a really special and popular experience.” Just twice a month, Aman guests arriving to Amanjiwo via Jakarta can board the luxury carriage, which seats 10 guests, for a 6.5-hour scenic ride. “We have a resident anthropologist on board who talks about Indonesian culture and sites you see along the way, which is a wonderful way to ease into and learn about the country,” says Hess. “It’s also a great reminder that some of the best ways to explore and absorb Indonesia are by sitting back and slowing down.” 

The post Rooted Philosophies appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

From its inception, Aman has always pursued the creation of dynamic resorts and residences in incomparable settings. Never compromising on location or architectural integrity, the brand portfolio now includes 35 hotels, resorts and residences across 20 countries, reaching storied destinations such as Bhutan and Marrakech and global metropolises including New York and Tokyo. 

As the first Aman to be located on the West Coast, Aman Beverly Hills will combine the cherished brand’s ability to craft captivating retreats in an unparalleled setting. The project, designed by Kerry Hill Architects (KHA) from Singapore, will be the crown jewel of One Beverly Hills, a multibillion-dollar, 17.5-acre oasis set at the most iconic intersection in Los Angeles, where Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards meet. Aman will join the preexisting Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hilton to create a unified development that will include 10 acres of public and private botanical gardens featuring more than 200 species of California native and water-wise plants and trees. Aman Beverly Hills will raise the bar of luxury in the area, offering a 78-key Aman hotel, two residential towers and a members-only Aman Club, all set on a private parcel with botanical gardens and secluded pathways reserved exclusively for the owners of Aman residences.

What is Aman?

Aman, the Sanskrit word for “peace,” has spent the last three decades cementing itself as a global leader in luxury hospitality. The first Aman Resort was created in Phuket in 1988 to replicate the feeling of being in a private home, with just a handful of rooms. Although the brand has since evolved, its main ethos of making guests always feel at home has long been the common thread running through the brand’s history. 

“Our studio was founded in Singapore 45 years ago, and we’ve spent the last 35 of them working with Aman,” says Tanuj Goenka, Director of KHA. “Our brands started their journeys together, and we’ve been proud to complete 13 Amans around the world. Over that time, Aman has always valued an environment that sets the properties apart, but the brand is not static—it has had a tremendous ability to move with the times, but without ever losing its soul.” 

The now Switzerland-based hospitality brand has always been synonymous with thoughtful design, peerless service and refined taste—qualities it will be bringing to Los Angeles, where it will introduce the city to a new level of luxury. At the recent World’s 50 Best Hotels awards, Aman was recognized as the first-ever winner of the “Most Admired Hotel Group Award,” where it was called out as a “pioneering purveyor of ultra-luxe, wellness-forward stays.” Indeed, Aman Tokyo, which was also designed by KHA, landed as the #7 hotel in the world, while Aman New York landed spot #37, wowing guests with its spacious suites, stunning three-story spa and peaceful atmosphere, all while being located in one of the busiest cities in the world. The New York property was the third U.S. project for the brand, following the landmark 2007 opening of Amangani in Jackson Hole, where the 40-key resort overlooks the Grand Tetons, and the spectacular 2009 debut of Amangiri in Utah, set among red-rock canyons and 900 acres of the Colorado Plateau. Also in North America, the brand features properties in the Dominican Republic (Amanera) and Turks and Caicos (Amanyara), where guests are just a stone’s throw from the U.S. but feel transported to a world away by the captivating environments Aman so thoughtfully designs. 

A Setting Like No Other 

Beverly Hills may consist of just 5.71 square miles, but the tiny enclave has reached world-renowned status as one of the most elite and sought-after luxury destinations in the world. In the early 1800s, the city began as an agricultural community. By 1912, it was welcoming its first hotel, The Beverly Hills Hotel; by the 1920s, historic mansions as Pickfair (the home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford) were being constructed; by the 1960s, Fred Hayman and Aldo Gucci were turning Rodeo Drive into a glamorous luxury retail destination with the openings of Giorgio Beverly Hills and Gucci; by the 1990s, the city’s zip code was immortalized by the series “Beverly Hills 90210”; and in 2027, the city will become even more elevated with the launch of Aman Beverly Hills. 

“I’ve been to California many times and was already familiar with Beverly Hills before we came onto this project,” says Goenka. “[Another world-renowned architectural firm] Foster and Partners had already put plans in with the city and gained approval for a project that included a botanical garden that would drape around the master plan. The idea of living in a garden in the middle of a busy city, which is predominantly a car city, meant that the Aman resident would have the opportunity to live in a truly special space.” Goenka adds that as he and his colleagues visited private homes around the city, they always noted the generosity of the landscape and the vistas. “We observed how private homes in L.A. take in the natural landscapes, the views, the surrounding nature, the sky … it was important that we brought that all into this vertical project,” says the architect. 

Now, the residences will occupy the two towers at Aman Beverly Hills, allowing for ample space to be dedicated to outdoor gardens that will make each unit feel like a private retreat that embraces the outdoors instead of hiding from them behind walls of glass and steel. But Aman Beverly Hills is not only a lush oasis for residents—its accompanying hotel will offer a new level of vertical luxury the city has never seen before. As the first new luxury hotel in the region in nearly a decade, it will raise the bar by offering guests a new way to experience Beverly Hills, complete with unparalleled design, top-tier service and exclusive amenities. 

Incomparable Design

Deep overhangs, lush, verdant gardens on every level, an abundance of natural wood—there is nothing typical about Aman’s plan to bring vertical living to the heart of Beverly Hills. “This is not your ubiquitous glass-and-steel high-rise,” says Goenka. “We considered how the building would be viewed and lived in from every angle and at different times of the day.” To that end, the glazing of each floor is set back from the edges of the building, with space for plantings, private pools, and undersides of timber that allow both residents and passersby to feel as if they’re immersed in lush landscaping. 

“We’ve created five Amans in Bhutan, which is one of the only carbon-negative countries in the world, and we created the Aman in Kyoto, which rests within a forest, near several UNESCO World Heritage Sites,” says Goenka. “We took the same propensity towards nature with this project, immersing the residents in a beautiful garden setting not on just the ground plane, but on every level.” Natural materials like limestone and natural woods will be used throughout, with the line between interiors and exteriors intentionally being blurred. “We only take on projects where we can be responsible for both the architecture and the interiors. We never want someone in one of our environments to distinguish where the architecture starts and stops. Instead, the indoors and outdoors should flow seamlessly,” he continues. 

KHA is collaborating with Los Angeles–based RIOS for the landscape architecture, whose work can be seen at some of the city’s most prestigious private residences, as well as at larger corporate projects for clients like NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures and Larry Ellison. “We didn’t want the landscape to be secondary; we wanted it to be substantial,” says Goenka. “Trees and plants are set within and all around the buildings—not just in an isolated planter box—so it breaks the illusion that you’re even in a building and instead feels like you’re living within nature. There are also multiple swimming pools and water features, so you truly feel like you’re in an oasis.” Adding to the residential feel of the project, a series of walking paths throughout the property will allow both hotel guests and residents to feel like they’re in their own refined neighborhood, immersed in fresh air. 

Units at Aman Beverly Hills start with two-bedroom homes of 3,100 square feet and extend to five-bedroom units that command 10,500 square feet. Penthouses will offer 25,000 square feet of private space, as well as bird’s-eye views across the city, taking in the ocean, the glittering city below and the verdant Los Angeles Country Club located just west of the site. Every residence of three bedrooms and up has a private pool, and even the smaller two-bedroom units have outdoor onsens.  

“Almost 30 years ago, Aman was one of the first hotel brands to allocate as much space to their bathrooms as their bedrooms,” says Goenka. “We’ve been a pioneer in celebrating the bathing experience as a ritual, and the bathing and dressing areas we’ve created in the homes here are equal to if not larger than the sleeping areas.” In the primary bedrooms, wet areas in the bathrooms extend to the outdoor terrace and pool. The sleeping, bathing and dressing areas have the option of being opened as one free-flowing space or partitioned off at times, so as not to disturb a sleeping partner. 

Each primary suite will contain a double vanity, a WC, a shower with steam option and a freestanding tub oriented to the views. “Typically, bathrooms are designed with lower ceilings than in the bedrooms, but we worked hard to make sure it was the same,” says Goenka. “Once everything is open and slid away, it will feel like one continuous open plan.” 

KHA’s design draws inspiration from American mid-century culture, yet as an international hotel with bespoke solutions, the project incorporates the finest products from around the globe to create a contemporary, exclusive and state-of-the-art destination. 

Life at Aman Beverly Hills

Much like one of the nearby exclusive estates, the approach to Aman Beverly Hills is considered the moment a resident crosses the property. Entry for the residents comes from either Santa Monica or Wilshire Boulevard along a private, secured drive. From there, residents can park in the thoughtfully designed subterranean garage or leave their car with the valet. As residents walk into the lobby, they’re met with a concierge team and staff to help assist with bags and groceries. 

The ground floor includes common areas for residents to greet visitors or hold meetings. From there, three elevator banks host private lifts that take residents directly into their homes. 

While the units at Aman Beverly Hills are truly a special opportunity, the Aman Club is another unique offering. As the social hub of the project, the space will include an entertainment zone, a screening room and jazz club, multiple food and beverage outlets, as well as wellness and fitness facilities. The members-only club is open to all residents of the Aman Beverly Hills, as well as other Aman aficionados who have applied for membership, creating a collective of like-minded individuals. 

Indeed, a sense of community is important to Aman Beverly Hills, with the project feeling like its own master-planned neighborhood. “What we’ve seen in our other residential projects like Amanpuri in Thailand, is that the homeowners at Aman properties are quite compatible and enjoy getting to know each other,” says Goenka. “Especially around certain times of the year or around holidays, they’ll all be there and celebrate together.” With the Aman Club and generous outdoor spaces acting as central gathering spaces, residents are meant to meet, interact and build bonds over the prestigious community that they’re all now a part of.  

“When you look at our other projects, there’s always a clear reference to the property reflecting its location. For instance, in Tokyo, in terms of materials and aesthetics, there’s a clear reference to it being in Japan, but it’s not inherently or too literally Japanese,” says Goenka. “Instead, we prefer subtle references to where the project is. We’re influenced and inspired by the local vernacular, but we aren’t copying it. We’re always looking to distill design to its most essential elements, allowing it to sit lightly within the setting.” 

Upon its completion in 2027, Aman Beverly Hills won’t just wow guests and residents with its striking architecture; it will envelop its guests and homeowners with a sense of calm, peace, and an appreciation for the setting and environment never offered in Southern California. 

The post A Piece of History appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The development in question is proposed for 140 S. Camden Drive. The residential building, at 194 feet high, would include 27 condominiums and rental units as well as four subterranean parking levels. Six of the buildings’ units would be designated as affordable housing.

The final application for the project was submitted by Wilshire Camden, LLC, on Aug. 30, 2024. The city responded with an incompleteness determination on Oct. 3, 2024. 

The appeal hinged primarily on a state law requiring local governments to determine whether an application is complete within 30 calendar days of its submission. If they fail to do so, the application is deemed complete by default.

According to the applicant, who was represented at the council meeting by attorney Ryan Leaderman of the law firm Holland & Knight, the city was in violation of the law by not issuing its determination within 30 days of Aug. 30. 

City staff indicated that as a matter of policy, applications are not deemed submitted until city staff acknowledges receipt and fees are paid, at which point the 30-day review process begins. Additionally, applications and fees submitted after business hours are considered received on the next business day. 

Wilshire Camden submitted the fees for its application at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 30, 2024. The city’s business hours ended at 5 p.m. on that day, which happened to be the start of the Labor Day weekend, rendering Sept. 3, 2024, the next business day. 

An acknowledgment of receipt was sent to the applicant on Sept. 3, 2024. Therefore, according to the city, its response on Oct. 3, 2024, was timely. 

Leaderman and members of the council debated the issue for nearly two hours. In addition to broad legislative intent and specific statutory provisions, Leaderman emphasized that his client’s substantial application fee was paid within 30 minutes of receiving an invoice from the city on Aug. 30. He also pointed out that the city’s own response on Oct. 3, 2024, was delivered two minutes before the close of business and then superseded by another response that came more than two hours after close of business. The city, said Leaderman, would appear to apply the “close of business rule” only to the applicant, and not itself. 

For its part, city staff emphasized that its policies regarding the start of the 30-day review process and business hours are longstanding.

To that end, Councilmember Mary Wells queried staff over where those policies are posted, and when they are first seen by an applicant. 

“That’s at the bottom of every email that’s sent by a current planner in the department,” said Masa Alkire, the assistant director of city planning. “Any time that any individual—for example, Mr. Leaderman—communicates with one of our planners, he would have seen that note at the bottom.”

Another staff member added that the information is also on the application page on the city’s website. 

Turning her comments to Leaderman, Wells noted that when he received the acknowledgment of receipt on Sept. 3, 2024, he did not contest it. She also said that this was not the first time Leaderman had submitted such paperwork to the city, implying that he knew about the city’s policies. 

Calling the city’s policies “arbitrary,” Leaderman in turn proposed a hypothetical scenario in which city staff could deliberately withhold acknowledgment of receipt. 

“A city could play games by not determining or not acknowledging [an application],” he said. “[Our] application was submitted, and it should not be contingent upon someone recognizing or acknowledging that it was submitted.” 

Later in the meeting, when explaining his reasons for denying Wilshire Camden’s appeal, Councilmember Craig Corman suggested that Leaderman deliberately withheld an objection to the email sent to Wilshire Camden on Sept. 3, 2024, which stated that the review process would end on Oct. 3, 2024. 

“There was never any objection,” said Corman. “It was only as if the applicant was lying in wait, thinking, ‘Well, this is an argument I can pull out if I need it.'” 

Prior to the city’s official denial of the appeal, Leaderman noted that his client would be willing to take the case to court. 

“We don’t wish to pursue litigation,” he said. “We want to build housing. But staff’s treatment in this situation is just not right, and what it’s done is, it’s inviting lawsuits from advocates who want housing in the city. I think there’s a better way of doing this, not to necessarily litigate, but we will litigate if we have to.”

Leaderman later clarified his position in a statement to the Courier, which read: “We believe that the city acted unlawfully on Tuesday night in its denial of the project. We are exploring all legal options and will respond accordingly.” 

The post City Council Denies Appeal for 15-Story Building on South Camden Drive appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The commission first reviewed a request for an R-1 Design Review Permit for the construction of a new two-story, single-family residence at 519 N. Roxbury Drive. The residence features a contemporary modern design with minimalist materials and a water-efficient landscape design. 

Commission member Jeffrey Daniels liked the design overall but raised concerns about the heaviness of the stone at the proposed residence’s entryway. “It’s very substantial and I don’t feel that it lives comfortably with the other homes on the street,” Daniels said. “I like the assortment of materials you’ve selected. I think that the color palette is quite attractive.”

Speaking on behalf of the applicants, a representative for the architectural firm behind the project said the entryway is their favorite part of the design, but they had also prepared an alternative design featuring inset paneling and darker stucco around the entryway rather than stone. Commissioners viewed a rendering of this alternative design. Commission member Terri Smooke said, “I like the alternate plan more with the darker stone; I think it’s richer … I think it creates a more cohesive appearance for the house.” 

Vice Chair Rebecca Pynoos asked about the landscaping options for the property. “This particular block of Roxbury is heavily green and landscaped … and I feel this house, while modern, seems more of a departure from what is on the rest of the street,” she said. The architect plans to keep the main tree in front of the house intact, which commission members appreciated, although they suggested planting more in the front yard to allow for tall growth and enhance the privacy of residents and neighbors. 

Chair Evan Meyer was complimentary toward the development, expressing support for the modulation, color palette and mix of materials, but was unsure about the use of a bright white paint for the landscaping walls. “I’d personally love to see that color toned down a little bit and more in line with the stucco on the structure of the building,” Meyer said.

The commission passed a resolution conditionally approving an R-1 permit for the construction of a new single-family residence for the property. Conditions include updating the architectural plans to reflect the alternative design presented during this meeting, as well as using a warmer white paint to match the stone materials. The applicant must also specify the proposed location of the use of obscured glass on the window and door schedule in locations consistent with the elevations presented to the commission. The front yard wall should also be revised to match the condition along the southern property line and must wrap along the north side property line. Commissioners agreed that the landscaping plan be revised to include more plants and taller landscaping, subject to final review and approval by the director of community development.

The commission also reviewed a request for approval for a temporary mural on the facade of the Van Cleef and Arpels building at 300 N. Rodeo Drive. The retailer wishes to install a seasonal art mural for their “Lucky Spring” collection, designed by the artist Alexandre Benjamin Navet. Spring and winter art installations have been installed biannually at the Van Cleef and Arpels Rodeo Drive storefront in the past, with commissioners expressing that shoppers look forward to the new designs and how they enliven the street. The Spring 2025 mural involves large, colorful, illustrated flowers with LED strips for nighttime illumination. The commission approved the installation with a condition for an encroachment permit from the Public Works Department, should any part of the installation encroach into the public right-of-way.

Another retail request was received from Wilson Sporting Goods. The request was for a facade renovation, a flag sign and a sign accommodation for multiple business identification signs for a new retail store at 328 N. Beverly Drive. The subject property was previously occupied by the brand AllSaints and has been split into two separate tenant spaces since. Wilson requests to occupy the southerly half, with minimal updates to the existing storefront. They plan to install an oversized tennis ball display inside a display case. Commission members asked some clarifying questions about the size and placement of the Wilson sign but overall expressed support for the playful and creative design. The commission approved the proposal with a condition that the applicant must clarify how the tennis ball display area will be demised to ensure it is contained within the Wilson tenant space.

A similar request was made by Pura Vida Miami, a new restaurant at 439 N. Beverly Drive. They requested approval for a facade renovation, a sign accommodation for multiple business identification signs, an outdoor seating area and landscaping. The commissioners discussed the lighting plan and had some suggestions for additional lighting but overall were supportive of the restaurant’s coastal, contemporary design. The project was conditionally approved, with the amendment to require an 8-foot vertical clearance for the projecting sign, as required by the city’s municipal code. 

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Beverly Hills’s current height limitations on mixed-use buildings range from three to five stories. The proposed development —called The Eastern — would exceed those limitations by between 29 and 31 stories. 

The developer hopes to trigger the state density bonus law with the project. To qualify under that law, new developments must designate a certain percentage of units for affordable housing. In this case, 22 of the 249 units will be earmarked for affordable housing. 

“State law is being invoked so that this application, as it is today, can move forward,” said Brian Lewis, a spokesperson for the project. “The state has said we have a housing crisis, and we need to be producing more housing and providing incentives to produce that housing. This is one of the laws that allows that to happen.”

Beverly Hills must plan for over 3,000 units of new housing by 2029, with more than half of those units designated for very low or low-income households. 

Mario Palumbo, the managing partner of Millenium Partners Los Angeles, told the Courier that developers have met with members of the city’s planning staff and individual city councilmembers, but details of how the project might move forward have not yet been ironed out. 

“We’ve just been informing them of our aspirations for the site and asking for their feedback,” he said. “One of the things we’ve heard time and time again is that, as noted in the Beverly Hills General Plan, this is exactly the site that Beverly Hills has contemplated having incremental height and density to support increased production of housing units. We’ve heard that time and time again. If not here, then where? Where is it appropriate for Beverly Hills to build housing?”

Palumbo emphasized the project’s location on the edges of the city and noted that developers chose the location in part because of its proximity to the planned stop on Metro’s Purple Line Extension. Given that location, commuters working in downtown and other surrounding areas, such as Culver City and West Hollywood, would have the option to take up residence in Beverly Hills. 

“We are big proponents of putting density near transit,” he said. “We can’t go on thinking that we can put single-family houses around transit stops and that that’s a sensible land use policy … allowing the Golden Triangle to maintain its current character by producing additional housing units at the edges of the city is really, I think, what makes the most sense for the city. It allows it to both generate the housing units that need to be generated, but also to maintain the special charm and feel and character of the center of Beverly Hills.” 

The post Developers File Application for 34-Story Building on Wilshire Blvd. appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Historically, the city of Beverly Hills did not allow synthetic turf to be installed in residential front yards. However, in 2015, the City Council was required to adopt an ordinance to allow synthetic turf in residential front yards as part of state-mandated drought-response efforts. During this time, a total of 42 permits for synthetic turf installations were issued, with 24 of these having been utilized by homeowners. Recent concerns about public health issues related to synthetic turf, including microplastic pollution and chemical runoff, led to the enactment of Senate Bill 676 last year. This reinstated local authority control to revise or prohibit the use of synthetic turf, with the Planning Commission deciding which changes to make in light of this new bill.

Vice Chair Jeff Wolfe proposed returning to a ban of synthetic turf. He said, “I would be in favor of going back to what the city wanted before the state intervened.”

All three fellow commissioners (Chair Terri Kaplan was absent for this meeting) agreed with Wolfe’s suggestion that the ordinance should be revised to no longer allow synthetic turf in front yards under any circumstances.

Commission members were, however, divided over whether to make a recommendation on grandfathering; in other words, holding existing artificial turf owners responsible for removing artificial turf they have already installed.

Commissioner Gary Ross emphasized the importance of not applying any retroactive changes to the ordinance. “I would not place any limits or prohibitions on existing turf that’s already in place, other than a continuing obligation for maintenance. I wouldn’t want to be punitive to people that already have [turf installed]. I just don’t think that’s fair,” Ross said.

However, Commissioner Lou Milkowski raised hesitations with this idea, stating that older variations of synthetic turf are more at risk of containing harmful chemicals that could get into the city’s water system. “We could possibly have some sort of remuneration, so it’s not as punitive for those that were trying to do a good thing for water conservation,” Milkowski said. 

Ultimately, the commission decided on a provision in the ordinance that allows existing turf to be grandfathered with a sunset clause. This means that existing artificial turf is allowed to remain in place, for a period of time yet to be determined by city staff following the outcome of research into how long synthetic turf should last before it needs to be replaced. 

The commission also discussed the construction of a new six-story, 24-unit mixed-use building at 8800 Burton Way, on the southwestern corner of Burton Way and North Robertson Boulevard. The project will provide three very low-income housing units, with the other 21 units priced at market rate as well as ground-floor commercial retail and 42 parking spaces. The project site is currently a one-story commercial building and surface parking lot that would be demolished. 

The project is requesting a density bonus permit to allow a 50% density bonus, including two concessions for additional height and an additional story. Based on the municipal code, the site is allowed a base density of 20 units and due to their provisions for very low-income housing are entitled to a 50% density bonus, or 10 additional units. However, the applicant has chosen instead to provide only four additional units. As a result, they are utilizing only 20% of the maximum 50% density bonus they are entitled to. 

Public comments were mixed, with some residents expressing concern over the potential increased traffic to the area and feeling that there is no need for further retail developments near Burton Way or Robertson Boulevard. Other residents supported the construction of the development, considering the positive impact the development would have on the area’s aesthetic appeal and the local economy. 

The proposed development will be located in the Mixed-Use Overlay Zone, which allows for the construction of projects with both residential and commercial uses in certain areas of the city. The Mixed-Use Overlay Zone is expected to provide the most significant opportunities for additional housing in Beverly Hills over the next eight years, according to the city’s 2021-2029 Housing Element. 

“As an advocate of the Mixed-Use Overlay Zone, I’m really pleased to see it being used because that’s what it was meant for, to take the commercial areas and make them into mixed-use so that we could have commercial, retail and apartments,” said  Commissioner Myra Demeter.

Wolfe asked about the stipulations for electric vehicle (EV) charging and whether the developers would consider extending current provisions. Since there will be four commercial parking spaces provided in the new development, the plan currently allocates two of these to be complete EV-ready charging spaces alongside an additional space that will have the electric capability to also be converted into an EV charging space later down the line. For the residential parking spaces, there will be 16 EV-ready spaces and an additional four with EV capability. The developers indicated a willingness to install more EV chargers or provide wider access to 220-volt outlets.

The architect for 8800 Burton Way, Farhad Ashofteh, informed the commission that the building is planning to provide solar panels to help provide the energy that will be used to charge EVs. “All of these things are benefits to the project and the developers would not do something that doesn’t accommodate the tenants. We want to make sure we have all of the facilities needed for good-quality living in this building,” Ashofteh said.  

“I think this is a great project. I compliment the applicant, their attorney and their architect for designing such a beautiful project that will activate and animate a corner that’s currently laying low, in a thoughtful way the city will enjoy numerous benefits from. And this certainly isn’t a project where the applicant has taken advantage,” Ross said. 

All commission members voted in favor of the project, with the added condition that the applicant agrees to provide 220-volt outlet sources within 15 feet of each residential parking space. 

As a result, the Planning Commission proposed a resolution to conditionally approve a development plan review and density bonus permit to allow for the construction of the building at 8800 Burton Way. 

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The Darrow Office Building, located at 9884 S. Santa Monica Blvd., was constructed in 1946 and is an exemplary model of Late Modern architecture, which is characterized by bold geometric shapes, exaggerated expressions of structure and industrial materials such as glass and concrete. This building is particularly notable for its long horizontal louvers—angular slats that let in light—stacked on the exterior walls. 

The plan to restore the building will preserve all of these key elements, while also adding a third story that will operate as an indoor-outdoor working space. 

“I really appreciate what you’re trying to do with the design,” said Commissioner Jeff Wolfe. “I’m really pleased to see what’s been done with the building in terms of restoring the brick and the louvers all the way down to the floor. I think it’s just a great project.”

The renovation was designed by renowned modern architect Hagy Belzberg and once complete will serve as office space for the Angeleno Group, an investment group that already owns the property. The owners have also initiated proceedings with the Cultural Heritage Commission for the property to be designated as a historic landmark.

Lautner is called “one of Southern California’s most significant twentieth-century architects” by the National Register of Historic Places and is known for his freeform, modernist, expressionist designs. In total, 113 of his structures were built over his 55-year career in Southern California and 64 of his residential buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lautner generally preferred to design residences to commercial structures, making the Darrow Office Building a rare gem. 

“He stopped doing commercial buildings, predominantly because he felt that there was no indoor-outdoor connection with the outdoor beautiful Southern California space and so the third story addition that Belzberg designed is a completely indoor-outdoor space,” said Jason Somers, President of Crest Real Estate, the consultant for the applicants. 

“I think it (the addition) would really be respected and appreciated by John Lautner,” he added.

Somers also offered these thoughts to the Courier about the project.

“It is a real honor to be presenting a project to the city of Beverly Hills which embodies such grand ambition as to painstakingly restore and improve upon an original design by the iconic John Lautner. The client, Yaniv Tepper of the Angeleno Group, made great efforts to allow a modern-day architectural master in Hagy Belzberg design in respect of Lautner’s well known ambitions for commercial buildings which was to make them more suitable for indoor outdoor enjoyment with a fully retractable glass wall system on the third story addition being proposed, This is a jewel box project to be admired in Beverly Hills for many generations to come.”

Belzberg was present at the meeting and said he purposefully designed the third- floor addition using different materials from the existing structure to mark a clear distinction between the historic and modern elements of the building.

“We really did try to isolate and celebrate the existing beauty of the historical elements and raise our third floor almost as if it’s a floating canopy,” said Belzberg. “We set back the glass, we set back the enclosure… we are trying to make it as delicate as possible while preserving the historical nature of Lautner’s brilliance.”

In order to ensure that the building could be preserved to the greatest extent possible, the property owners applied for a Historical Incentives Permit that would allow the restoration plan to have minor exceptions to the city’s current building code. 

This included a request to deviate from the minimum dimensions required for rubbish storage facilities and from the on-site vehicle loading space requirements, both of which were granted by the commission. 

While commission members were overall excited by the proposed restoration, concerns were raised about the impact on parking and on noise levels in the surrounding area.

The proposed restoration will result in reduction of on-site parking spaces from seven to two, in order to make room for a new rubbish storage room and vehicle loading area. 

Commissioners were worried about how this would affect street parking availability in the nearby residential neighborhood, but noted that they are unable to impose additional parking requirements on the project due to AB 2097.

That bill was passed in 2022 and prevents local agencies from imposing minimum parking requirements on certain residential and commercial properties that are located within a half mile of a major transit stop. This project is located within a half mile of two major bus routes as well as a future Metro Purple Line station, which is currently under construction.

The project is also located directly next to the Peninsula Beverly Hills. During the commission meeting, hotel representative Michael Tener objected to the project applicant’s request for deliveries prior to 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. due to noise concerns.  

Commissioners listened to these concerns and agreed, as a compromise, to establish a rule that no deliveries take place earlier than 7 a.m. or later than 10 p.m.

The post Restoration Approved for Historic Office Building  appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Measure ULA, which stands for United to House LA, imposes a new tax for the city of Los Angeles. The measure, also described as the “mansion tax,” imposes a 4% tax on property sales exceeding $5 million, and a 5.5% tax on properties that sell at $10 million or higher. This new tax adds to an existing 0.45 percent transfer tax on a sale of a property at these values. These taxes must be paid by the seller. The measure was approved by Los Angeles voters last November.

The tax applies not only to single-family homes but also to the sales of multi-unit and commercial buildings as well as vacant land. The purpose of the tax is to generate an estimated $600 million to $1.1 billion annually to create affordable housing and tenant assistance support managed by municipal officials to combat Los Angeles’ rising unhoused crisis, which has worsened since the pandemic and increased inflation.

However, Measure ULA could have an unforeseen ripple effect across an already challenging LA real estate market. The tax is meant to incentivize developers and generate funding to develop new housing; however, there are some concerns that some developers might not pursue projects, inadvertently thwarting expansion that could buoy an economy still in recovery.

Not surprisingly, sellers are offering unprecedented deals to expedite closing on properties by March 31, such as a luxury car included in the transaction. Once the measure goes into effect on April 1, there are several short and long-term ramifications.

First, this measure arrives during very challenging economic fluctuations. We’re seeing an erratic stock market, inflation, interest rate hikes, blockages in supply, demand, and shipping, as well as industries such as the once lucrative technology sector shedding jobs, all of which add to collective uncertainty. No one industry is siloed from the other during highs or lows–we are all interdependent and interconnected–and housing is often a barometer of overall economic health. Given the current sluggish housing market, Measure ULA will likely slow down inventory movement. Sellers will be hesitant to sell, and buyers will be too nervous to buy.

Second, the moods of sellers and buyers in this uncertain climate could create its own domino effect. Housing is a numbers business, but it is also remarkably emotional because we are not simply talking about homes or investments but hopes and dreams for the future. After April 1, we could see a market in which sellers may choose to raise their list prices by $1 million or more to offset the difference lost to this new tax. Or they will more strongly negotiate with an offer on the table if they don’t raise the original price they were thinking. It’s possible that homes valued at over $5 million won’t move at all creating a stalemate in this industry.

Third, the measure could potentially drive developers away in a city that faces a housing shortage. While reports claim that most of the expected revenue from this measure will come from commercial rather than private home transactions, have we considered how this will impact commercial properties? It’s possible multi-unit and commercial owners may raise their tenants’ rents to compensate for deficits, potentially squeezing tenants, whether individuals, families or small to mid-sized businesses, already under financial pressure.

My hope is there will be forward-thinking committee oversight with the revenue that results from Measure ULA. We all want to see homelessness thoughtfully addressed, and housing to be made accessible to all. That means those first few steps shortly after the passage of Measure ULA are mission critical because they could shape Los Angeles’ housing market and economic well-being for years to come. 

Marshall Peck has been a realtor in the Beverly Hills area since 2011. He joined Douglas Elliman in 2016, where he was ranked in their top five of all agents in California. As a realtor, Marshall represents celebrities including John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, and works out of Elliman’s West Coast headquarters located on El Camino Drive in Beverly Hills. A resident of Beverly Hills for 13 years, Peck currently serves as a Commissioner on the Beverly Hills Design Review Commission.

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The Warner Estate, named for its first and principal occupant, Warner Bros. co-founder and film impresario Jack L. Warner, currently consists of a two-story residence, a two-story guest house, a two story gym and staff house, a pool house, a swimming pool and a tennis court. The recently approved permits allow for construction of a new pool house, a retaining wall, and the conversion of a crawl space to a powder room.

“I was absolutely astonished by the beauty of this project and the property, and I know it will be maintained in a fashion that it deserves to be maintained,” said Commissioner Peter Ostroff .

Warner first developed the property at 1801 Angelo Drive in 1927. Nearly 10 years later, his second wife Ann Page tore down the original Spanish Colonial Revival manse Warner had built and commissioned a twostory Neoclassical structure with elements of Regency Revival Style from Beverly Hills Master Architect Roland E. Coate, Sr., who also designed All Saints Episcopal Church on Camden Drive.

The massive 9.7-acre property sits along the western border of the city on the north side of Angelo Drive, west of Benedict Canyon Drive. Warner started with just 3 acres in 1927, piecing together surrounding land over the years–a trend seemingly continued by Bezos, who purchased an adjacent property in July 2021 for $10 million.

Warner died in 1978 and Ann continued to live there until her own death in 1990. That same year, music mogul David Geffen purchased the home for $47.5 million, a record at the time, and then embarked on an extensive series of renovations and major alterations to the estate. Bezos, the latest power player to call 1801 Angelo home, shelled over a whopping $165 million to Geffen in 2020, setting a watermark for highest real estate transaction in California at the time.

The property has come before the Planning Commission for permits twice before in 1995 and 2014 seeking to go beyond the 15,000 square feet allowed by-right in the city. It currently has a floor area of nearly 29,000 square feet. A 1985 survey identified the Warner Estate as a potential historic resource, subjecting it to protections by the state for the purpose of preserving historic buildings.

The permits mark the first proposed changes to the property since Bezos moved in.  

Despite the large-scale changes made by Geffin, a report on the property determined that it “retains sufficient integrity to convey its historic association with Jack L. Warner, and the main residence retains sufficient integrity to convey its historic Neoclassical style architecture deigned by master architect Roland E. Coate.”

In his book “The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills,” real estate agent Jeff Hyland opined about the residence, “No studio czar’s residence, before or since, has ever surpassed in size, grandeur, or sheer glamour the Jack Warner Estate on Angelo Drive in Benedict Canyon.”

The commission declined to allow construction parking along Angelo Drive, citing the ample space for parking on the property itself.

The commission next voted to recommend the City Council adopt the Safety Element, a state-mandated document that lays out plans and goals to keep the city and its residents safe in case of disaster. The Safety Element is a chapter of the city’s General Plan and is updated following updates to the city’s Housing Element. The city’s current Safety Element was adopted in 2010.

“As required by state law, this document has been updated to include information on topics such as climate change and hazards such as urban fires, floods and landslides,” said Associate City Planner Chloe Chen.

The Safety Element will next appear before the City Council for adoption at a later date. 

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A statement posted by the firm on social media Thursday said, “We are devastated to announce the passing of our Co-Founder and President, Jeff Hyland, on Wednesday, February 16th.”

The same statement contained a message from lifelong partner Lori Hyland:

“As some of you may have known, Jeff has been privately battling cancer for the last year. I am thankful to all of you for sharing your wishes and prayers during Jeff’s illness. Your support and kindness have touched me deeply and I know you mourn with me now.”

Hilton & Hyland Co-Founder and Chairman Rick Hilton also paid tribute to his partner in the statement. 

“Thirty years ago, Jeff and I started on this journey. Throughout, a great partnership and a deep friendship were forged, and Hilton & Hyland emerged as a force in the industry.

“Jeff was a legend.  His knowledge about real estate and architecture was unparalleled.”

Born in the Little Holmby area of West L.A., Hyland’s career included stints at Coldwell Banker and Mike Silverman and Associates. He was a founding partner of the firm Alvarez, Hyland and Young before founding Hilton & Hyland with Hilton in 1993. The firm bills itself as the top producing single office brokerage in the world. 

Hyland’s own listings on properties such as The Manor and Chartwell made headlines for record-breaking sales ($119.75 and $150 million, respectively). He also distinguished himself as an architectural historian and published author on the subject of the great estates of Beverly Hills. 

Linda May, Estates Director of Linda May Properties at Hilton & Hyland, described Hyland as one of her dearest friends and colleagues for almost 40 years. 

“He created the top luxury real estate brokerage in our city and was so highly admired for his knowledge and passion for real estate. He was the author of ‘The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills,’ which is the ‘bible’ of trophy properties in our city. His community leadership in the City of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles was outstanding.  He was part of the great evolution of professionalism in our industry. Jeff was loved by all and will be greatly missed,” said May. 

Hyland was known and admired as a mentor whose protégés went on to find fame in television reality shows or in launching high-profile firms of their own. 

“Jeff Hyland was the Godfather of Beverly Hills real estate. He’s a legend and a pillar in the Real Estate industry. The entire community is going to miss his encyclopedic mind, knowledge of each and every home, who lived there, the architecture, style and what the actual homes and estates embodied.

“I don’t know a single person in the industry that was as active and involved in the politics, building, zoning and safety. He truly cared about the city. Jeff Hyland was a mentor to so many and a father figure to even more. It’s a very sad and tremendous loss to our community,” said Rayni Williams, CEO and agent, The Beverly Hills Estates.

Scores of social media posts lauded Hyland as a legend, a gentleman and a true class act. 

Beverly Hills Vice Mayor Lili Bosse was the first to post a tribute in response to the announcement of Hyland’s death. 

“Jeff was an incredible human being,” wrote Bosse. “So kind, giving, a true visionary and beloved by our community. He was a true friend of Beverly Hills and a true, supportive, loving friend to me. I am forever grateful to him for being the man of integrity and love he was. I will carry him with me with so much love and gratitude in my heart always.” 

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The city’s total office market vacancy rate was 16.8% for April, May, and June of 2021, almost double the 9.1% it was a year earlier, according to a report from commercial real estate analysts Costar provided by the city. Commercial rents are down 15% in the Business Triangle, Prime Properties Real Estate President Sep Melamed estimates, and the eviction moratorium has allowed many small businesses to go over a year without paying any rent. 

But a number of city policies, coupled with the enduring allure of the Beverly Hills brand, has meant that demand for available commercial spaces is starting to outweigh supply. Promisingly, the Business Triangle expects to be fully occupied by the end of 2021, according to Houman Mahboubi, Jones Lang LaSalle Los Angeles Executive Vice President. 

Mahboubi appeared more optimistic than wary when he gave a report at the Aug. 19 Property Owners Task Force Committee meeting, which was attended by Beverly Hills City Council Liaisons Julian Gold and Lester Friedman. Mahboubi even argued that in some respects, commercial real estate is in a better position than it was pre-pandemic, especially on North Beverly Drive, where half of the vacancies have been filled.

“The activity has been at an all-time high in terms of inquiries, surveys, interest and deals getting done,” he said, citing the presence of a number of new brands and restaurants like Maple & Ash steakhouse, Guess, and salad chain Sweetgreen. By all accounts, the Golden Triangle is living up to its name.

“Generally speaking, if you look at each area of the Triangle, whether it’s Rodeo Drive, which by the end of this year will have no vacancies, or Brighton Way, which is making a return, Little Santa Monica, South Beverly Drive, Wilshire – there’s so much activity on so many levels, whether it’s lifestyle, fashion brands, fitness, restaurants, food, a lot of service, wellness and art galleries have made a huge comeback,” Mahboubi said, claiming that Beverly Hills is “by the far the most in-demand on many levels.” 

“Some of the major brands have seen exponential increases, and that has resulted in their corporate offices seeking spaces – much bigger spaces,” said Kathy Gohari, president of the Rodeo Drive Committee, noting the proliferation of creative pop-ups she has seen in the Triangle. “They’re spending money any way they can on the street with activations, with any kind of extra activity that could promote more business that they’re already getting. Certain businesses who are not as lucky with extra business are still coming up with different marketing – they’re contacting us to help them come up with new ideas.” 

For this surprising turnaround, Mahboubi credits OpenBH, a city program allowing businesses to expand into the public areas without paying Special Event Permit fees that has been extended until the end of 2021. He also praised the 2020 Mixed Use Ordinance, an amendment to the city’s General Plan that allows for mixed residential and commercial development in designated zones. 

“Everyone is so excited about developments, expansion, and really being open to creative and innovative new ideas,” he said. “The city has outlined mixed use, the Purple Line is coming forth, One Beverly Hills, there is so much happening. Also on Wilshire a lot of mixed-used projects are moving forward, including more office space that’s being built … it’s a very comprehensive, healthy situation.”

Dar Mahboubi, owner of the House of Bijan and developer of the Rodeo Collection, also credited the city’s tougher stances on crime and homelessness. “The relative success of our city in terms of not having too much visible homelessness, camps and sidewalk benches and parks getting occupied by homeless people, which prospective tenants, especially the Europeans I’ve been talking to, seem to value that aspect of Beverly Hills,” he said. 

The situation is a bit less golden outside the Triangle, especially for office space, according to Prime Properties President Sep Melamed. “We were having the activity pick up, but with the Delta variant, it’s slowed a lot of activity in the city,” he said. “A lot of businesses still have 25 to 50% of their workforce still working from home. Usually June, July, and August tend to be the slowest leasing months, but it was picking up March, April, May, but it slowed down again.” 

According to CoStar, office rents in Beverly Hills Q2 are averaging $5.69 per square foot, down from $5.87 in Q2 of 2020, and $5.74 in Q2 of 2019. Melamed told the Courier that office rates in the Triangle are averaging $4.50 to $6 per square foot, and $3-4 outside the Triangle. 

Melamed said that sales are inching up again and expects a better fall season, but it would be premature to make any definite pronouncements before the end of Quarter 3, especially given the Delta variant. “Retail is rebounding, but on the office side people are a little bit more careful,” he told the Courier, noting that many firms are considering permanently downsizing in favor of expanded telecommuting options.

 While Mahboubi said that Beverly Hills was outperforming its neighbors in terms of retail and restaurant space, Melamed said that most of the new office space is being leased in Century City skyscrapers. “Century City has seen enormous increases in rents, mainly because they have large blocks of spaces, and a lot of the financial companies and law firms are expanding at a very large rate,” he said. “A lot of tenants would love to be in Beverly Hills, but our biggest challenge is that there’s not a lot of large, contiguous space with great views. There’s a lot of great buildings, and as Houman brought up, there’s a couple new developments on Wilshire that are really helping.” 

Melamed said that the fastest growing office space in the city are high-end medical offices, which he credits to a November 2020 urgency ordinance that removed several major restrictions to opening medical space, with the idea of filling vacancies with newly-critical medical expertise. The ordinance, which is set to expire in October unless the Council votes to renew it, has resulted in 16 requests to convert existing office space into medical space, according to a city staff report. Six have been completed, resulting in 9,860 square feet of new medical floor area, while 10 requests, totaling 34,600 square feet, are still pending. 

Prior to the ordinance, medical offices constituted 20% of the city’s commercial building spaces, and the ordinance has led to a roughly 3% increase, according to the staff report. According to Melamed, medical rates average $5.50 per square foot outside the Triangle and $7 per square foot within the Triangle. 

To remain competitive, many landlords have used vacancies to renovate, according to Melamed. Sam Hakim, president at S2 Squared Properties, suggested expanding the newly-passed Rooftop Dining Ordinance beyond the Business Triangle, and investing in South Beverly Drive as a potential new commercial hub. Councilmember Lester Friedman noted that after over 30 years, he is moving his law practices from the Triangle to South Beverly Drive.

In light of OpenBH parklet taking up parking spaces, Hakim also advocated the city investing in valet services. 

“In the past you had some valet assist stations throughout the city. Another option is, can the city subsidize maybe in a tax form with landlords to offer valet to the public to help people get into these businesses that are now open,” Hakim asked. 

Todd Johnson, President and CEO of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, also endorsed the medical rule modifications and the possibility of easing parking restrictions. “The Chamber is excited about all the leasing activity in Beverly Hills which is a strong sign that our economy is doing well and that Beverly Hills continues to be a big draw for new companies,” Johnson “Johnson told the Courier in an email. “The Chamber appreciates the actions taken by the City during the pandemic to support businesses and continuing its current work, including evaluating lower parking requirements, modifying medical office rules and attracting new businesses.”

Gohari recommended landlords keep their vacant storefronts as clean as possible, and put signs in the windows to advertise upcoming businesses, just like new tenant Ferrari has done. Meanwhile, the Next Beverly Hills Committee has teamed up with the Arts & Culture and Human Relations Commissions on the Visions of the Future project, which is enlisting local artists to create pop-up installations on vacant storefront windows downtown. 

Without that, people may get the impression things are worse than they really are, Gohari said. “The tourists, the people who are walking down the street, they have no idea what our plans are for the future,” she said, pointing to a picture of a sign from Ferrari saying “We are working on something special for you.”

 “They just see empty lots, and they see some spaces where there’s leftover furniture and dust bunnies.” 

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Now that nomination proceedings can begin, Director of Community Development Ryan Gohlich will complete a preliminary evaluation by July 28. The Cultural Heritage Commission will meet before Aug. 27 to conduct a preliminary hearing on whether to make a formal recommendation to the City Council, who will then make the final decision whether to place the home on the list. 

If accepted, the property will be the first home in Trousdale Estates to join a venerable list of 43 properties that include Beverly Hills City Hall, the Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Greystone Mansion, and Beverly Gardens Park.

“I can’t say enough about how much I feel this house needs to be on our Registry of Historic Places, so I would like to move forward with the nomination proceedings – I’m totally on board with this in all aspects of the house: the architect, the meaning behind Paul Trousdale picking this specific place to put his house, the landscaping, everything meets the criteria for me,” Commissioner Jill Collins said during a short deliberation.

The three-bedroom, seven-bathroom property was designed in 1959 by John Elgin Woolf, an architect included on the City of Beverly Hills List of Master Architects. Woolf typified the mid-century decor of the Hollywood Golden Age known as “Hollywood Regency”– defined by bold colors, shapes, metals, and glasses– and designed the homes of a veritable who’s-who of 1950s and 60s Hollywood A-listers. Two other Woolf properties – the Vance residence at 805 Hillcrest Road and the Pendleton-Evans Resident at 1033 Woodland Drive – are already designated as city landmarks.

Woolf designed 1010 Hillcrest Road for real estate developer Paul W. Trousdale, known for purchasing the undeveloped hillside land that now constitutes the eponymous Trousdale Estates from Lucy Smith Doheny Battson, daughter-in-law of Edward Doheny, for $400,000 (approximately $4 million in today’s money) in 1955. Trousdale converted the former Doheny Ranch into an estimated 544 single-family residential lots over 14 subdivided tracts. According to a city staff report, this became one of the last major land additions to Beverly Hills. Trousdale chose the lot he believed had the best views and lived there with his wife Jean for 30 years until his death in 1990.

To qualify for the Registry, a building must meet several criteria listed in the 2012 Beverly Hills Historic Preservation Ordinance. Criteria are split into Section A, and Section B. A building must fulfill all the criteria in Section A and at least one criterion from Section B to be considered. Upon preliminary assessment, staff have determined that 1010 Hillcrest Road could qualify because it fulfills all the A criteria: It is at least 45 years old; “possesses a high artistic or aesthetic value and embodies the distinctive characteristics of an architectural style”; “retains substantial integrity from its period of significance” and has “continued historic value to the community.” 

It may fulfill a criterion in Section B – an “exceptional work by a Master Architect,” because the property has appeared in a spread in Architectural Digest and the book “Trousdale Estates: Midcentury to Modern in Beverly Hills” by Stephen Price. It could also be considered “an exceptional property that was owned and occupied by a person of great local prominence,” especially since Trousdale built over 25,000 homes in Southern California.

Cultural Heritage Commission Chair Craig Corman recommended 1010 Hillcrest Road for nomination because the property is currently listed by Hilton & Hyland for $23.5 million (it was listed in July 2020 for $32 million, according to the Los Angeles Times), and he worried that a new owner would tear it down. “This is the kind of property that attracts people who redevelop,” Corman told the Courier. “Given the parameters of the property, we were concerned someone might want to buy it and eliminate the potential historic resource…if someone wants to buy it, we decided to take the bull by the horns.” 

According to Corman, the Commission nominated one of Woolf’s other properties, the Pendleton-Evans residence on 1033 Woodland Drive, for similar reasons.

If the nomination is successful, certain renovations can still take place, despite the common perception that historical homes suddenly become untouchable. Homeowners of designated landmarks are allowed to conduct “ordinary maintenance and repair” that would not normally require a permit without any sort of permission. If homeowners wish to conduct any new construction or remodeling, they must apply for a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Department of Community Development. The Department will grant a Certificate of Appropriateness if it determines that the work “does not involve a change of design, material, appearance, or visibility of the character defining features of a designated landmark or property within a historic district.” (Beverly Hills does not have any historic districts, according to Corman.) 

If the Certificate of Appropriateness is denied, homeowners may apply to the Commission for a “Certificate of Economic Hardship” arguing that it must alter the property in order to avoid “undue economic hardship.” 

The Commission rarely initiates nomination proceedings on its own: recommendations usually come from the owners. In the case of 1010 Hillcrest Road, it is unclear whether the property’s current owner is aware of the nomination process, though Gohlich told the Commission that he left a voicemail for the property’s listing agents, and the Courier is awaiting their email reply.

If the Community Development Department makes a final determination that the home fulfills one of the criteria in Section B, the nomination process can proceed without the owner’s approval, as long as the owner receives all pertinent documents. If the nomination process is able to proceed and be approved, the home will still be subject to all historic building regulations, regardless of owner feedback.

Still, the Commission tries to involve property owners as much as possible, Corman told the Courier, and is willing to do a lot to accommodate their wishes. The Commission has never designated a building without the owner’s cooperation, Corman said.  

“We didn’t necessarily need the participation of the owner to designate, but we always prefer to have the owner’s participation,” he said, pointing to negotiations made to buy a neighboring building during the designation process of the former Kate Mantilini diner building on Wilshire. “And that’s a good example of yes, we’re willing to have discussions. If the owner is willing to go forward, if they get some concessions in other areas, we listen and try to accommodate them.” 

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The Council then turned to the project’s draft development agreement.

A development agreement functions as a contract between the city and the developer–in this case, Oasis West Realty and Cain International. The agreement assures the developer that the city will not change pertinent regulations during the term of the agreement and will grant certain entitlements that would otherwise conflict with the city’s codes (excessive height, for instance). In return, the city can extract certain demands from the developer as concessions.  

The marquee item of the draft development agreement, negotiated by an ad hoc team of city staff, council members, and attorneys, is a $100 million public benefit fee. The unprecedented sum would absolve the development from the responsibility of providing affordable housing, as is required by the city’s Interim Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. 

As stated in the draft agreement, “Developer’s Public Benefit Contribution under this Agreement fully satisfies any and all affordable housing fees, or exactions, that are applicable to the Project during the Term.”

The project would also apply a 5% municipal surcharge (essentially a higher Transient Occupancy Tax) to the new Wilshire Building luxury hotel rooms and, in 2030, to the Beverly Hilton starting. Along with that, the project would pay EMS fees to the city, which help the city recoup the revenue lost by allowing residential developments on commercial sites. In the development agreement, the city would receive 2% on first time sales and then 3% on subsequent sales. These would generate revenues for Beverly Hills “in perpetuity” after their implementation, according to Director of Community Development Ryan Gohlich. 

City staff who helped negotiate the agreement, along with City Council liaisons Vice Mayor Lili Bosse and Councilmember Lester Friedman, characterized the agreement as historic in the benefits afforded to the city.  

Bob Baradaran, an attorney who served as special counsel to the city for the project, described the package of public benefits as “the most lucrative and richest direct public benefit package in favor of any city in the state of California and probably the country.”

But Councilmember John Mirisch raised concerns about the arrangement. Despite the nine-figure public benefit fee, the EMS fees, and the municipal surcharge, Mirisch argued that the development would not be paying its fair share to the city, especially in terms of affordable housing. He pointed to higher EMS fees in comparable cities like London, Paris, New York, and San Francisco ranging from 5.95% to 15% and suggested that the project could shoulder higher fees for the purpose of affordable housing. 

Mayor Robert Wunderlich revealed a late-breaking change to the project’s southern access. In an earlier meeting, the Mayor had expressed concern that the design forced anyone coming from Santa Monica Boulevard to enter the gardens through a courtyard elevator located inside the property, which Wunderlich suggested might not be “particularly welcoming.” But on Thursday, Wunderlich announced a pending change that would allow the public to enter from Santa Monica Boulevard via an elevator and ramp immediately accessible to pedestrians. 

The Council was unable to complete the approval process at the May 27 meeting and agreed to meet again on June 1 at 2:30 p.m.

The Beverly Hills City Council has moved forward with public hearings on the historic proposed One Beverly Hills project, a luxury hotel and condominium development that would reshape the city’s western Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard gateways. In extensive questioning, the Council asked the development team about accessibility to the project’s vaunted public gardens, management of the gardens, and concerns over a timeshare-style fractional ownership offering. The Council also discussed a controversial move by lawyers for the project’s developer to pressure a local couple into withdrawing a public comment in advance of the meeting. 

If approved, One Beverly Hills would be one of the largest developments in Beverly Hills’ history.  

“When opportunity is presented, you have to seize it. You have to know when the moment is here,” said Oasis West Realty CEO Beny Alagem, who is developing the project alongside Cain International. “We finally have the opportunity to do something remarkable, to bring a new level of architecture to our great city, to build exquisite gateways on both Wilshire in Santa Monica that announce the vibrancy and excellence of the city of Beverly Hills, to plant magnificent botanical gardens, to move the Beverly Hilton into the future, to ensure it remains the center of our community life, and to infuse a new level of energy and excitement in Beverly Hills.”

The design of the seven major buildings and the project’s extensive 8-acre garden received universal praise from the Council. Mayor Robert Wunderlich, however, flagged concerns over the accessibility of the 4.5-acre public garden from Santa Monica Boulevard. As the designs stand now, people coming to the gardens by way of Santa Monica would have to either travel through the development, walk through Merv Griffin Way, or walk around to Wilshire Boulevard. 

“Would it be possible to have an attractive outdoor escalator [or] an attractive outdoor elevator that might be more immediately apparent to someone showing up on foot?” Wunderlich queried. 

One Beverly Hills President Ted Kahan responded that the current design provides ample signage directing visitors taking Santa Monica to the gardens through a courtyard elevator. 

Wunderlich also criticized the project for what he viewed as a “car-centric” approach. Kahan was unequivocal in his response: “There is no project in Beverly Hills that’s given more attention to multimodality than this project. Zero, ever.”

The Council also puzzled over a fractional ownership program proposed by the development called the Private Residence Club, which would make 37 fully furnished residential units available to owners for 30-day increments. According to the applicant, interested parties could purchase one-twelfth of a unit, with the option to buy more time if desired. As became clear through the council members’ questions, owners would not own a specific unit, nor would they have the option to decorate or personalize the unit. Rather, they would request specific dates to stay in whichever similar unit were available. 

Councilmember Lester Friedman raised some concerns with the program, “which is a new concept in the city of Beverly Hills.” He asked how it differed from a timeshare.

“This is not a resort timeshare product,” Kahan said, pointing out that the value of the asset could appreciate and would require payment of property taxes. “This is an ownership product.”

While Kahan assured Friedman that the Private Residence Club would not participate in “the large national exchange programs” that allows owners in one area to swap units with owners in another, he later clarified that the program would allow exchanges “on a very limited basis.”

The applicant advocated that such arrangements generate more revenue for the city and local businesses.

As 4.5 acres of the project would function as a public park, the Council expressed interest in how the public’s stake in the park would be preserved and how the city could exert oversight. The current plans indicate that the gardens would be managed by a non-profit conservancy. Celebrated local landscape architect Mark Rios, who designed the gardens, likened the arrangement to Central Park in New York City and Millennium Park in Chicago (though both parks are owned by their respective cities). 

Gold said that he had seen nonprofits deviate from their mission in the past. “I would ask that as a condition of it, that the city has some significant ability to, for lack of a better word, control what this conservancy does,” he said.

George Mihlstein, an attorney representing One Beverly Hills, offered to “work with staff, perhaps on the concept that each year the 501(c)3 will present a work plan and budget for the year and subject to review by the city and comment by the city.”

The One Beverly Hills team seemed to reverse a previous commitment that “the Botanical Gardens will never be closed for private events at the hotel,” as Kahan said at the April 8 Planning Commission hearing. “Actually, I think we agreed on a condition the other day with staff that would allow the conservancy to have…six events per year,” Kahan said in response to a question from Bosse. 

The Public Comment

When members of the public tuned into the May 25 City Council Special Meeting on the proposed development, they heard comments from dozens of residents–over one hour in which residents praised the project as an environmentally sustainable masterpiece, condemned the project for its height and scale, and questioned the timing of the hearing during a pandemic.

In a move that drew reproach from certain members of the City Council, lawyers representing Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and One Beverly Hills developer Beny Alagem pressured longtime residents Andrea and Rick Grossman to retract a comment they submitted to the Council, alleging that it contained defamatory statements. 

The issue came to light in a lengthy letter submitted to the City Council by Planning Commission Chair Peter Ostroff, who wrote to the Council in his personal capacity. 

“This conduct is troublesome because it is apparently intended to inhibit by intimidation public participation regarding the project,” Ostroff wrote.

Ironically, the Grossmans’ comment nonetheless wound up in the public record through Ostroff’s letter, which reprised the comment in full. The comment referenced a Wall Street Journal article about a lawsuit by the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel alleging, among other things, that a former Peninsula employee gave proprietary client information to the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. 

On May 23–two days after emailing their comment to the members of the Council–the Grossmans received an email requesting the couple to “immediately inform” the Mayor and City Council that they retract the statement and their request to have it read into the record. The letter accused them of engaging “in defamation that appears specifically designed to cause significant harm to Mr. Alagem personally and to the proposed development of the multi-billion One Beverly Hills project in Beverly Hills.” 

Councilmember John Mirisch viewed the maneuver as a subversion of the democratic process. He called to investigate the matter and look into how the city could stand behind residents in similar situations. 

City Attorney Laurence Wiener stated the law clearly protected the Grossmans in this case. “Anyone can be sued for anything,” Weiner said, but California law protects people from claims of defamation by legislative privilege, “which is the ability to address whatever matter is before the City Council on official business.” 

Other council members voiced concern of their own over the actions, with Councilmember Lester Friedman, himself an attorney, saying this might be a case of an “overzealous” attorney. Or, as Councilmember Julian Gold, M.D., put it, “lawyers gone wild.” 

Vice Mayor Lili Bosse echoed calls to look into how the city could protect residents in these cases, though she repeatedly stressed that “we obviously don’t know the full story.” 

Wunderlich described the letter as “heavy handed and could serve to stifle public comment” given the power and resource disparity between the multi-billion-dollar project and a resident.

At the end of the night’s questions, Mirisch pressed Kahan on whether the development’s lawyers would cease sending similar letters to residents in response to comments in the future. After a tense back and forth,Kahan gave a single word answer: “Yes.”

By press time, the City Council had convened for a May 27 meeting in which they are scheduled to present their comments about the project. 

The post One Beverly Hills Project Moves Forward in City Council appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

As the city’s land use agency, the Commission makes recommendations to the City Council about whether or not to grant requested entitlements for developments. At its April 22 meeting, the Commission recommended certification of the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIR), adoption of the General Plan Amendment, and adoption of the Overlay Specific Plan, the comprehensive document that regulates land uses, development standards, and operational standards for the plan area. 

As for the draft development agreement, the report to the City Council reads as follows: 

“The Planning Commission is unable to recommend whether or not the development agreement is consistent with the general plan, because the commissioners hold the differing views regarding consistency with the general plan and were unable to reach a consensus.”

A development agreement functions as a contract between the city and the developer–in this case, Alagem Capital Group and Cain International. The agreement assures the developer that the city will not change pertinent regulations during the term of the agreement. In return, the city can extract certain demands from the developer as conditions of the agreement. 

The draft development agreement presented to the commission was largely similar to a development agreement approved for a 2017 project at 9900 Wilshire Blvd., which is now part of the current One Beverly Hills site. That project, proposed by Chinese real estate and media conglomerate Wanda Group, fell through before Alagem and Cain snapped up the property.

One of the largest new terms in the development agreement stipulates that the developer will pay a $100 million public benefit fee to the city’s General Fund over the course of eight years. For comparison, Wanda Group agreed to a $60 million upfront public benefit fee in 2016–an eye-watering sum at the time.

“As far as the general plan, I don’t see any conflict with the development agreement and the general plan. I think it’s a wonderful project, as I’ve stated, and it’s a wonderful benefit for the city–not only the project, but the finances involved as well,” said Commissioner Andy Licht.

Not everyone agreed with Licht’s assessment, though. Chair Peter Ostroff did not mince words in offering his opinion on the agreement, which he said the Commission only received on Monday evening.

“It does provide extraordinary benefits to the applicant, not the least of which is allowing two towers that are more than six times as high as the 60-foot maximum for high density multifamily residential units in the city and at least twice as high as anything else in the city,” Ostroff said. “But when it comes to the benefits for the city, I am very, very disappointed.”

One condition of his approval, Ostroff said, was that the developer would have to either construct or arrange for construction of affordable housing “at least at the minimum level of 10 percent of the 340 proposed dwelling units, which is what is required by the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance for everybody else.”

While he acknowledged that the $100 million fee is a considerable amount, Ostroff said the city would not see even $60 million until August 2027 given how the payments are spaced out. Ostroff said that he looked at the figure with former City Treasurer Eliot Finkel to determine its present value and calculated the actual worth at between a high of $81 million and a “more realistic number” of $58 million. “So, $100 million is not $100 million. It’s a lot less than that,” he said. 

The most contentious element of the draft agreement was that the $100 million public benefit fee relieved the development of its affordable housing contribution.

Commissioner Myra Demeter worried that a lump sum contribution to the city would not actually find its way to affordable housing.

“I also understand the City Council’s need for flexibility and determining the way they use [the public benefit fee], but we do have also a mandate to produce affordable housing in the next eight years, and we have to make sure that that money, partially, is used for that purpose,” Demeter said.

Ostroff broke down his objection by asking what the developer would make by not having any affordable housing. At the 10 percent level required in the city, that would equal 35 units of affordable housing. “They would receive $184 million more if all 340 units were market rate than it would receive if it had to provide 35 affordable units,” he said. Ostroff pointed out that the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance offers an exemption for smaller developments between five to nine units, which can pay an exemption fee of $105 per square foot rather than provide affordable housing. Even if the exemption applied to larger developments over nine units, Ostroff said that One Beverly Hills would have to pay around $107 million for affordable housing alone.

Ostroff said that these figures made a “powerful point,” namely, “that every person, any developer, however small, who wants to build a multi-family project in our city of more than four units must make provision for inclusion of affordable units, except for the developer of the biggest project in the city’s history. Everybody else has to deal with affordable housing, but this developer doesn’t under the draft development agreement that exists, and this seems to me to be more than a bit unfair.”

According to Ostroff, current City Treasurer Howard Fischer described the agreement as “a very poor deal” and “lousy.”

Given these issues, Ostroff said that he could not find the draft agreement in compliance with the city’s General Plan and he urged the Commission to vote to ask the negotiators to return to the table to rework the agreement. 

Although Vice Chair Lori Greene Gordon also found the agreement lacking in terms of affordable housing, her objections differed slightly from Ostroff and Demeter. She found the dollar amount acceptable but felt that the public benefit fee should be earmarked for specific purposes. “I’m going to ask the developer to build [the affordable housing], but I’m asking for this money going to the city to be earmarked for it and the city can use city-owned land and bring in a developer that is experienced in this area to develop this kind of housing,” she said.

Defending the project, President of the One Beverly Hills Project Ted Kahan pointed to a five percent municipal surcharge that would apply to new Wilshire Building luxury hotel rooms and expand to the Beverly Hilton starting in 2030–essentially a higher Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT). Additionally, the city’s own economic study of the project calculated that the project would generate $2.5 billion in taxes and fees for the city. “It is an extraordinary amount and an extraordinary contribution from a single project, and I dare to say three times what the Wanda project was proposing to contribute to the city,” Kahan said. 

Even without a recommendation by the Planning Commission, the question of approval now falls to the City Council. The City Council will have a series of special meetings on the project on May 20, May 25, May 27, all at 7 p.m. The development agreement will specifically be addressed in the May 27 meeting.  

The post Planning Commission Punts on One Beverly Hills appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

At the previous meeting, the team managing the project and the project’s owners made a presentation to the Commission, highlighting the benefits they say One Beverly Hills will bring to the community. Beny Alagem, CEO of Alagem Capital Group which is developing the project along with Cain International, pointed to his stewardship of his other two luxury hotel holdings, the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria. 

“We delivered with the Waldorf Astoria everything we promised and more. The financial return exceeded the city’s estimates,” Alagem told the Commission. He promised that One Beverly Hills would “perform on [an] exponentially higher level,” generating revenue for city services and schools and creating new jobs. “One Beverly Hills will be the catalyst that will help revive the city economy and support it in the future.”

At nearly 2 million square feet with a $2 billion price tag, the proposed development includes 340 residential units and 42 luxury hotel rooms spread out between seven major structures. It would also demolish and update portions of the Beverly Hilton, including the conference center, the Palm/Oasis Court Building, the parking lot on Merv Griffin Way, the hotel’s vehicle entry, and the Aqua Star Pool. 

The project’s biggest selling point for both prospective residents, future guests, and the city is the 12.7 acres of open space, featuring 8 contiguous acres of gardens, about half of which would be publicly accessible. The plans boast two miles of walking paths dotted with art and water features. The project achieves this by creating a land bridge over Merv Griffin Way in order to connect the Hilton parcel with the Robinsons-May tract. The garden, made up of 40 species of trees and 250 plants, will be managed by a non-profit conservancy–an arrangement that also grants the development tax benefits. 

The Planning Commission is in the midst of a series of public meetings for One Beverly Hills, at the end of which they will make recommendations to the City Council regarding the project. Final approval for the project rests with the Council. At the previous meeting on April 8, the Commission instructed staff to draft a resolution of support for the Final Supplemental EIR. 

At the April 8 meeting, the commissioners went through a list of questions regarding the project’s Overlay Specific Plan, the comprehensive document that regulates land uses, development standards, and operational standards for the plan area. While the project managers did not have time to respond, the staff report for the April 19 meeting included answers to each of the commissioners’ questions from the One Beverly Hills Team.

Even with 50 pages of meticulous answers to their earlier questions, the Commissioners continued to pepper the project team with follow-ups on April 19. Commissioners expressed concerns about access to One Beverly Hills from South Beverly Hills. “For people who live in the south, there’s no way to get to the gardens without making a very, very long route around Santa Monica Boulevard and Wilshire and then either backtracking, or going up to Wilshire,” said Commissioner Myra Demeter, herself a resident of South Beverly Hills.

Demeter floated the ideas of constructing a bridge or a tunnel to connect the south with the development at a more convenient junction. The issue, according to Ted Kahn, President of the One Beverly Hills Project, is that the property adjacent to the project is privately owned, making it impossible to create a more accessible entry point. In response, Demeter suggested creating an easement on the property to allow for a crossway mid-block. 

The Commission grappled with a proposed fractional ownership program detailed in the plan. The so-called Residence Club would make 37 fully furnished units available to owners for 30-day increments. The Specific Plan notes that “Residence Club units generate more spending than traditional condos” owing to the high-net-worth occupants and high turnover. 

Commissioner Demeter felt that the program would undermine a sense of community among residents. “I’m not sure how you develop a sense of community if there are multiple owners coming and going for a property,” she said at the April 8 meeting.

Planning Commission Chair Peter Ostroff said that he felt the plans did not provide enough detail for a program that the city had never approved. He recommended removing the program from the Specific Plan until the project team could give more specifics. 

“I’m not comfortable with the notion of, ‘This is really a good thing, there’s other cities doing it, so we should do it, too,'” Ostroff said. “We don’t know what the ‘it’ is, and we don’t know what all of the unforeseen issues might be.”

At the end of the 3-hour meeting, Ostroff flagged one last condition buried in the Specific Plan that would prohibit developers from hiring employees with felony records. “Is that a good thing to have? That seems kind of unfair,” Ostroff said. 

Director of Community Development Ryan Gohlich explained that the provision is standard in the city and came about because of One Beverly Hills’ proximity to El Rodeo Elementary School. Ostroff opined that the rule felt “somewhat arbitrary,” and could unfairly penalize those who had already served their time. Vice Chair Lori Greene Gordon and Commissioner Andy Licht agreed that the Commission should throw out the stipulation.

“If somebody had a felony conviction when they were 18 and now they’re 48 and they’re turning their lives around, it just seemed somewhat unfair,” Ostroff said.  

The post Planning Commission Holds Second Special Meeting on One Beverly Hills Project appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

One Beverly Hills is one of two marquee projects before the Planning Commission this year, along with the Cheval Blanc Beverly Hills by French conglomerate LVMH. The proposal combines three sites: the Beverly Hilton Hotel and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, the former Robinsons-May department store, and the Union 76 Gas Station. The project is managed by Cain International and Alagem Capital Group, which owns the parcels.

All the president’s men came out for the meeting, including lead architect Pritzker Prize-winning London-based Sir Norman Foster. He highlighted the project’s crowning ambition, its 8 acres of gardens, citing Olmsted and Vaux’s New York Central Park as “one of my personal inspirations.”

“This as a project looks back to history when it was originally a nursery that provided the trees, but it’s rooted in the present. But in terms of sustainability, its pedestrian and bicycle-friendly approach is very much rooted in the future,” Sir Foster said, referencing the tract’s past as a nursery in the early 1920s.  

Alagem Capital Group CEO Beny Alagem predicted that the project would one day be recognized as one of the wonders of the world. “It is a vision that will serve the city well for generations,” he said. “The Botanical Garden, with [its] beauty, tranquility and, just as importantly, sustainability, will be the hallmark of Beverly Hills.”

At nearly 2 million square feet with a $2 billion price tag, the proposed development includes seven major structures. The plans list a 32-story, 141-unit residential building along Santa Monica Boulevard; north of that, a 28-story, 141-unit residential building referred to as the Garden Residences. On the Wilshire side of the lot, utilizing the gas station parcel, the development would have an 11-story mixed use building with 37 residential units and 42 hotel rooms.

The project would also make some changes to the Beverly Hilton. While the Beverly Hilton Wilshire Tower would remain, the plans call for the demolition of the conference center facilities along Wilshire, the Palm/Oasis Court building, the parking lot on Merv Griffin Way, and the hotel’s vehicle entry. Most significantly, the development would bulldoze the Aqua Star Pool, the hotel’s iconic watering hole for the well-known and well-heeled.  

In their place, One Beverly Hills would have a new conference center with a publicly accessible restaurant and a so-called Enhancement Structure, a four-story structure with restaurants, retail, and 36 hotel rooms. The project would construct a new 1,865-vehicle underground parking structure.

But perhaps the most ambitious feature of One Beverly Hills is the 12.7 acres of open space, which includes 8 contiguous acres of gardens, more than half of which would be publicly accessible. The plans boast two miles of walking paths with art features and water features. The project achieves this by creating a land bridge over Merv Griffin Way in order to connect the Hilton parcel with the Robinsons-May tract. 

The garden design is overseen by celebrated local landscape architect Mark Rios. “It’s a lifetime opportunity for us to bring a world class sustainable botanical garden to Beverly Hills,” Rios said. The garden will include 13 gardens of flora primarily native to California. “There are 40 different tree types, with many large heritage trees…[and] 250 different plant types to create these overall 13 immersive gardens.”

The entire project features a heavy emphasis on sustainability. Rios said that the garden will rely entirely on recycled water produced on-site. The gardens will be managed by a nonprofit organization composed of “residents, botanists, educators, community members and leaders from the city.”

One Beverly Hills will offer two hours free public parking and promises to never close the park for private events at the hotel.  

But as President of the One Beverly Hills Project Ted Kahn explained to the Commission, the proposal came with a compromise. “The trade off is height,” he said. “To accomplish our goals, including maintaining the approved square footage, the option was to increase the height of the buildings. But remember what you get in return: more openness, more gardens, more blue space.”

While the city has previously approved other developments on the Robinsons-May site and the Hilton property, it has never approved a unified project on both sites with the addition of the gas station lot. The city has already certified Environmental Impact Reports for the earlier proposals, in addition to approving Specific Plans and various entitlements.

As such, the EIR for the new project only needed to examine the new elements of the proposal–hence, the “supplemental” of Supplemental EIR. The Planning Commission instructed staff to prepare a resolution to recommend that the City Council accept the Final Supplemental EIR. Once the resolution is drafted by staff and voted on by the commissioners, the Commission will move on to make findings on the One Beverly Hills Overlay Specific Plan.

The public used the opportunity to comment on the Specific Plan for the first time, mostly expressing hearty support for the project.

“As a tax paying business owner, I believe that these types of developments are ones that make Beverly Hills an attractive destination, that provide public benefits like the proposed Botanical Gardens [and] upscale areas to entertain, TOT revenue to pay for more police, fire…[and] for the schools, and essential in attracting the kind of residents in Beverly Hills that, frankly, are important to my business and making a living,” said Alan Kay.

Todd Johnson, President and CEO of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, similarly gave the project a ringing endorsement. “We are here to 100 percent support this project. We’ll be there to help out in any way we can, and look forward to you folks making a positive answer on this so this project can get going.”

Some commenters raised issues around affordable housing. For Alan Block, while he gave the project his total support, he added that he thought “there must be an affordable housing condition probably related to this project, but I don’t think it necessarily has to be on site”–a sentiment echoed by Commission Chair Peter Ostroff.

“I think there should be a specific commitment to develop some number of affordable units,” Ostroff said, also agreeing that the units need not be on site.

The Commission will hold two more public meetings to consider the other elements of the project on April 19 and April 22. Both will be held via teleconference at 7 p.m. Comments can be made through email at commentPC@beverlyhill.org. Emails must identify the Agenda Item Number or topic in the subject line and be sent eight days before the hearing. Comments can also be made by calling (310) 285-1020 or via video at https://www.gotomeet.me/BevPublic.

The post First Public Hearing Held for One Beverly Hills Specific Plan appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The new venture was born of lessons learned during the COVID-19 lockdown, not to mention the Williamses’ own stellar track record. 

In the past 15 years (first with Nourmand & Associates and then with Hilton & Hyland), the couple has broken sales records, amassed a celebrity clientele, gained coast-to-coast recognition and become household first names in luxury real estate sales. Now, with The Beverly Hills Estates, they’re exploring new territory. The Courier recently met the couple in their new offices ahead of an official ribbon cutting set for April 12. 

The Beverly Hills Estates is not actually in Beverly Hills, but next door, on the westernmost edge of the Sunset Strip. Mere city boundaries are no impediment to the Williamses’ vision, though. Their tag line is “Estate of Mind.” And Beverly Hills-ness permeates the business, both in ethos and physical design. The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, in fact, is a direct inspiration. 

Branden related a seminal event that took place at the Pink Palace 15 years ago. “Rayni and I had just met. We were just starting out. We were at the hotel and we saw a man there looking at listings. We had no idea who he was. He told us he was from France, and very disappointed that his offer on a home here had just been rejected,” he said. 

The two, somewhat boldly, convinced the gentleman to let them show him another home. “He bought it on the spot,” said Branden of the $5.5 million dollar home. “It turns out he was Johnny Hallyday, the Elvis of France.”

That initial stroke of luck as rookie agents led to years of successful client meetings at the hotel. The new office space, said Branden, “represents a combination of our own style meets the Polo Lounge meets the Beverly Hills Hotel pool area. That’s how we came up with this, and we’re super excited about it. We always wondered why there was no Beverly Hills Estates. So that was the inspiration.” 

The inspiration even extends to the logo for The Beverly Hills Estates, which features a cheery script reminiscent of the Beverly Hills Hotel’s emerald-green signage. The exterior of the new offices at 8878 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood is painted a similar shade. Inside the two-story, 7,000 square-foot-expanse, a suite of offices on the ground level resembles pool cabanas, with pink flamingos dotting the wallpaper. There’s a white player piano, a taxidermy peacock and other homages to the storied hotel. 

Branden gestures outside, to the front of the building.

“We also love Sunset Boulevard because we have 500,000 cars driving by. This used to be the Aahs store, which was always memorable. Whisky a-Go-Go is right over there. This building was photographed by Ed Ruscha (the renowned pop artist whose iconic book of photos captured a 2.5-mile long stretch of the Strip). It’s the 50-yard line for us. Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, the Sunset Strip, the Bird Streets,” he said.

In addition to the individual “cabana” offices, the ground floor of The Beverly Hills Estates offices includes an oversized, serpentine-shaped divan upholstered in crushed green velvet. Against one wall, separated by a customized gold room divider, sits an imposing stone bar, which will offer coffees, fresh juices and croissants to club members. The club/work area also includes several pink-upholstered booths curved around stone tabletops. 

“I wanted a really creative space. I wanted music in the background. [It was David Bowie during our visit.] Agents can come here and feel at home, grab something from the barista, use one of the cabanas, use the conference room. Deals happen when you share information. That’s truly what this space is. We want to have more fun. We want an interactive vibe,” said Branden.

The Williamses have carefully curated every aspect of the design and materials used in the office. Surfaces incorporate purple onyx, jadeite, as well as citrine, which symbolizes real estate abundance and wealth. Also prominent are oversized crystal geodes in the rooms, which Rayni selected for their healing properties. 

If the ground floor of The Beverly Hills Estates is reminiscent of the iconic hotel, the downstairs space features what Branden describes as a “Sunset rock-n-roll vibe.” The offices house IT and marketing staff. Branden is especially proud of the 25-person conference room with wallpaper featuring the Miami-palm-trees-at-sunset look from the office in “Scarface.” On the wall, a neon sign conveys the movie’s slogan, “The world is yours.”

Of course, the world was already theirs. The Williamses have been superstars at Hilton & Hyland for the past decade. In 2019, they closed more than $726 million in sales. So entrenched are they in the upper echelon of the luxury real estate market that many insiders wondered why they would take on the challenges of their own business. (In addition to the Williamses, the company has 15 other sales agents, with broker Greg La Plant as head of operations.) 

“It was just time for us to leave the nest and spread our wings and fly and create our own vibes. They understood,” said Branden, of Hilton & Hyland. “We gave them ten incredible years, and I think we really enhanced the company. We are extremely appreciative for everything that we learned from our mentors,” he added. 

Rayni elaborated on that sentiment. 

“Branden and I have entrepreneurial thinking. For many years, we stayed with our previous firm because of relationships. We had deep love and appreciation for them. But, in the back of our minds, we always knew that we had to have our own company. That’s just who we are,” she said. 

She added that the pandemic was a turning point. 

“When the lockdown first happened a year ago, I sat at my dining room table and looked at Branden. I said, ‘We’ve never sat still our whole lives.’ We’ve never not wanted to work. We love it. We were deciding at that pivotal moment, ‘Do we go with the standard brokerage house, which is a big commercial space, where everyone has a glass cubicle? Do we plop our model into it? Or do we take away the lessons that we know we are about to live and learn? And though we didn’t think that we would be on lockdown for a year, we did know that the world was changing. We knew the world would go back, but it will never go back the same. We’re doing things this way because our heart was telling us that the world needed change,” she said. 

The clubhouse environment relates to the way people are working now, noted Rayni. 

“We’re finding that people are thriving more by working from home sometimes. They may be only going to the office a couple times a week in order to lessen the footprint on the environment and lessen the stress of having to sit in a commercial space cubicle. During COVID, we realized more than ever that people and interaction are the number one things that makes us thrive.”

The couple believe that the private club concept (membership is $2,400 per year) fills a need in the industry.

“COVID taught us to take it back to the basics. In 15 years in this business, we’ve learned that it is a ‘people person’ business. But real estate can be very cutthroat and unfriendly. There is no room for a warm, meet-and-greet kind of environment. It does not exist. We wanted to bring together a concierge-type feeling. Williams & Williams Estates has been established for 15 years and has everything from upholsterers to builders, architects and designers in its Rolodex. Anything our clients need we provide for them. We wanted to invite those lifestyle-type people to have this private membership club and interact and mingle with the brokerage community,” said Rayni. 

Artists and writers have had their salons through the ages. This salon for the real estate profession will similarly inspire creativity, as the Williamses envision it.  

“When you come in through this door, you’re bringing your trade. And when you leave, you also take away something. You may have met somebody who happens to be visiting from Monaco. That’s really what’s it’s about. It’s about human interaction, which COVID taught us that we all need to have,” said Rayni.

The couple’s goal is to have five satellite offices: Los Feliz, the Westside, Malibu, the Valley. “We’re at an age where we’re ready to have our own business. But we’re also ready to bring in all that we’ve dreamed of and wished of a workplace. We’re ready to have a good time,” said Branden. 

“We’re not recruiting. We’re letting it grow organically. There is nobody doing this,” added Rayni. “We’re building something, and if you’re aligned with it and it speaks to you, then come talk to us. If you don’t get it, we can’t explain it to you.” 

One thing Rayni can explain is her belief that the future is bright, both for the industry and for themselves. 

“It’s always hard to make market predictions, however if you look back 10 years and you look back 20 years, you get a good idea of the cyclical market that is real estate,” she said. 

“There are a few things that we know, namely, that the home has become the most important asset we can have. Secondly, that we are inevitably facing inflation. Therefore, tangible assets are the best investments we can have. The wonderful thing about real estate that makes it different from any other tangible asset is that you can live in it. It can always become income property, if you need it to be, by simply renting it. And of course, one thing we all need is a place to live.”

Rayni added, “I predict 2021 will be our biggest year yet.” 

The post Beverly Hills Estates of Mind appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The Commission also discussed a possible ordinance to enable greater construction of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) in order to meet the city’s RHNA requirements. The hearing comes as the Commission draws closer to presenting a Draft Housing Element, which it estimates will take place in April or May of this year.

The subject of ADUs drew considerable interest from the commissioners. “I don’t think this is going to solve our RHNA numbers,” said Commissioner Myra Demeter about ADUs. “But I think that, generally, many, many people are interested. They have elderly parents, they have kids coming back from college.”

Every eight years, cities and jurisdictions around the state draft a new Housing Element, a part of the General Plan which considers the housing needs of the community and anticipates how that need will change. With the housing cycle currently underway, localities are preparing their Housing Elements for approval by the State.

The core component of the Housing Element is the RHNA, an evaluation of the number of units needed in the next eight years and the land use plans and regulations necessary to accommodate them.

The State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) first determines the housing needs in each region of California by examining population data. The agency also considers economic and demographic trends, overcrowding, and overpayment of rents and mortgages. The number that HCD calculates gets passed to a local regional planning agency–the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), in the case of Beverly Hills–that looks at more local data and distributes the total among its jurisdictions.

In 2019, as cities across California grappled with soaring rents and a homelessness crisis, HCD announced an ambitious goal of about 3.5 million new units over the new Housing Elements cycle. Southern California’s share of the load came out to 1.3 million units. For Beverly Hills: 3,096 units. In comparison, in the last housing cycle, Beverly Hills’ allotment was only three.

Although city staff advised that RHNA appeals were rarely granted, the City Council nonetheless instructed staff to file an appeal to SCAG requesting a reduction to 1,486 units. In total, 52 other jurisdictions in Southern California also filed RHNA appeals. On Jan. 13, SCAG held a public hearing for the appeals, rejecting all but two, including that of Beverly Hills. However, as a result of the two partially successful appeals by Riverside County and the City of Pico Rivera, SCAG had to redistribute the units subtracted from their allotments. This increased Beverly Hill’s RHNA number by eight.

While the city is required to plan for a certain level of growth and take efforts to facilitate it, the RHNA is “not a development mandate,” the staff report notes. Jurisdictions must ensure that bureaucratic hurdles like zoning and planning do not obstruct development, but they do not need to build housing or issue permits themselves. But, if the state determines that a jurisdiction has not done enough to foster development, it can withhold certification of its General Plan. This results in loss of certain state funds, more frequent updates to the city’s Housing Element, and loss of control over housing project decisions.

Cities face similar penalties for not meeting their RHNA obligations. Jurisdictions will have to implement a streamlined review process to approve housing development projects.

At the March 11 meeting, commissioners heard the results of an online survey conducted as a part of its public outreach for the Housing Element process. The survey received responses from 81 people by March 2, the majority of whom live or work in the city. Most respondents have lived in Beverly Hills for 21 years or more, own their home, with an age range of 56 to 74 years old. Though a small sample, the staff report compiled for the hearing claims that “the results have provided insight into the various perspectives of community members regarding how or in what ways the city should accommodate future housing needs in Beverly Hills.”

Among the results, 70 percent of respondents answered that they were “very satisfied with their housing situation.” People who replied to the survey listed maintaining a diverse housing market and maintaining the character of existing neighborhoods as “very important.”

Lower down on the list of priorities, respondents indicated as their least important concerns: “ensuring that children who grow up in Beverly Hills can afford to live in Beverly Hills, providing shelters and transitional housing and services for the homeless, integrating affordable housing to create mixed-income neighborhoods, and establishing programs to help at-risk homeowners keep their homes.”

Most people who participated in the survey expressed support for greater density in mixed-use zones and multi-family residential zones, taking advantage of the future metro stations. Staff expect to release a second online survey by the end of March.

In addition to mixed-use zoning, the city hopes to meet its RHNA goals by incentivizing the construction of ADUs, additional structures that share a lot with a primary structure (like a guest house, for instance). Given the lack of vacant land in Beverly Hills, ADUs take advantage of the city’s large number of single-family residences. For HCD to count future ADUs toward the city’s RHNA requirement, the agency will evaluate ADU permitting trends and the extent to which city regulations encourage ADU development.

“I think that if we can at least meet or exceed the state standards, we will be demonstrating good faith to HCD in our efforts to accommodate to the overriding purpose of the Rena allocation,” said Commissioner Thomas Hudnut.

As the staff report notes, a scant nine ADUs were permitted in the city in 2020. At that rate, the city would barely scratch two percent of its RHNA allocation. But the city’s current ADU regulations adopted in 2017 have already become outdated. The staff report suggested updating the ADU ordinance and adding additional incentives to boost RHNA credit.  

Some recommended incentives include increasing the maximum height from 16 feet (which prevents two-story ADUs) to 22 feet and two stories in the Central Area, and 18 feet and two stories in the Hillside Area. Staff also recommended streamlining the review process and reducing the parking requirements. 

The post Planning Commission Examines Housing Solutions appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“Adaptive reuse is really something that we all strive to do when we’re looking at these…historically significant buildings,” said Commissioner Myra Demeter at the Feb. 25 hearing.

The cubic structure at 9111 Wilshire, located just west of Doheny Drive and east of the Golden Triangle, was built in stages over the decades. The one-story tower base and mezzanine were constructed in 1958 as the main branch for Gibraltar Savings and Loan. This was followed a year later with the cantilevered office tower atop the base, or Banking Hall. Both were designed by the architectural firm of William Pereira and Charles Luckman, both of whom Beverly Hills includes on its List of Master Architects. Ten years later, in 1968, Beverly Hills National Bank built a one-story structure designed by Beverly Hills Master Architect Maxwell Starkman.

In 1985, Beverly Hills National Bank shut its doors for good. Gibraltar Savings and Loan closed in 1989. The bank that bought Gibraltar, Security Pacific Corporation, continued to operate out of 9111 Wilshire for a number of years. As for National Bank, actor Harry Lewis and his wife Marilyn bought up its former headquarters and transformed it into the restaurant Kate Mantilini, named after an L.A. boxing promoter from the ’40s and ’50s. The idiosyncratic architectural firm Morphosis redesigned the bank into a postmodern, refined take on the American diner–a long counter with a view of the kitchen, intimate booths recessed into the interior facade, simultaneously cloistered and wide open. The restaurant became a Beverly Hills institution until rising rent pushed it out in 2014. The former Gibraltar Savings branch and shuttered Kate Mantilini restaurant have sat vacant since then.

In 2016, the Planning Commission granted historical status to 9111 Wilshire. That same year, the property was acquired by Charles Company, owned by developers Mark and Arman Gabay, and later transferred to Oakshire, LLC (Oakshire). The latter entity applied to the Planning Commission in 2019 to restore and revitalize 9111 Wilshire.

Oakshire proposal sought to turn the former banking and office space into a 154-room hotel boutique hotel and bring a restaurant back to the former Kate Mantilini location. The mezzanine within the Gibraltar Banking Hall would say goodbye to bank tellers and hello to masseuse tables with the introduction of a spa and fitness area. On the third floor, the “Gibraltar Square Hotel and Restaurant” would have a 2,300 square foot café and restaurant. Right outside, on the rooftop of the Banking Hall, Oakshire would place a pool deck with cabanas.

The application also requested approval of a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for modified vehicle loading spaces and use of an off-site parking garage. Oakshire also sought approval of a Historic Incentive Permit (HIP) to allow use of a hotel that directly abuts a residential zone.

The Planning Commission approved the application in January 2020, but work has yet to commence. In order to prevent the permits from expiring, Oakshire returned to the Planning Commission for an extension on Feb. 25.

A representative for Oakshire explained to the Planning Commission that COVID-19 had caused the delay in construction. “It goes without saying the COVID pandemic has impacted all sectors of the economy, most notably the hospitality industry. And needless to say, our plans to start construction have been delayed as a result,” said Jack Kurchian, who called in to the meeting and identified himself as a representative. While Oakshire had begun interior demolition and environmental remediation, Kurchian said that they “are looking forward to commencing construction later this year.”

The permit renewal drew only one public comment from Jonah Breslau, speaking on behalf of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and Unite Here Local 11, Hospitality Workers Union. Breslau argued that, while the city’s regulatory framework had not changed since the permits were first approved, the economic conditions in the city had as a result of COVID-19. “COVID has reshaped our working lives and made residents and families spend more time at home. This increases the privacy and other challenges of a hotel operating on a site next a residential area,” Breslau said.

In response, Kurchian pointed out that the project would not be completed for at least two years.

Chair Peter Ostroff asked the applicant about whether they had given any thought to utilizing the mixed-use ordinance, which the city passed after the Planning Commission first approved the project. “We have considered that. The challenge is that we believe that for housing, you require outdoor balconies, which require modifications to the exterior of the building, which our landmark designation prohibits.”

Community Development Department Director Ryan Gohlich pointed out that the city requires 200 square feet of open spaces per residential unit in a building. “That open space can either be provided as private open space directly attached to the unit or it can also be provided as common open space,” he said, giving the example of rooftops open to residents. Additionally, the Planning Commission has the authority to deviate from requirements in cases of adaptive reuse of office buildings.

Ostroff also suggested that the one-year provision in the permitting process is “unrealistic” and “insufficient for a project like this to break ground.” Gohlich offered that the next time the Commission performs “code cleanup,” they revisit the time frame of the permits.

“It is quite challenging nowadays with various codes that have to be complied with, to where somebody is able to actually start physical construction within one year of approval,” Gohlich said. 

The post Planning Commission Renews Permits for 9111 Wilshire appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Nominees are selected on several criteria, including: exemplifying a particular way of life that helped to strengthen the economy of the city; fostering public appreciation and civic pride for the character and quality of the city; possessing artistic or aesthetic values and unique characteristics of an architectural style, type, period or method of construction; association with community members businesses, institutions or events that are important to the cultural heritage of the city; possessing a unique location with singular, physical characteristics; or having educational value to the city and the community at large. 

The first three recipients of Golden Shield recognition plaques include the site of the Dona Maria Rita Valdez de Villa Homestead, located at Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive; the original location of Lawry’s Restaurant on North La Cienega Boulevard; and the original Giorgio Beverly Hills Boutique, the first luxury boutique on Rodeo Drive.

The fourth Golden Shield went to Nate ‘N Al’s Delicatessen, situated within Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle on 414 North Beverly Drive. First opened in 1945, it is the third oldest Jewish deli in the Los Angeles area, following Greenblatt’s in Hollywood (1926), and Canter’s in the Fairfax District (established 1931). “The deli expanded over many years and was a popular gathering place for local residents and luminaries in the entertainment industry,” Mark Odell, the city’s Urban Designer, said at the March 2 meeting. “The delicatessen also represents the rise of the Jewish population in Los Angeles in the 1940’s and rapidly became a gathering place for the Jewish community.” The Deli has served as a longstanding neighborhood hub, regarded as an iconic Beverly Hills institution. 

The fifth Golden Shield nomination went to the Gearys Beverly Hills flagship boutique located on North Beverly Drive. Gearys first opened its doors in 1930 at 357 North Beverly Drive in a Spanish Colonial Revival style structure designed by architect Harry E. Werner. H.L. Geary founded the shop and operated as a small neighborhood specialty store formerly called the H.L. Geary Art & Gift Shop, offering picture framing services, art supplies, fine dinnerware and tableware, as well as unique gifts for the home. By the late 1930’s, the store had been rebranded as Gearys, and expanded into the building next door, at 351 North Beverly Drive, where it is still located today. The plaque would be placed on the sidewalk of the entry to Gearys. 

The sixth Golden Shield went to the former George and Ira Gershwin Residence at 1019 North Roxbury Drive. The home was built in 1928 in the Spanish Colonial revival architectural style by architect Don Uhl. “The home was built for silent movie picture star, Monte Blue, and later rented to composer and lyricist brothers, George and Ira Gershwin,” Odell said. “While living in the north Roxbury drive house, the Gershwin’s wrote many iconic American songs. The house was later occupied by famous singer Rosemary Clooney in 1953 until her passing.” While the home was demolished in 2005 and a new residence was built on the site, the Gershwin Residence is thought by city officials to be worthy of honor as a culturally significant site where significant achievements were made in American musical history.

“I love, love, love this program,” Councilmember Lili Bosse said. “I think the Golden Shield program is just magnificent. The three that we’re looking at today are very exciting because I see them as icons and truly like the heart and soul of our community. And really why we love our city is for reasons like Gearys Beverly Hills, you know, a family business, beloved, who’s been in our community for over 70 years.”

Bosse added: “I think this is very exciting, and I wholeheartedly support it and I thank the Cultural Heritage Commission for such a fantastic vision, and I am very thrilled to support it.”

To learn more about the Cultural Heritage Commission, visit http://www.beverlyhills.org/departments/communitydevelopment/planning/commissions/culturalheritagecommission/. 

The next Cultural Heritage Commission meeting is scheduled for April 14. 

The post Three Beverly Hills Locations Recognized with Golden Shield appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

In response to the mounting pressure on renters by the economic toll of COVID-19, the City Council approved the creation of a rent subsidy program at its Sept. 15 Regular Meeting. Though initially vested with $715,000, the Council expanded the program to $1.1 million in December. The program applied to tenants living on multi-family properties that fall under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO), prioritizing seniors and households with children enrolled in Beverly Hills Unified School District. The program offered eligible residents up to $1,000 for three months to make up the remaining balance of unpaid rent. The funds went directly to the landlord under the condition that the landlord grant the tenant a year to repay back rent. In return, participating landlords will also have to agree not to evict tenants for a year. The program is administered by Jewish Family Services (JFS), a non-profit that offers a range of services throughout L.A. 

The Council received the first comprehensive update on March 2 since the application period closed on Dec. 7. Potentially an indication of the economic pain radiating through Beverly Hills, the city received more than double the expected number of applications for assistance. While the city anticipated about 200, according to Deputy Director of Rent Stabilization Helen Morales, it fielded a total of 520. 

Morales broke down the status of the applications. Of the 520, staff were able to reject 40 out of hand because the tenant either lived in a non-RSO unit, the tenant received the Los Angeles County Rent Relief Program subsidy, or the tenant’s monthly rent ran higher than $4,000. Of the 480 remaining, JFS has made final determinations of 91, raising concerns about the speed of the process. Then, of those reviewed, only 21 were deemed eligible for the assistance. 

“When I see that our denial rate was 77 percent and our approval rate was 23 percent, that really is devastating in terms of percentages,” said Councilmember Lili Bosse. 

Morales defended the numbers, saying that even though many applicants truly believed themselves financially harmed by COVID-19, other forms of government assistance had sometimes made up for or exceeded lost wages. “When we were doing a comparison of what their current income was post- and pre-COVID, there was no change, and in some cases, they earned more with receiving [unemployment insurance] payments than they did before COVID-19.”

Beyond that, Morales identified three impediments to a higher approval rate: applicants’ lack of documentation showing a financial impact as a result of COVID-19; landlords’ refusal to sign documentation, including a statement saying they would not evict a tenant for failing to pay back rent; and difficulty coordinating with the County to avoid granting money to a resident already receiving money from the County.

Morales explained that many landlords believe that by refusing the subsidy, they can evict a tenant as soon as the crisis ends, possibly renting the units at market rate. As City Attorney Laurence Weiner explained, California’s recently enacted SB 91 makes it considerably harder for landlords to evict tenants for unpaid rent over the course of the pandemic, thus incentivizing landlords to cooperate with assistance programs. Morales said after explaining this to some landlords, they have reversed their positions. The holdouts, she said, have tended to be corporate landlords.

Council members expressed frustration at the refusal of some landlords to participate in the program. Councilmember Bosse suggested that the City Attorney draft a letter explaining the rules regarding eviction to landlords. Going further, Councilmember John Mirisch suggested exploring a measure that would disincentivize evicting tenants in these cases. Mayor Lester Friedman agreed, saying, “We do need to look at it and see if there is something that we can craft that would take away that incentive from the landlord.”

As a silver lining, Morales said the city has only spent $288,000 of $1.1 million allocated to the fund, leaving open the possibility of another round of applications. “I do think that because our eligible candidates are less, we will have additional funds available and we can open up another period and request additional applications at that time,” she said. 

Also at the March 2 Study Session, the Council voiced unanimous support to move forward with a Neighborhood Slow Streets Program. The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the relationship between residents and their immediate surroundings. As a result of stay-at-home orders and remote working, many people spend more time at home and in their neighborhoods when they would otherwise be at work or school. In response to this paradigm shift, cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Pasadena have implemented Slow Streets Programs, reducing traffic volume and creating a safer environment for residents to walk, bike and exercise safely.

“I am extremely supportive of this,” said Councilmember Bosse. “It encourages less traffic, encourages more walkability, encourages people to be outside, [and] it does not stop people who live on the street to have access to their homes.” 

Bosse, whose “Walk With the Mayor” initiative during her stint as mayor promoted active lifestyles in the city, went as far to suggest the program could be extended after the pandemic.

The program only applies to local residential street blocks with a 25 mile per hour speed limit. It does not extend to collector or arterial roads. The block must be sponsored by a resident and reviewed by staff from the Public Works, Police and Fire Departments. Then, the sponsor must receive support from at least 51 percent of block residents.

Successfully completing this process would result in placement of signage with barricades and traffic cones at both ends of the street. The exact form of the barricade and signage would depend on the width available, City Engineer Daren Grilley told the Council. Generally, though, Grilley said the city would place an a-frame barricade in the street, “Most likely near the right shoulder, so that it wouldn’t impact traffic, but it would be clearly visible to anybody coming into that neighborhood.” 

Grilley admitted that apart from the signage, the program lacks teeth. “It’s aspirational, it’s not enforceable,” he said, though he pointed to positive early data from other participating cities.

Councilmember Julian Gold expressed concern that if too many blocks seized on the program, it could hurt traffic in the city. Most other council members seemed unworried about that prospect and instead waxed nostalgic about their childhoods playing safely in the street. While Grilley clarified that some team sports could potentially violate COVID-19 public safety measures, kids (or adults) could throw a football–or even, as Gold offered from his own childhood, stickball. 

“I think that would be fantastic if people started doing that,” said Grilley.

Finally, the Council unanimously voted to make changes to the city municipal code and overhaul the city’s process of procuring contracts for goods and services at the Regular Session. As a part of the overhaul, the Council updated the city’s tiered system of delegating purchases. Currently, the city has four “approval levels” for granting con- tracts and making purchases. At existing levels, the City Council approves bids over $50,000, a significantly lower threshold than in cities like Burbank, Mountain View, or Santa Monica. The City Manager approves bids up to $50,000, the Director of Finance oversees bids up to $25,000, and department heads approve bids up to $7,500. 

This tiered system is meant to delegate tasks, freeing up the City Council to consider the largest contracts. However, approval levels have not been changed since 2006 and the staff report compiled for the Study Session notes that the “relatively low current City Council threshold results in additional agenda items for many routine contracts or purchases, requiring significant staff and City Council time.”

Now, the city increased its approval levels for the City Council to over $100,000, up to $100,000 for the City Manager, up to $50,000 for the Director of Finance, and up to $10,000 for department heads. The Council also expressed support for reviewing the changes again in three to five years.

“It shouldn’t have taken 15 years,” said Councilmember Mirisch. 

The post City Council Considers Rent Subsidy appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“I do want to emphasize that it is confusing. This is a very confusing time. And none of us have been through a time where we’ve seen legislation rolled out so quickly,” said Deputy Director of Rent Stabilization Helen Morales. “That’s why it’s important that you get legal advice.” 

As a part of its own COVID-19 relief efforts, Beverly Hills offers free legal services to eligible residents through Bet Tzedek. During the forum, representatives from Bet Tzedek explained to the more than 100 participants the different levels of protection available to tenants now. 

Bet Tzedek went through the local, state, and national protections currently in place to assist tenants impacted by COVID-19. None of the protections guarantee that a landlord cannot evict a tenant. For instance, landlords can still make “just cause” evictions. But for tenants experiencing hardship due to COVID-19, protections and assistance exist. 

Even prior to the pandemic, the Beverly Hills Rent Stabilization Office gave protections to the city’s renters, including a rent cap on eligible rentals, just cause eviction requirements, and relocation fees for eligible units. 

In response to COVID-19, Beverly Hills passed an urgency ordinance on March 15, 2020 that imposed a moratorium on residential evictions of those impacted by COVID-19. The ordinance lays out the process by which tenants can assert a lawful inability to pay some or all of their rent.

Jonathan Alvarez, a paralegal with Bet Tzedek, elaborated on what constitutes a financial impact from COVID-19 under the urgency ordinance. Financial impacts can stem from being sick with COVID-19 or caring for someone in your household with the virus; loss of employment, decrease in work hours, or reduced income; compliance with stay-at-home orders; or out-of-pocket medical expenses related to COVID-19.

Alvarez also explained what someone must do in order to assert financial impact. A tenant must notify their landlord of financial hardship due to the pandemic within seven days after the date rent is due. Within 30 days, they must complete the “Residential Tenants Impacted by COVID-19” form along with supporting documentation. Additionally, the tenant must provide the amount of rent they can pay in lieu of the full amount. 

In response to a question, Alvarez clarified that tenants only need to submit the COVID-19 form once to their landlord and once to the city. He advised, though, that tenants should keep proof of having sent the forms in. One question that Alvarez said comes up frequently is whether or not landlords have to confirm receipt of the COVID-19 form. “There’s no language that the landlord is required to confirm it,” he said.

Alvarez provided examples of documentation that renters can use to prove a financial impact. He listed a letter from an employer, a profit and loss statement, and a bank statement showing reduced income.

If a landlord disputes a tenant’s claim of financial impact, the issue can go to the Rent Stabilization Commission for adjudication. Landlords can contest three different parts of the tenant’s claim: whether the tenant has suffered financial hardship, whether that hardship stems from COVID-19, and the amount of rent the tenant claims they can pay.

The presentation also covered the protections established by the state. Most recently, California extended and strengthened the state’s eviction moratorium on Jan. 29 with Senate Bill 91. The bill also created the State Rental Assistance Program, which funnels $2.6 billion in aid to both renters struggling with payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic and also landlords. Bet Tzedek attorney Hana Kommel explained the steps necessary to take advantage of state protections.

Like with the Beverly Hills ordinance, state law requires that tenants complete a declaration of financial distress related to COVID-19, which is signed under penalty of perjury. State law divides rent into two time periods: rent owed from March 2020 to August 2020 and rent owed between September 2020 to June 2021.

For rent owed between March and August 2020, “all you have to do is…give the declaration of COVID-19-related financial distress,” said Kommel. “If you do that, that means that your landlord cannot use this unpaid rent to evict you and you can never be evicted for not paying that rent.”

For unpaid rent between September 2020 and June 2021, in addition to submitting a declaration of COVID-19-related financial distress, tenants must pay 25 percent of the rent to gain eviction protections. Tenants do not have to make the payments monthly–although they can–but must submit the required 25 percent by the end of the period covered by the protections. For rent owed in either time period, declaring COVID-19-related financial distress does not erase the rent. 

Just like with the Beverly Hills COVID-19 form, SB 91 provides potential categories under which a tenant can claim COVID-19-related financial hardship, including the following: loss of income, increased expenses, childcare or family responsibilities, and then general financial impact. To successfully gain state protections, these reasons must stem from the impacts of COVID-19.

For the state protections, tenants do not need to provide proof of COVID-19 financial impact unless they qualify as “high income,” which is defined as 130 percent the area median income for Los Angeles with a household income of $100,000. Landlords must already have evidence of their renter’s income prior to sending a 15 day notice of eviction–if, for instance, the renter submitted proof of income when first applying for the unit. 

One listener posed a hypothetical question about what would happen if they lost their job, but then received more money in unemployment benefits than they made at their former job. Would they qualify for eviction protections?

No, Kommel said. The declaration of financial distress related to COVID-19 includes language that says that public assistance that the tenant has received does not make up for their loss of income and/or increased expenses. But in the hypothetical, that would not be the case.  

Repayment Question

The rules and timetables for rent repayment are confusing even to experts. The Beverly Hills urgency ordinance gave residents until one year following the end of the emergency declaration to repay back rent, but that timeline was supplanted by SB 91. Under the state provisions, landlords can pursue back rent in small claims court as early as Aug. 1. Contradictorily, SB 91 also gives tenants until Aug. 31 to repay rental debt. The law also prevents local jurisdictions from expanding the repayment period past Aug. 31.

Bet Tzedek attorneys expressed wonderment at the state law, speculating that the narrow repayment window may have been made in error.

Other new protections included in the state law are that tenants cannot be charged late fees and landlords cannot apply security deposit to unpaid rent unless given written permission by the tenant. The law also ensures that rental debt cannot count against tenants looking for new housing.

“The language currently reads that the repayment period ends August 31, 2021,” Green said. “We’re wondering, is this a mistake? Will they change this, will they rectify it? Because as it currently reads, it doesn’t really provide a reasonable amount of time for Beverly Hills residents to repay rent all the way [back] to March.” 

Green said that he is waiting for additional legislation to clarify the confusion. Kommel, who said she first thought the one month window was a typo, said that the legislature is currently looking at the issue. 

The forum also explained the new State Rental Assistance Program established by SB 91. The program incentives property owners to forgive back rent. By waiving 20 percent of unpaid rent, landlords become eligible for 80 percent in rent reimbursements for amounts owed between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. If a landlord does not agree to participate in the program, qualified tenants can still receive 25 percent of the total back rent for the covered period.

The rent subsidies are available to households with incomes at or below 80 percent of Area Median Income, with priority for the most disadvantaged households and those experiencing unemployment for the preceding 90 days at the time of application. Applications open on March 15, though they could open up earlier, Kommel said. Given budgetary restraints, it is possible that not all eligible applicants will receive assistance. 

The final layer of eviction protections come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But Bet Tzedek attorneys warned that the CDC protections should only be used as a last resort. The country-wide order can temporarily stop evictions through April 2021. 

Green acknowledged the daunting amount of material out there for those looking for help and had one recommendation for all of them. “It’s a confusing time for everybody, not just the tenants that are in these situations, but for legal advocates, as well,” he said. “The best thing to do is to not sit around and guess what your options are if you need some help. We’re here. We’re available.”

The post Beverly Hills Holds Tenant’s Forum appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

That input informs the direction of the EIR, which then gets drafted and presented to the public for another round of comments after a 45-day public review period. Alkire estimated that the city would release a Draft EIR sometime in the summer or fall of this year. The city will then release a Final EIR that addresses the additional questions from the draft–something that Alkire expects to happen in the winter. Then, the Planning Commission reviews the entitlements that the project is requesting and sends a recommendation to the City Council.

“The ultimate decision-making authority on this project is the City Council…We’re anticipating sometime in the winter we’ll have a hearing to evaluate the project and make a decision,” Alkiree said.

The project, led by the Beverly Hills Land Company, proposes building 11 office buildings on 2.12 acres at 9220 Santa Monica Boulevard (commonly referred to as Lot 12). A former railroad right-of-way, the land would require rezoning before any development could commence–one of the entitlements requested by the developer. The buildings would range from three to four stories, with a maximum requested height of 60 feet. While the project would eliminate the 74 metered parking spaces currently available on Civic Center Drive, it would build a two-story underground parking lot with 490 parking spaces, 74 of which would be public. 

As an incentive, the Beverly Hills Land Company has offered the city an adjacent lot, known as Lot 13, in exchange for the necessary entitlements to develop Lot 12. The city could develop the land however it saw fit.

The Scoping meeting heard from many residents concerned about the impact of the possible development on the neighborhood, from property values to the farmer’s market. 

“I don’t see anything in your list of evaluation criteria that talks about how this is going to destroy the farmers market, a farmers market that many of us use every single week,” said Janice Barquist, echoing the concern of others in the meeting. 

The issue of traffic came up multiple times throughout the meeting, with a few commenters pointing out that the conditions posed by COVID-19 might make it difficult to do a traffic study. While CEQA does not require a traffic study, the city nonetheless conducts its own traffic study as a part of the entitlement review process. 

“Traffic operation is not necessarily reflective of non-COVID conditions at this point in time, so the traffic study will have to take that into account,” Alkire said. 

Others, though, seemed generally opposed to developing the land at all.  

A leading opponent of the project, Robbie Anderson, has warned of allegedly elevated levels of arsenic in the soil of the lots as a result of its railroad history. “That land is filled with arsenic, and a lot of other heavy metals, because of all the years of the trains going through there,” one caller claimed.

“It’s certainly not Chernobyl,” Project Representative Gaby Alexander told the Courier. “Railroad land has been safely redeveloped for a long time throughout the country.” Alexander pointed to the High Line, a New York City park situated on a former railroad track. 

According to an initial study compiled by the city, Union Pacific Railroad shoulders the burden of cleaning up the site of harmful materials with oversight by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). “Prior to the commencement of the Proposed Project, it is anticipated that the Project Site, Parcel 13, and the Triangle would be remediated per DTSC requirements and that use of these properties would not pose a significant hazard to the public or to the environment,” the study found.

“It’s not a rush job. It’s not a stealth job,” said Dale Goldsmith, an attorney for the project. “It’s a public process and one that has had and will continue to have robust opportunities for public comment.” 

The post Scoping Hearing Held for Beverly Hills Creative Offices Project appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“Tenants are still responsible for paying unpaid amounts to the property owners, but you cannot evict them for not paying that past due rent,” explained Policy and Management Analyst Cynthia Owens.

“This law not only provides greatly needed support for tenants, but also provides relief to small property owners in need of assistance to pay for mortgages, thanks to $2.6 billion in federal stimulus funding,” said Newsom in a statement.

Under the measure, landlords will be prevented from evicting tenants who pay at least 25 percent of their rent and attest under penalty of perjury that they have been impacted economically by COVID-19. The State Rental Assistance Program will begin accepting applications from property owners and tenants in March.

In addition to providing aid to income-qualified tenants financially impacted by the pandemic, the program incentives property owners to forgive back rent. By waiving 20 percent of unpaid rent, landlords become eligible for 80 percent in rent reimbursements for amounts owed between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. If a landlord does not agree to participate in the program, qualified tenants can still receive 25 percent of the total back rent for the covered period.

The rent subsidies are available to households with incomes at or below 80 percent of Area Median Income, with priority for the most disadvantaged households and those experiencing unemployment for the preceding 90 days at the time of application.

Given the speed at which the urgency bill passed through the legislature, Beverly Hills had little chance to lobby to receive direct aid for its residents.

“Unfortunately, we just could not work around it with how quickly it did fly through–it’s going to provide direct funding to residents or jurisdictions over 200,000 residents. But we are going to be able to receive funding indirectly through our county for this program,” Owens said. The staff report compiled for the meeting notes that only 24 of California’s 482 cities would qualify for direct funding under this standard, excluding cities like Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica.

“Santa Monica isn’t even 200,000 people; they’re going to be left out on this. [Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica)] still voted in support of this bill, because of that indirect funding stream that we’ll be able to have access to,” said Owens.

In the Study Session, the Council included direct aid for all cities as a part of the city’s legislative platform. The platform informs the city’s advocates and lobbyists on how best to represent the city’s interests in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

“There should be as much funding not just for us, but for all cities under 200,000,” said Councilmember John Mirisch.

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“Those will take up a significant amount of 2021,” Assistant Director of Community Development Ryan Gohlich told the Courier.  The Planning Commission will first take up the One Beverly Hills project, a condominium and hotel development on the vacant lots of the old Robinsons-May department store and part of the Hilton property. The project is managed by Cain International and Alagem Capital Group, the owner of the adjacent Beverly Hilton. The $2 billion proposal includes two condominium towers at 28 and 32 stories comprising of 303 condos. Then, a 10-story hotel development
including 42 all-suite guest rooms, along with a fine-dining restaurant and 37 residential units. Finally, the project also incorporates large amounts of green space that would be open to the public.   

While construction could potentially begin in 2021, Gohlich said that it will most likely break ground in 2022.

“It’s a very complex project in terms of the various structures involved and it’s a very large project. It’s over a million square feet of development between the sites. And there is going to be a lengthy permitting process. If they are able to secure the needed zoning approvals from the City Council, then they are going to have a pretty lengthy process of just preparing what we refer to as construction drawings–it’s not just the architectural plan, it’s all the engineering and electrical, mechanical, plumbing, all the little bits and pieces of construction.”

The One Beverly Hills project has the potential to revitalize a once-thriving property–one that Gohlich said used to play a crucial role in the City’s economic fabric. “It’s not good for the city to have vacant land sitting there, that’s not benefiting anybody,” he said. “The Robinsons-May site is a good example of a huge piece of property that used to generate a substantial amount of revenue to pay for all the great city services that we have, and there has been zero activity on that property since the early 2000s. It’s been a long, long time that that property has not been contributing in a positive effect to the city.”

As Gohlich notes, “[Robinsons-May] was truly a world class department store and contributed in a significant way to the city and its development at that time.”

If all goes according to schedule, Gohlich says, the One Beverly Hills project will land before the Planning Commission “through winter and possibly in the spring.” Based on that timetable, the City Council will take up the project toward the end of spring or the summer.

“The hope is that there will be some sort of a final decision on the project in 2021,” he said.

Following behind One Beverly Hills, the Planning Commission will also take up plans for the highly anticipated Cheval Blanc Beverly Hills. The luxury hotel, spearheaded by French conglomerate LVMH, has marked off a location on the corner of Rodeo Drive and South Santa Monica Boulevard. The spot stretches across four parcels of land: the former Brooks Brothers building, Celine Rodeo Drive, the former Paley Center for Media and the property at 449 N. Beverly Drive. The proposed property would serve as a boutique luxury hotel with 115 rooms, ground-floor LVMH retail establishments, and high-end dining venues.

LVMH is no stranger to Beverly Hills. The company, headed by billionaire Bernard Arnault, owns or leases 18 properties in the city, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Rimowa, Bulgari, Loro Piana, Hublot, Berluti and Sephora. On Dec. 30, LVMH came a step closer to adding another Beverly Hills property to its portfolio when Tiffany & Co’s shareholders approved a $15.8 billion deal.

“LVMH has made significant investments in the city over the years and I think it’s great to see continued interest from such an important company in the world of luxury,” Gohlich said. He added, though, that the plans come with some complications. “It’s a project that does not comply with our existing zoning standards, it’s over height, over floor area. They have a world-class architect, so it’s a very well-designed project, and it comes with some big policy questions. How much floor area, how much height is appropriate in that area of the business triangle? Those questions are to be determined through the public process.”

As it currently stands, the Cheval Blanc plans call for up to 220,000 square feet of floor area, with a 4.2 to 1 Floor Area Ratio (FAR)–the measurement of the total floor area in relationship to the site area. “Which basically means 4.2 times the size of the total site area,” Gohlich explained. “They are proposing a maximum height of nine stories, or 115 feet, along the Beverly Drive side of the project. On the Rodeo side, they’re proposing four stories in height.” The existing code allows for three stories on the Rodeo side, with some rooftop uses permitted on newer buildings.

The Planning Commission has already begun work on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project, though it will still be “a handful of months” before the public sees it. He estimates that the project is three to six months behind One Beverly Hills.

The Planning Commission will also decide the future of Lots 12 and 13 in 2021. The two vacant lots, which abut Santa Monica Boulevard, sit on the site of a former rail right of way. As such, the land is zoned only for transportation purposes. The owner of the land, the Beverly Hills Land Company, has proposed a deal with the city: “It is basically undevelopable land with the current zoning designation, and so what they are proposing is that the zoning be changed to allow for commercial development, and in exchange for that change of the zoning, they would then give Lot 13 to the city.”

The Beverly Hills Land Company has indicated plans to build boutique office space on Lot 12. The city would be free to develop Lot 13 as desired. These proposals have not been without controversy, as Gohlich notes. “Some people think it should just remain exactly as is and never be touched. You’ve got people who think it should be developed with just park space and all of it as park space. And then some people, presumably, are in favor of some form of development, either commercial or residential, in the area.”

“I think one of the challenges is that it has been vacant for such a long period of time that people have gotten used to it being a buffer between Santa Monica Boulevard and the neighborhood to the south,” Gohlich said.

The BHCO project falls last in the 2021 calendar, with Gohlich estimating that the project is about three to six months behind LVMH.

Gohlich says that this year is uniquely busy for the Planning Commission. The commission faces both impactful policy decisions and large development projects. “I don’t know that it’s rare, but normally, when you’re busy with development projects, you tend to not be as busy with policy projects. And what we’re looking at is being equally busy on both the policy side and the development side.”

The post High-Profile Projects Before Beverly Hills Planning Commission This Year appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“Forbes Global Properties creates a new and unparalleled sphere of influence for the world’s finest real estate,” said Jeff Hyland, co-founder and president of Hilton & Hyland and also co-founder and president of Forbes Global Properties. “Unlike other branded real estate groups, Forbes Global Properties is not merely a listing tool for agents – it offers direct and measurable access to potential high-net-worth buyers through Forbes’ worldwide media penetration.”

Hyland has a well-earned reputation in the City, with Town & Country naming him “The Gatekeeper of Beverly Hills.” The 73-year-old brokered LeBron James’ $36.75-million purchase in Beverly Hills and the record-breaking $150 million sale of the “The Beverly Hillbillies” estate.

Spearheaded by Hyland, in addition to real estate veteran Bonnie Stone Sellers, the new company is primarily broker-owned and led. Rather than have all listings come from one single brokerage, the site will utilize a network of independent offices situated around the world. Each member will operate with relative independence and have exclusive reach in their market. The service launches with brokerages in 75 locations in the U.S., Asia and Europe, but has plans to expand to no more than 100. The network will begin accepting new member brokerages in the coming months, provided applicants pass a rigorous vetting process.

“Top real estate industry professionals now have an opportunity to capitalize on the immense global reach of Forbes in the creation of an impactful luxury marketplace, which is owned and led by brokerages,” Bonnie Stone Sellers, who serves as Chair, said in a statement. “Forbes Global Properties is not only a network of experts, but also a powerful consumer platform for the world’s most extraordinary homes, available for showcasing distinguished properties in non-member markets as well. We are creating the next evolution of real estate marketing and sales, delivering an incredibly unique value proposition for brokers as well as buyers and sellers of luxury residences.”

The platform launches at a time when luxury home sales have soared, despite the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales of high-end properties grew 42 percent in the third quarter of 2020 as compared to a year earlier, according to a report from the brokerage Redfin. Underscoring the disparate impact of the pandemic on those with less money, sales of medium-priced homes grew a meager 3 percent and sales of affordable homes declined 4.2 percent.

“The luxury housing market normally takes a hit during recessions as wealthy Americans tighten their purse strings, but this isn’t a normal recession,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather in a statement. “Remote work, record-low mortgage rates and strong stock prices during the pandemic are allowing America’s wealthy families to gobble up expensive houses with home offices and big backyards in the suburbs. Meanwhile, scores of lower- and middle-class Americans have lost their jobs or are still renting in the city because they’re essential workers and have to commute into work, so they’re unable to reap the benefits of homeownership.”

These circumstances present a boon to Forbes Global Properties, which currently hosts listings for more than 200 homes priced above $10 million.

Forbes also expects to benefit from the partnership. “Every month, we engage more than 140 million people deeply interested in luxury, travel and real estate,” said Forbes CEO Mike Federle in a statement.

The post New Platform for Luxury Real Estate in Beverly Hills appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The property has wound its way through multiple City commissions as it has sought Local Historic Landmark status. The Cultural Heritage Commission initiated landmark proceedings on Nov. 6, 2019, for possible inclusion on the Beverly Hills Register of Historic Properties–a list that includes the Beverly Hills Hotel and Greystone Mansion. After a Preliminary hearing on Dec. 4, 2019, the Cultural Heritage Commission found that the property appeared to be eligible for the designation–a conclusion echoed by the City’s historic consultant, Jan Ostashay of Ostashay & Associates Consulting, in a landmark assessment and evaluation report. Then, on June 18, 2020, the Cultural Heritage Commission unanimously adopted a resolution recommending that the City Council designate the Woodland property as a Landmark and place it onto the registry. Over a week later, the Commission reviewed the proposed project and issued a preliminary conclusion that it complies with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Properties, a commonly used set of guidelines for maintaining and restoring historic buildings.

Shortly after Evans’ death in 2019, Discovery CEO David Zaslav and his wife, Pam, purchased the property for $16 million. The Zaslavs found the home, built in 1942, in mild disrepair and committed to restoring it to its halcyon state. Now, they are proactively petitioning the City of Beverly Hills to designate 1033 Woodland as a Local Historic Landmark.

Planning Commission Vice Chair Lori Green Gordon praised David Zaslav’s initiative in applying for the status. “To say that he wants to preserve it not just for his family, which I think is wonderful, but I think going forward, he looks at this as something that will be preserved for the community as a historic resource,” Gordon said. “I have to commend you because that is an act of honor and I really do appreciate that you do that for our City.”

The Zaslavs have an incentive to apply for landmark status. The City of Beverly Hills offers a Historical Incentive Permit, which is meant to “incentivize the protection of significant historic resources by providing a process by which owners of locally designated historic landmarks may request waivers or deviations from certain development standards,” according to the Beverly Hills Municipal Code. At the same time, owners of historic buildings also must adhere to stricter standards of preservation.

The Zaslavs’ purpose in restoring Woodland is to “ensure that the property is enjoyed in its original state for generations to come,” said Jason Somers, President of Crest Real Estate, who oversees the project. “To remember fondly generations of the past for generations of the future.”

The property had fallen into disrepair toward the end of Evans’ life, Somers told the Courier.

“Five years with no upkeep on a house with that much garden, and it can fall apart quickly,” he said. “Everything is very overgrown, and you find statues lying on their side. It’s almost like an archeological dig through the property. We found statues and pieces of the original pool house building that burned down in the early 2000s.”

Zaslav plans to honor the historical character of the property and has kept on the longtime house manager, housekeeper and butler. Plans call for major renovations and additions that would not compromise the original vision of its architect, John Elgin Woolf. Those plans include a new guest wing and a tennis cabana, expanded garage, rebuilt pool house and relocated tennis court. Many of these facilities as they exist in the plans violate City code, and therefore depend on receiving a HIP or other permit. The new guest wing, for instance, would stand two feet above code at 16 feet, necessitating the granting of a Minor Accommodation Permit. The plans also call for reconstructing portions of the wall at the front of the property. The height of the wall exceeds the allowable standard, but the reconstruction would be permissible under HIP.

Somers makes clear that he and the Zaslavs will approach this work with the care and attention to detail of archeologists. He gives the example of the pool house, which burned down in 2004 along with Evans’ famed screening room and trophy room. The screening room–constructed specifically for Evans when he moved into the house in 1967–is where dailies were shown for Chinatown, Harold & Maude, Rosemary’s Baby, and other Evans works.

Architect John Elgin Woolf, who the City has designated a Beverly Hills Master Architect, occupies a special place in Los Angeles architectural history. His 1980 New York Times obituary credits him with establishing “a new vocabulary for glamorous movie-star living” by mixing elements of 19th-century French, Greek Revival and Modernist styles “into a heady mixture that has since been christened Hollywood Regency.” Woolf and his partner designed houses for some of the best-known icons of the time. Carry Grant, Ira and Leonore Gershwin, and Agnes Moorehead all lived in Woolf homes in Beverly Hills.

The Woodland property was Woolf’s first in the Los Angeles Area. The home played a key role in defining and promoting the Hollywood Regency idiom–at once understated and glamorous.

By today’s standards, the existing development on the 1.4-acre property is modest, totaling 3,800-square-feet (though that number would rise with the renovations). But its value comes from more than square footage. Evans told Vanity Fair in 2009 that he made more deals at Woodland than at Paramount, greenlighting The Godfather and Chinatown there. Laurence Olivier even lived at the property for six months during the filming of Marathon Man.

Evans, an avid tennis player and fan, hosted sports phenoms, politicians, and celebrities on the home’s idiosyncratic black and green court. Some names on Evans’ roster of partners include Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Ted Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin. (The last two played regularly at Woodland). The Zaslavs’ plans include demolishing the tennis court and reconstructing it about nine feet east to open up space around the house’s pool.

Architect Timothy Bryant, former-White House interior designer Michael Smith and landscape architect and horticulturist Wayne David Hand will work on the renovations. The design plans include extensive details for the garden such as unique flower varietals created for and named after celebrities and nobility.

According to Somers, the project has whizzed through the Planning Commission in near record time, which he credits to City staff. “The City has been very supportive of a project that they feel is a benefit to the City’s future,” he said. Somers says that the next step is for the City Council to take up the question itself. While the item has not been agendized yet, he hopes it comes before the Council early in the new year. “I think we would all hope so,” he said.

The post Restoring a Hollywood Legend in Beverly Hills appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“These are desperate times, we’ve heard pleas from people, I think we can easily add another $550,000 to it,” said Mirisch, who was supported by Councilmember Lili Bosse. “And even that is probably not enough for us.”

Councilmember Julian Gold cautioned patience, saying that the City did not even know how much demand existed for the aid. “I think we may have to add more money, I think that’s a good thing to do, but I do think it should be based on something and not a spitball over how much money we should put at it,” he said. “We don’t even have applications yet.”

As a compromise, the Council agreed to resume discussion on potentially increasing funding on Dec. 1.

The program will apply to tenants living on multi-family properties that fall under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, prioritizing seniors and households with children enrolled in Beverly Hills Unified School District. The program offers eligible residents up to $1,000 for three months to make up the remaining balance of unpaid rent. The money will go directly to the landlord under the condition that the landlord grant the tenant a year to repay back rent. Landlords will also have to agree not to evict tenants for a year. The application for the program will open on Nov. 16 and go until Dec. 7.

Councilmember Lili Bosse expressed frustration at the delay between the initial vote on the program in September and its implementation.

“I also want to add that during these last number of months…a lot of residents have been very frustrated with how long this has taken,” she said. “They’re all suffering. For me, that’s another reason why I do feel that we should look to adding more money
to it.”

The post Beverly Hills Increases COVID Rent Aid appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

At the outset of the discussion, Commission Chair Lou Milkowski described the subject as “a real meat-on-the-bone type of legislation for us to look at.”

In early 2017, the City Council modified the Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO), establishing relocation fees for tenants evicted in certain circumstances. Those circumstances include situations when a tenant refuses to reenter into a lease agreement; when a landlord seeks to move a new building manager into a unit occupied by a previous building manager; when a landlord wants to move their spouse, children, or parents into an occupied unit; when a landlord intends to demolish or move the building or convert the unit into condominiums, stock cooperatives, or community apartments; or if a landlord wishes to do major remodeling.

The RSO calculates relocation fees by estimating the first and last month’s rent, plus a security deposit and utility start-up costs, based on the unit’s size. The fees also include $1,116 for moving expenses, which the City selected by averaging the rates of five local moving companies multiplying it by the nine-hour average it takes to move a two-bedroom apartment. Finally, households with senior citizens, disabled individuals, and children are entitled to an additional $2,000.

The current RSO sets relocation fees as follows: $6,726.53 for a studio, $9,936.10 for a one-bedroom, and $13,461.75 for a two-bedroom and above. It has no set amount for three-bedroom units. The fees are recalculated on July 1 of every year using the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Even after the City codified relocation fees, questions remained about how to best weigh the rights of the tenant against the rights of the property owner. In Nov. 2017, the City contracted with real estate and economic development consultant HR&A Advisors, Inc., to compare the Beverly Hills’ rent stabilization ordinance with other cities and determine whether to keep or revise the relocation fees.

After submitting a draft report and holding a public feedback session, HR&A Advisors came back with its findings on Oct. 11, 2018. The report compiled the positions of tenants who commented during the hearing process. Tenants stated that relocation fees should increase at the same rate of annual rent increases; landlords should pay a per diem relocation fee for temporary evictions; protected classes, such as the elderly, disabled, and children, should receive an additional $3,000, with a subsequent $1,500 for each additional member of any protected tenant class; and that the fees should include lost wages and other costs incurred by the eviction.

Landlords similarly expressed their interests during the commenting period. They advocated that fees should be limited to two times the current monthly rent; relocation assistance should be based on a tenant’s financial means with a cap on tenants over a certain income; and that tenants should be limited in how often they can receive relocation fees.

The report by HR&A Advisors laid out a few options for the City to consider. First, the City could make no changes to its existing policy. Second, the City could begin factoring in additional criteria when calculating the fee. The report points to West Hollywood, which considers income when setting relocation fees. The City could also consider how long someone has lived in their unit. And another option was to take the type of eviction into consideration when calculating relocation fees.

After the report was issued, the City Council amended the RSO, but relocation fees have remained the same. The Council provided direction to the Commission to look into specific changes, including having the Commission determine relocation fees, escalating relocation fees based on tenure, and requiring a one-year occupancy before relocation assistance can be provided. The Council also directed the Commission to consider exemptions for owners who intend to occupy the property.   

Commissioner Remmie Maden, along with others, suggested using the City’s rental registry instead of the CPI to determine the relocation fee. The CPI, she explained, “may not tell the whole story about what the market rate of a studio, one bedroom or two bedroom is.”

Commissioner Kathy Bronte advocated for adding a tier for three-bedroom units, “because that is a big difference when you have multiple children, especially if they’re in school,” she said.

Deputy Director of Rent Stabilization Helen Morales acknowledged that it will take the Commission time to adequately address every topic relating to the fees.

“Some of these topics are going to take three and four meeting sessions to get through,” noted Morales. The Commission voted to continue the discussion to their next meeting on Dec. 2.

“I just want to remind everybody,” Morales said, “everybody has a commission term of at least four years. So, we’ve got some time to work this through. We do things very slowly for a reason, because it affects people’s daily lives.”

The post Rent Stabilization Commission Examines Relocation Fees appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Every eight years, cities and jurisdictions around the State draft a new Housing Element, a part of the General Plan which considers the housing needs of the community and anticipates how that need will change. With the housing cycle slated to start again in 2021, localities across the State are preparing their Housing Elements for approval by the State.

The core component of the Housing Element is the RHNA, an evaluation of the number of units needed in the next eight years and the land use plans and regulations necessary to accommodate them.

The State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) first determines the housing needs in each region of California by examining population data. The agency also considers economic and demographic trends, overcrowding, and overpayment of rents and mortgages. The number that HCD calculates gets passed to a local regional planning agency–the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), in the case of Beverly Hills–that looks at more local data and distributes the total among its jurisdictions.

In 2019, as cities across California grappled with soaring rents and a homelessness crisis, HCD announced an ambitious goal of about 3.5 million new units over the new Housing Elements cycle. Southern California’s share of the load came out to 1.3 million units. For Beverly Hills: 3,096 units.

In comparison, in the last housing cycle, Beverly Hills’ allotment was only three.

While the City is required to plan for a certain level of growth and take efforts to facilitate it, the RHNA is “not a development mandate,” the Staff Report notes. Jurisdictions must ensure that bureaucratic hurdles like zoning and planning do not obstruct development, but they do not need to build housing or issue permits themselves. But, if the State determines that a jurisdiction has not done enough to foster development, it can withhold certification of its General Plan. This results in loss of certain State funds, more frequent updates to the City’s Housing Element, and loss of control over housing project decisions.

Cities face similar penalties for not meeting their RHNA obligations. Jurisdictions will have to implement a streamlined review process to approve housing development projects.

Assistant Director of Community Development Ryan Gohlich explained that to comply with RHNA, the City “must show that we have land use plans and regulations either in place or to be implemented that will allow housing developments adequate to meet our RHNA obligations. This can include changes to the zoning itself or to regulations to make it more permissive to build housing. And then, throughout the RHNA cycle, we have to show our progress to the State that we are actually meeting the numbers as required.”

The RHNA breaks down this number into four income categories, very low, low, moderate, and above moderate. For Beverly Hills, this breaks down as 1,005 very low income units, 678 low income units, 601 moderate income units, and 812 above moderate income, or market rate, units.

“When we receive the RHNA allocation, we then have to show in our Housing Element that we can meet the RHNA number that’s been assigned to us,” said Gohlich. “As part of that, we have to look at housing barriers and address those through policies, we have to show that land is zoned to accommodate units, and that we have policies and programs either in place or to be implemented that will encourage the appropriate number of units at each income level.”

The current RHNA numbers only represent a draft. Jurisdictions have the right to appeal the number allocated to them by their local regional planning agency. But, as Gohlich told the Council, “In the past, it has been our experience that very few jurisdictions have been successful in their appeals, because there are such limitations on what the grounds for appeal are and those tend to get tighter over time.”

“For example, an ‘unrealistically high’ RHNA allocation based on market trends and lack of vacant land is not considered to be legitimate grounds for appeal,” the Staff Report reads.

Further complicating the process, any reduction granted to a jurisdiction must be offset by an increase in units in other jurisdictions.

The State will consider three grounds for an appeal. Jurisdictions can appeal on the grounds of a misapplication of methodology. Beverly Hills could claim that SCAG misapplied the methodology used for allocating units.

“We reviewed the methodology and, whether we agree or disagree with the methodology, it does not appear as though SCAG has miscalculated our assignment,” Gohlich said.

Additionally, the City could argue that SCAG did not consider certain local factors, including a lack of capacity for sewer and water service, lack of available land suitable for urban development, and the rate of overcrowding.

Said Gohlich: “Again, we do not see any items specific to Beverly Hills that fit within that particular set of facts.”

Finally, the City could claim a “significant and unforeseen change in circumstance” that happened after April 30, 2019. As an example of a change in circumstance that might pass muster, Gohlich cited the town of Paradise, “where they had wildfires come through and they lost just about all of the city.” By this standard, Beverly Hills looks about the same as it did on April 30, 2019. “We have not identified any significant changes in circumstance in Beverly Hills at this time,” said Gohlich.

Jurisdictions have until Oct. 26 to file an appeal, meaning Tuesday’s City Council meeting was the last opportunity for the Council to consider this option.

Gohlich explained that staff were not recommending the City to appeal the RHNA number, pointing to the City’s RHNA allocation of only three units from the last housing cycle.

“With such a low number, I think looking at a much higher number this year, there is some balance there between the two cycles,” he said. “Other cities under the prior cycle had much higher allocations from SCAG.”

He also told the Council that appeals tended to fail due to the strict criteria. In the last RHNA cycle eight years ago, 12 cities appealed their allotment. None succeeded. A meritless appeal, he warned, might risk alienating the State agency in charge of overseeing the process–losing valuable goodwill in the process.

Gohlich told the Council that he has spoken with a number of colleagues at other cities. “I have not found one so far that thinks that they have a case for appeal that meets the criteria,” he said. “Some of them are filing appeals because they’ve been directed to do so, but they don’t believe that they will be successful in their appeals because the criteria are so strict from SCAG and from the State.”

Finally, he said that even in the case of a successful appeal, the number would not be reduced by a significant amount. “Even a 10 or 20 percent reduction would still leave us with a substantial number of units to plan for.”

Many City Council Members expressed frustration with the process. Councilmember Dr. Julian Gold accused the State of a “bait and switch.” Councilmember Lili Bosse argued that the RHNA numbers fail to account for the City’s limited power in realizing new developments. “Unfortunately, I believe that we have been really trying to encourage development for affordable housing, but on the other hand, we can’t necessarily make people build housing,” she said.

One of the most vocal councilmembers on the subject, John Mirisch, described the RHNA number as “punitive” and the entire process as “weaponized.”

Given the difficulty of making a successful appeal, the City Council moved to form an ad hoc committee to examine the route, with councilmembers Robert Wunderlich and Mirisch serving as liaisons.

“I do think we should appeal,” said Mirisch. “I agree it’s probably not going to make a difference, but at least we will have gone on record saying that we feel that the process is flawed.”

The post Beverly Hills Considers Appeal to Housing Allotment appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The couple founded Williams & Williams Estates Group in 2006. Four years later they joined Hilton & Hyland, where they currently have more than $1 billion in listings. No official announcement has been made as to their exact separation date from Hilton & Hyland. However, sources told the Courier that The Beverly Hills Estates will begin operations in November. Their offices will be located on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and San Vicente in West Hollywood.

Williams & Williams Estates Group has garnered the top spot in the L.A. luxury real estate market with record-breaking deals in the $75-110 million range in Malibu, Bel Air and the Hollywood Hills. They specialize in historic properties, such as the Frank Lloyd Wright Ennis House in Los Feliz, for which they obtained the highest-ever sum paid for the architect’s work. They are also experienced designers and developers. According to sources, the duo plan to pursue those disciplines in their new firm. The Courier reached out to both the Williamses and Hilton & Hyland for comment but has received no response as of press time.

The post Williams & Williams to Launch Their Own Firm appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“The Chamber is fortunate to lead a world-class community of the most unique and innovative businesses. Each year, we celebrate the amazing business community and honor exceptional winners.  The awards selection process was challenging with so many deserving entries,”said Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Todd Johnson.

Fred Hayman Visionary Award Honoree

The Fred Hayman Visionary Award honors “an individual(s) or business who has brought their unique vision of Beverly Hills to life by positively uplifting, supporting, and influencing the business and residential communities and beyond.”

This year’s winner is Courier Publisher John Bendheim. “John Bendheim is a staple in the community of Beverly Hills, both personally and professionally. His contributions both financially as well as advisory positions, have been instrumental in leading this community forward for many years and he continues to do so,” said the Chamber’s statement.

Above & Beyond Award Honorees

Above & Beyond Award honorees are “businesses who lead by example by going above and beyond in their business practices and while contributing to causes supporting the Beverly Hills and surrounding communities.”

This year, the award winners are:

Cedars-Sinai Health System

“Cedars-Sinai Health System has been a force in the Beverly Hills and greater Los Angeles community, especially since the pandemic outbreak. They have been great leaders in fighting the COVID-19 virus and dealing with the hospitalizations of patients with it,” said the Chamber.

Meraki Fitness (Small Business)

“Meraki Fitness Owner Anna Stavaridis immediately pivoted at the beginning of the pandemic by converting her services to a virtual environment, welcoming existing and new Chamber and community members. While balancing a wide dimension of impacts from the mandated quarantine, Anna immediately provided online services to adapt to our new world, adopting technology with ease, and guiding others to shift their businesses as well,” said the Chamber.

Innovation Award Honorees

The Innovation Award honors “businesses who excel in having created and implemented an original idea, which demonstrates marketplace success and practical development.”

The honorees are:

Spago Beverly Hills

“When in house dining reopened and then quickly pivoted again to only outdoor dining, Spago Beverly Hills had already arranged to be one of the first dining establishments to utilize Open BH. They applied for both a dining permit and liquor license immediately and were able to utilize the stunning art mural wall that was erected to help mitigate some of the Metro construction issues as well as the streetscape. In addition to these efforts, they have been extremely careful regarding mandates with their staff (testing regularly) and guests regarding safe distancing, masks wearing, sanitizing ensuring the utmost safety for all,” said the Chamber.

UMBERTO (Small Business)

“UMBERTO Beverly Hills, a 12,000 square foot salon, home to 20 cutting, styling and coloring chairs – (offering color, highlights, balayage and keratin treatments) seven nail stations that offer gel, nail art, manicures and pedicures, has transformed its parking lot into a luxury outdoor salon. The “Open Air Salon” has a vacation vibe with music filling the air. The space is covered by white sails, white mirrors and pots of white roses throughout the space. The asphalt has been painted light and dark gray stripes to give it a carpet-like feel,” said the Chamber.

The honorees will be  recognized during the Beverly Hills Back to Business Fall Virtual Collaborative on Oct. 21.

The post Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce Announces Golden Palm Honorees appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The program will apply to tenants living on multi-family properties that fall under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, prioritizing seniors and households with children enrolled in Beverly Hills Unified School District. The program offers eligible residents up to $1,000 for three months to make up the remaining balance of unpaid rent. The money will go directly to the landlord under the condition that the landlord grant the tenant a year to repay back rent. Landlords will also have to agree not to evict tenants for a year.

The Council set the income threshold for qualified tenants at 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), a commonly used figure for determining the low-income status of residents in an area. In 2020, the Department of Housing and Urban Development calculated the yearly AMI for a low-income family of four in Los Angeles as roughly $90,100

Depending on the amount of interest that the program receives, Councilmembers expressed an openness to expanding the criteria to 50 percent AMI. Director of Community Development Helen Morales, who authored the staff report, said that given the economic situation of the current applicants, it seems likely that the program can shoulder a lower threshold. Of the 197 applications filed to the City, only 24 percent are paying no rent at all. The majority, said Morales, are paying at least 50 percent of their rent.

“That is a good indicator that we can still help more people,” she told the Council.

Morales said she expects the number of applicants to increase as the pandemic persists far longer than many initially prepared for.

As of the Sept. 15 meeting, City staff had identified $442,935 in funds for the program, with another $272,000 likely available within the next several months. Across the board, the members of the Council wanted the number to rise even higher, to $1 million or more. The City Council has “expressed a desire to provide a rent subsidy dedicated to helping people in need on a going forward basis, beyond COVID-19,” according to the staff report.

The Council debated the merits of setting an asset limitation requirement for the subsidy, with the Council agreeing that applicants would have to specify different types of income.

“It’s not so much the assets,” Councilmember Dr. Julian Gold clarified, “it’s the amount of income the assets generate on a monthly basis.”

Councilmember Robert Wunderlich pushed back against the proposed cap on landlords with more than four units.

“Are we really going to fault the tenant because the tenant happens to live in a place that’s owned by a larger landlord?” he asked. “That might be excluding some of the tenants that are in the most need.”

According to Morales, the majority of landlords within the City own between five to 10 units.

Councilmember Lili Bosse proposed, and the other members ratified, a compromise of raising the cap to landlords with more than 10 units on a single property.

The program will be administered by Jewish Family Services, a non-profit that offers a range of services throughout L.A. The Council balked at the proposed price tag of $98,527 and instructed staff to renegotiate the administrative fee with the non-profit.

The vote places Beverly Hills in league with neighbors like Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood, and with Los Angeles County itself, all of whom have designed rent subsidy programs of their own. West Hollywood’s rental assistance program offers eligible tenants up to three payments of up to $1,000 for their rent. The City has received 1,047 applications, approving 801, at a total cost of nearly $700,000, according to the staff report. In contrast, Santa Monica offers a substantially higher maximum subsidy of $5,000 for up to 3 months, but only expects to assist 300 households. The price tag for the beachside city’s program comes in at $1.5 million.

Los Angeles County enacted its Rent Relief program on August 17, allocating $100 million of money it received from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The program is designed to assist around 8,000 households which are selected through a lottery, provided that they are eligible to apply. The County’s program targets residents from considerably more disadvantaged situations, providing up to $10,000 to households making 30 percent AMI and up to $7,500 for those making up to 50 percent AMI.

Residents of Beverly Hills qualify for the County’s program, but those who receive County assistance will not be ineligible for the City’s program.

While attention on the pandemic has waxed and waned in accordance with news cycles–with stories about the election, protests, and civil unrest–public policy experts have been blaring a foghorn of warning about an impending wave of evictions. Currently, California renters enjoy modest protection from evictions, but those protections do not address the economic realities underlying nonpayment of rent.

UCLA Law Professor Emeritus Gary Blasi in a report published May 28. “Without intelligent planning and immediate action, Los Angeles faces the prospect of many thousands of people, including families with children, joining the thousands already on the streets or living in their vehicles,” the report reads. “Unless Los Angeles officials take immediate action now, they will then be forced to scramble to erect something like refugee camps, on a scale never before seen in the United States.”

On Sept. 15, the same day as the City Council voted to approve the rent subsidy program, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that the U.S. House of Representatives would not leave Washington, D.C., until passing an additional round of COVID-19 relief. Months after President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act into law, its unprecedented $2.2 trillion sum has begun to dry up even as the economy remains parched.

In the meantime, the Beverly Hills rent subsidy program attempts to fill the vacuum of additional federal aid.

“This is going to be a lifeline to those who need it and I think it really shows what kind of community we are,” said Councilmember John Mirisch.

The post Rent Assistance Program Approved appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“We are thrilled to welcome these six remarkable leaders to our board of trustees,” said Ron Meyer, board chair and vice chairman of NBCUniversal. “Their achievements in their respective fields demonstrate the passion and leadership that they will contribute to the Academy Museum. We look forward to working together on the world’s premier institution dedicated to the art and science of movies.”

The new trustees join existing board members Ron Meyer, Chair; Ted Sarandos, Vice Chair; Kimberly Steward, Secretary; Jim Gianopulos, Treasurer; Jason Blum, Laura Dern, David Dolby, Sidonie Seydoux Dumas, Mark Johnson, Miky Lee (Mie Kyung Lee), Tom Hanks, Dawn Hudson, Katherine Oliver, Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, Dominic Ng, David Rubin, Emma Thomas, Diane von Furstenberg, and Kevin Yeaman.

Opening in April of 2021, The Academy Museum will be the world’s premier institution dedicated to the art and science of movies. The film center will offer unique experiences and insights into movies and moviemaking. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, the Museum is restoring and revitalizing the historic Saban Building, formerly known as the May Company building (1939), at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. The Saban Building will feature six floors, including exhibition spaces, the 288-seat Ted Mann Theater, the Shirley Temple Education Studio, special event spaces, conservation areas, a café, and store. The new spherical addition will connect to the Saban Building via glass bridges and will feature the state-of-the-art 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater and the rooftop Dolby Family Terrace, which will offer sweeping views of the Hollywood Hills.

The post Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Announces Six New Trustees appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The proposed 57-unit project, which is in the City of Los Angeles, was originally scheduled to be heard by the Department of City Planning on July 22. However, City Planning Associate Michelle Carter told the Courier that the hearing is being postponed.

“The date of the hearing will be sometime in mid-August with the correct amount of assisted living units, which is 15,” said developer Leonard Rosenblatt, a Beverly Hills resident for over 50 years who helms the Beverly Hills-based Rosenblatt Properties founded by his father. “There will be another notice given out with the 500-foot radius when the date is certain.”

When heard, it will mark the second time the proposed senior living facility goes before the department according to Rosenblatt, who told the Courier the previous iteration had just one assisted living care facility.

“We have changed this thing considerably,” he said. “It’s more of a higher-end senior housing project. In my opinion, this is going to be the nicest senior housing project.”

As listed on the now defunct “Notice of Public Hearing” letter sent to property owners and occupants within a 500-foot radius of the project, the proposed facility had a total of nine assisted living care units and 48 units for independent living.

The 73,500-square-foot proposed high-end senior facility, which will include a multiplicity of amenities, including a pool, solarium, gardens and yoga studio, will take over four parcels currently occupied by four existing two-story residential buildings, each with four units. “I call it an island. It’s the only undeveloped site on that corner,” Rosenblatt said.

Beverly Hills resident Sandy Richman, who has lived near Roxbury Park for the past 17 years, credits the neighborhood’s residents with having stopped the project last time it went before the Planning Department in August 2019.

“People view it as one neighborhood,” described Los Angeles resident Cheri Lewis, who has lived two blocks from Roxbury Park since 2004.

“It’s a heavily trafficked area and this would add hundreds more people who are coming here on a daily basis,” Lewis told the Courier. “When the City of Los Angeles wants to encourage elder care facilities, this is not what they want to do. It’s not appropriate for this neighborhood. It’s too big for this neighborhood. He just wants to push it through under the guise of saying it’s good for old people.”

After getting the approval of both the SORO Land Use Committee and the entire Board the last time he tried to develop the project, which now includes 113 parking spaces on-site, Rosenblatt said the City denied the project and subsequently denied it on appeal.

Both Lewis and Richman said there was staunch neighborhood opposition.

“It is unfortunate, but only residents 500 feet of the project are notified of the proposed hearing,” Richman told the Courier. “The consequences of this construction and ultimate impact of the project will affect many more residents and they too should be able to have a say in the decision.”

While Beverly Hills doesn’t have jurisdiction to govern the project’s development, City Planning Ryan Gohlich said the City may once again submit a letter to the City of Los Angeles about the project identifying areas of study or concern, as it has done in the past.

“We generally do not take strong decisions on projects unless directed to do so by the City Council,” he told the Courier. “We monitor projects that are in surrounding areas around Beverly Hills and depending on the scope of the project we do submit comments.”

Rosenblatt downplayed the concerns of neighbors, stating: “Mostly it’s negative because they don’t like change.”

“I’m looking to do something really beautiful that maybe my wife and I will move into one day,” added Rosenblatt, who last developed a senior housing project in Encino 40 years ago with his father.

The post Residents Oppose Proposed Senior Housing Facility Near Roxbury Park appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The plan filed this week on June 29 will now take the site into the next 100 years. 

One Beverly Hills integrates the existing two hotels with a new, 42 all-suite ultra- luxury hotel with 37 residences; two residential buildings with 303 residences; a four-story pavilion with boutiques and casual dining replacing the garage along Santa Monica Boulevard. It also includes 10 acres of open space, of which 4.5 acres will consist of publicly accessible botanical gardens, sculpture gardens and pathways. An additional 3.5 acres of gardens and pathways are available for residents and hotel guests. 

The plan also includes enhancements to the Beverly Hilton entrance, pool, and conference facilities. 

“It will offer life changing experiences,” said Beny Alagem, CEO of Alagem Capital Group and owner of both the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. He is developing One Beverly Hills with Cain International, the privately held real estate investment firm that purchased a stake in both hotels two years ago.

Alagem and key members of his executive team spoke at length to the Courier about One Beverly Hills and its many innovative details. It’s a story that is first and foremost about Alagem’s long-held vision for the site. 

“I bought the Beverly Hilton in 2003 and our dream was to integrate the property, but I was not able to do that,” he told the Courier. 

Indeed, the 9900 Wilshire property has for decades been a separate parcel from Alagem’s. In recent years, the Beverly Hills City Council has approved residential and hotel development on both lots. In 2016, then-owner of 9900 Wilshire, China’s Dalian Wanda Group, obtained City approval for two residential towers and a hotel. But soon thereafter, Chinese government pressure forced Wanda to unravel its global real estate empire. 

Alagem purchased the one-time rival site in 2018. 

“In 2019, we added the gas station. Now we have 17.5 acres together, which is incredible to have in an urban area like ours, especially in Beverly Hills. The vision is truly to integrate the two pieces of property and bring them to the same way they were historically, all together,” he noted. 

At the turn of the 20th century, the tract that is now the dynamic corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards was farmland. In the early 1920s, it housed a nursery that supplied the palm trees and other vegetation that eventually created the City landscape. 

“We’re transforming the old gateway into Beverly Hills into something exceptional. Something beautiful with iconic gardens and lots of residential and also integrating technology into living spaces that was engineered much before the pandemic hit us,” Alagem told the Courier. 

An intensive selection process led to the choice of Pritzker Prize-winning London- based Sir Norman Foster as the architect of One Beverly Hills.

“This 17.5 acres is deserving of top-notch architecture, so we held a competition amongst ten architects from around the world. We spent four months with all of them. I visited their locations. It was amazing to see Foster + Partners, with 1500 architects working under one roof,” said Alagem. 

The portfolio of Foster + Partners includes the ring-shaped Apple Park, Apple Inc.’s headquarters in Cupertino; 30 St. Mary Axe in London, known informally as “The Gherkin;” the Hearst Headquarters in New York City and the Art of the Americas Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. 

Fusing Architecture and Landscape 

Sir Norman Foster describes One Beverly Hills as a “fusion of architecture and landscape.” The site’s origins, he said, provide a deep connection that informed the decision in the master plan to devote so much acreage to sustainable gardens. 

Celebrated local landscape architect Mark Rios has created and will oversee the garden design. 

“Our landscape architect is a resident of the City and an incredible person,” said Alagem. 

In many ways, the entire One Beverly Hills project is a paean to the natural beauty and lifestyle of California in general and Beverly Hills in particular. Nowhere is that more evident than in the nine Rios-designed botanical gardens. The distinct zones will include native and cultivated plants, water features and a sculpture garden, along with more than one mile of public pathways and trails. 

As pointed out by Alagem Capital Group Consultant David Nelson, “The whole concept of an urban oasis goes back more than 100 years to [Beverly Hills master planner] Wilbur Cook’s vision of a garden city.” 

Public access to One Beverly Hills and its gardens is one of the more unique features of the plan. The previously utilitarian Merv Griffin Way separating the two main parcels will be “covered up” by a landscaped platform. The resulting pedestrian-friendly expanse will connect the project’s major components, providing usable space that previously didn’t exist. 

Plans call for a new stoplight at Merv Griffin Way and Santa Monica Boulevard, which will also see the addition of a third westbound lane. And the Wilshire Boulevard entrance to Merv Griffin Way will be realigned to Whittier Drive, all in an effort to improve the congestion that often plagues the Wilshire/Santa Monica intersection. 

“We are building a whole carpet of greenery on the property. The architecture is extremely elegant, delicate and it creates a greenery that comes from the ground all the way to the balconies, blending in with the greenery of the [Los Angeles Country Club] golf course,” said Alagem, describing an aerial view of the project. 

Clearly, the two residential towers of One Beverly Hills are the most striking landmarks of that aerial view. Located near the southwesterly property line, the buildings feature curved, receding forms and soft edges marked by white balconies. The taller of the two is the 32-story Santa Monica Building, housing 162 units. It is located nearest to Century City in the site’s southwesterly most corner. The 28-story Garden Building holds 141 units. 

Technology and Design 

“We wanted to emphasize healthy living, capturing views and great weather from morning to sunset. No building like this exists here,” said Alagem. 

The use of the latest (and in some cases prescient) technology is another touchstone. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, project designs incorporated electrostatic filtration and dedicated ultra-pure filtered air for each residence; a reverse osmosis filtered water system; keyless and proximity-sensing doorways; and pre-call and touchless elevator controls via mobile apps. Sustainability goals include LEED1 Platinum and WELL2 certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and the International WELL Building Institute, respectively.

“Sustainability in building also means, ‘how do we achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions?’ Those 600 trees we will plant will eliminate a lot of carbon dioxide,” noted Alagem Capital Group Vice President David Alagem. 

Greywater irrigation systems, green rooftops, electric vehicle charging stations and recycled, low embodied carbon and low toxicity materials are additional features. 

Conservation efforts aside, perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the towers is the view between them. 

“Normally, if you look at buildings anywhere in an urban area, the distance is probably 50 to 70 feet. Ours are 200 feet apart. They were purposely designed so that wherever you are, you will see these beautiful view corridors,” noted Alagem. 

The two residential towers stand some 170 feet away from another major component of One Beverly Hills, a new ultra-luxury hotel and residences. Connected to the towers by the covered Merv Griffin Way, the hotel will feature 42 all-suite luxury rooms, 37 residences and a fine dining restaurant. 

The 10-story hotel will sit near the northwest corner of the site, along Wilshire Boulevard. But it will be set back 60 feet, behind a landscape of trees and a public sculpture garden. 

Hilton Enhancements 

The iconic Beverly Hilton will also undergo some renovations as part of the One Beverly Hills plan. The existing parking structure at Merv Griffin Way and Santa Monica Boulevard will be razed to build a four-story building open to the public. It will include boutiques and a casual dining pavilion open to the gardens. 

Additionally, the existing Conference Center will be rebuilt on Wilshire Boulevard. The new structure will feature tiered terraces and will also be recessed from the road. It will include a new restaurant with outdoor space and lobby bar. Upgrades are also planned for the International Ballroom, the hotel pool and cabanas, and the arrival driveway and motor court. 

The Road Ahead 

Alagem Capital Group President Ted Kahan sees One Beverly Hills as “a chance to keep the Beverly Hills brand alive and fresh.” 

He points to ongoing transformations of Century City, Santa Monica and Downtown Los Angeles. “Rodeo Drive was very innovative when it started. But it’s been here for over 50 years,” said Kahan. 

“Of course, there is fear of change. There always is,” he added. 

Alagem is no stranger to the vicissitudes of public opinion. His selling points now for One Beverly Hills are multifold. 

First of all, the entirety of the project (including new underground parking) falls within the limits of the already entitled 1.375 million square feet. A proposed new Overlay Specific Plan will adhere to the overall approved density and land uses the Specific Plans allow. 

“We are not asking for one additional square foot of building. We are taking and just moving the pieces. It is very important to understand that this property went through an environmental impact report, the City officials know it very well. Both properties went through extensive studies the last 10 years, so there is nothing missing,” said Alagem. 

In addition to thousands of construction and new full-time jobs, Alagem’s team cites estimates from real estate economics experts regarding the project’s fiscal impact over the next 30 years. Those projections include some $27 billion in local spending; $2.3 billion in total taxes and fees; plus $79 million in new revenue for schools. That’s much more, in fact, than previous development plans under separate ownership of the main lots would have rendered. 

In essence, the whole is now greater than the sum of its parts. 

“The project is also committed to make a significant contribution to the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund and to work with the City to assure the production of affordable units in Beverly Hills,” said Kahan. 

Alagem adds: “When I acquired the [Beverly Hilton] hotel, it was important to bring it back to the sense of luxury that it used to have. We invested $85 million and renovated every corner of the hotel. We completed this in 2007. In 2008, we got approval for 110 units of residential on our property and a 170-room hotel. The Waldorf Astoria 

opened in 2017. This month we celebrate three years since we opened. It’s been an incredible success for the City and for us. I think we are also the largest taxpayer in the City,” said Alagem. 

In terms of a timetable for One Beverly Hills, Alagem won’t venture a guess. But, he’s invested years in the site before. 

He’s no doubt willing to do it once again. 

Additional reporting by Lisa Bloch 

The post One Beverly Hills Launches Application Process appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Based in Chicago, the NAR is a North American trade association for the real estate industry. It is involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries and functions as a self-regulatory organization for real estate brokerage. 

Pocket or “whisper listings” help protect a high-profile buyer’s privacy and keep the looky-loos at bay. They can be a means of testing the waters prior to putting a home on the market, or a way to hide the public paper trail of a home that was perhaps priced too high and sat dormant for too long. 

This new policy dictates that all listings must be submitted to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) database within one day of being on the market, or they must remain in-house and exclusive to the listing agency only and not shared with outside brokers or sources. 

One prominent real estate executive in Beverly Hills told the Courier, “The origin of this new NAR ruling is discrimination against minorities. They don’t want anyone to be discriminated against, but the execution is questionable. We are still refining how are we going to do this, but we need to follow their rules.” 

While the new policy is national, it presents a particular problem in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills A-List circles. Pocket listings are thriving, particularly with higher value, higher-profile homes (over $10 million) and this can represent up to 30 percent of revenue for a top brokerage firm.

“It’s a killer for us,” Rochelle Maize of Nourmand & Associates told the Courier. “It’s so hard because it was a national vote and middle America is very different than Beverly Hills. A lot of business here locally is off-market because there are so many high-profile people and celebrities here.” 

“I’m not aware of issues people are having.” said Rodney Gansho, Director of Engagement at NAR and MLS committee Staff Executive. “This is not a prohibition on pocket listings and doesn’t eliminate the ability to take pocket listings,” he told the Courier. 

“The only thing that the Clear Cooperation did was create a standard where if the listing is publicly marketed, it’s questionable. If it’s a pocket listing for privacy reasons, brokers can still do that but once they start exposing it to the market, the policy indicates that listing should be put in the MLS so that others in the marketplace can also be informed about that. Then it’s no longer a pocket listing at that point.” 

He added, “There is no national policy from the NAR about what a ‘whisper listing’ is or certain numbers of people who can know about a listing. For fair housing concerns, you want to make sure that you are treating everybody fairly, plus it’s in the best interest of the client, you want to make sure you get wide distribution of a listing.” 

Jeffrey Saad, who is an Estate Director at Compass in Beverly Hills, feels the outcome could be counter to what the NAR set out to protect. “They have taken our industry from open and collaborative to private and exclusive,” he told the Courier. “This ruling has reversed the amazing progress [in the industry] and has literally done the opposite of what they were trying to accomplish.” 

“The moment I share a listing with more the than one person or it goes public in any way – this could be a sign in the front yard, postcard or an e-mail blast – it must be entered into the MLS within 24 hours,” he said. “Now the whole world knows [about the listing],” he said. 

With the new system, the listing will go into “private exclusive” so it’s only shared in-house not with the public. “This just made the bigger company the winner, he said. “The bigger your company, the more you’re sharing with in-house. Before, you could have a pocket listing forever as long as the client agreed on not putting it in the MLS to reduce number of people who saw it,” said Saad. 

The NAR and advocates of the rule say it will create a level playing field and increase transparency, but larger companies such as Compass or Coldwell Banker may have an advantage because they can expose it to not just a single office, but multiple locations. 

On Monday, May 11, a lawsuit was filed in the Northern California U.S District Court against the NAR by Top Agent Network in San Francisco. According to a recent Wall St. Journal article, the agency is claiming that the Clear Cooperation Policy will put them out of business. 

“Top Agent was a paid for service where you could post your pocket listings and it was a great way for people to find out about those listings without having to go on Zillow or Redfin,” said Maize. “Hopefully, they will figure out a way to stay in business. They have a been a huge asset amongst agents, especially in Beverly Hills, to make deals happen. It will be a shame if they couldn’t continue to do this.” 

This new policy seems to have created more competition in Beverly Hills. Most agents are bound by the NAR policies, and are subject to hefty penalties for noncompliance. “They are not just hand-slapping,” said Maize. The fines are $2,500 for the first offense, $5,000 for the second and you lose your license on the third. “Unfortunately, because our industry is so competitive, you have naysayers that are watching and if you do anything, they will turn you in. So, it’s not worth taking any risks until they figure it out,” she said. 

Josh Flagg of Rodeo Realty and Bravo television’s decade long series “Million Dollar Listing,” told the Courier he is conflicted about the new policy. 

“Most pocket listings don’t have a signed agreement,” he told the Courier. “It’s word of mouth and only about 10 brokers know about it. If you actually sign it, then one could make the argument that it should be on the open market. I can see both sides but no one should tell me what I should do with my home.” 

“What if I’m Madonna and I don’t want people to know that I’m selling my house? Or, let’s say my neighbor knocks on my door and wants to buy my house and I tell my broker at a dinner party, ‘I guess if I got the right price, I’d sell my house,’ and he tells a friend. Now I’m supposed to put my house on the market so other people can have a shot at it? It’s stupid and where does it stop? There has to be a caveat to this rule,” Flagg said. 

Despite the industry pushback, Maize remains optimistic. Like anything, it’s just really hard in the very beginning but I’m confident that it will fall into place and we will have some type of a system to fall back on,” she said. “We will continue anyway and figure out how to sell homes. The value in Beverly Hills is still holding and it’s looking good.” 

The post New Pocket Listing Guidelines Signal a Change in Beverly Hills appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Luxury real estate broker Joyce Rey, (who is responsible for over $4 billion in sales), did an analysis of westside properties over $5 million recently. “There has been a 38 percent decrease in closed sales during this period than at this same time in 2019,” she told the Courier. 

In a world where virtual viewings have become an industry standard, when a coveted in-person viewing is booked, no more than one agent and two other individuals can be present in the dwelling at the same time during a showing. 

“I was very lucky that I had three deals in escrow before the shelter in place,” said top residential broker Linda May of Hilton & Hyland. “Right now, people are doing deals but mostly with clients who saw the houses prior.” 

As for the lucky few who can enter a home, the seller (or even a building manager) can’t be on the property. According to May, “If the house is vacant there isn’t the concern with touching surfaces or disturbing personal stuff. We can’t meet and take the client around to several different properties anymore so it’s very limiting right now.” 

Before entering, the prospective buyers must agree to wash their hands or use sanitizer, don their own protective face mask, disposable rubber gloves and booties, but this has not been easy to enforce at times. 

“The challenge is to get people to do what they are supposed to do,” said Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage who has sold $5 billion in the market to date. “One time, I had to turn someone away,” said Mills. “It’s only fair when you are coming into someone else’s home that you follow the rules. We are very sympathetic to our sellers who have strangers in their homes,” added Mills. “It is more challenging but I’m still extremely busy and we just put a property in escrow, so things are still selling. We just have to do it differently.” 

As if the paperwork was not already a cumbersome part of any sales transaction, now signed declarations are needed before an in-person viewing can even take place. Anyone entering a property must provide information that to the best of their knowledge, they are not currently exhibiting any COVID-19 symptoms and have not been in contact with a person with COVID-19. This rule also applies to the seller. 

According to Rey, “Special documentation requires a signature on the part of everyone who is going into a property; so they are aware of the risks. If something should happen, they [buyer or seller] can’t blame the broker.” 

If anyone who enters the property is later diagnosed with COVID- 19, the person must immediately inform the listing agent, who will then make the best efforts to inform everyone who entered the property after the fact. 

“We are all respecting the strict COVID-19 rules and observing them,” said May. “How we pre-vet is amazing. We need to make sure we are careful and asking all the right questions.” 

“We’re just acting with a lot more precaution but, surprisingly, people are still very interested in seeing properties and we have had closings,” said Rayni Williams, co-owner (with husband Branden) of Williams and Williams Estates Group. The Williams are also combating the challenges with technology. “We started a live Instagram video chat on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. (@WilliamsandWilliams) which is a virtual caravan where we talk about the market, our listings, and answer any questions,” she told the Courier. 

Listing agents are also advised by C.A.R. to not leave brochures and flyers at the property, but instead utilize the MLS system to highlight the property. 

“We have completely pivoted and hit the reset button in a big way,” said Mills. We are doing a lot of 3D videos and trying to prequalify every buyer before we bring them in.” 

Despite the new hurdles, the market is not dropping due to the virus. “The prices have not dipped much because there has been such a retraction of inventory,” informs Rey. “People have taken their properties off the market and as a result, the shortage has buoyed prices. We are seeing a five percent decrease in pricing, but not a major dip for the most part.” 

“We’re adjusting and adapting,” said Williams. “The key to life is being flexible, rolling with punches and marching on. We have to be advisors for our clients and be ahead of everything. We are doing daily calls and Zoom meetings. I tell my clients we made it through one of the worst recessions [in 2008] and it was one of our best markets. Even if the market dips down – and it will – it will come right back. It’s going to get worse before it gets better but if you’re smart and act swiftly you will survive.” 

And, the demand for homes is still strong. “We are all working just as hard as before, but we are being creative and positioning houses differently,” said May. 

As an example of the “new normal,” May was called by another broker about one of her listings in Bel Air. “The broker wanted to do a FaceTime showing for her client but had not been to the house before. We asked if she would mind going through the house virtually with us first. Then, she walked through with her client and it was like she had been to the house already.” 

While virtual tours are not something new, “They have just become more sophisticated,” said Rey. “There is a far greater emphasis on online viewing than ever in the past. The Matterport 3D tour of the house is the most popular now. They show a model of the home called a ‘doll-house’ where you can actually see through the walls with a special camera. We are trying to use every very trick of the trade to attract people.” 

In recent cases, “Some of the people who got into deals in February and early March have dropped out entirely or are renegotiating the price,” said Rey. As for the future after COVID- 19. “I think our market is going to go crazy,” said Mills. “We will just boom after this. There is only one Beverly Hills.” 

The post Real Estate Practices During COVID-19 appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Brentwood based developer Brian Shirken of Columbus Pacific Properties, who hails from Durban, South Africa, is bringing those perks and more to the mountain ski town just a short one hour and twenty-minute flight from Los Angeles. 

As the first luxury national brand to enter the Park City marketplace in the past nine years, Pendry Residences Park City will fully open in 2021 but has already released part of the collection for 2020. 

Yes, Hollywood flocks to Park City around Sundance film festival time but the growth spurt really began about six years ago when Vail Resorts entered the local market and connected Park City and Canyons Mountain, creating the largest ski mountain in the United States. With the world-class mountain primed for more ski tourism and vacation homes, they needed the accommodations to match. 

According to Shirken, who has been skiing here with his family for decades, “Its exactly what was missing. People love Park City but they needed something accessible and family-friendly. It will be cool with variety for everyone from high-end to casual.” 

Shirken and his wife Kirsten, who has been building homes in the area for the past six years, were apparently right on the money. They sold more than 50 percent of the 152 Pendry units in the first 90 days. “Historically most of the accommodations in Park City are mid-market and then high- end in Deer Valley.” 

Before you think this will become yet another high-priced development out of financial reach for most locals, this is not the plan. “Park City was lacking the 5-star experience but at an accessible price point,” Shirken told the Courier. “We wanted to create something more accessible but not sacrificing luxury and experience. We are right in the center of all the action and will have a new ski lift that will provide access into the heart of the mountain. We are creating the new ski village for the Canyons base.” 

The Shirkens decided to build smaller units and develop a wider range of properties so that people had access at various price points. The range is from $595,000 for studio to $3.5 million for a penthouse and everything in between. 

“We wanted it to be luxurious, architectural, high-service but accessible and hip, cool and energetic,” said Shirken. “We were introduced to the Pendry, Edition and One Hotel and it became clear that is what we wanted out position to be.” 

“It was time to build this type of project,” confirmed Shirken. “For us, Montage was the company that we wanted to work with and their Pendry brand. We felt like they could be our partner and because it’s our first hotel we wanted a partner that could engage with us in a way that would have them looking at the project from our perspective as well as theirs.” 

This meant partnering with Alan and Michael Fuerstman, the dynamic father-son duo behind the Montage and Pendry brands in Southern California and Deer Valley. Alan is the founder, chairman and CEO of Montage International, and Mike is the co-founder and creative director for the Pendry. “Mike has humility and a sense of style and a strong sense of the vision for the brand,” Shirken told the Courier. “Montage has some of the best professionals working in the industry whether it be in construction or design, marketing or sales and they brought all of those resources to the table to enable us to create what we think is a really spectacular project.” 

Those resources include renowned architects SB out of San Francisco with IBI Group and top notch designers KES out of L.A. This team enabled them to create the lobby bar and a signature Japanese steak house with Montage that will lead to the only rooftop pool and bar in the area. 

“We wanted to hire the best of the best with the same passion and energy for the project that we have,” said Shirken. “And to have a very well respected, recognized brand like Pendry-Montage running the property.” This includes when people aren’t using their unit, Pendry will be renting it for them to offset cost of ownership. 

The ski in-and-out resort is fully furnished turn-key down to kitchen utensils marrying modern elegance and rustic mountain charm, with Italian Bertazzoni appliances in the open kitchens and a palette of warm woods, stones and metals, creating inviting interior spaces. Guests and residential owners will also have access to Spa Pendry with eight treatment rooms; a fitness center; Kids Club, video arcade and more. Plus, this development is closer to the airport than Deer Valley. 

With a handful of other projects being built in the area, one can’t help but wonder how laid back and understated Park City will escape the peril of becoming another Aspen or Vail. “We are building a work-force housing project so that people can afford to live here,” said Shirken. 

“One of the biggest problems of ski towns is people that work in the resorts can’t afford to live there, but this is being done in a master plan kind of way with all levels of affordability and environmentally sensitive as well,” he added. 

There is a city plan in place for Park City to be carbon neutral by 2030. “Climate change is an existential risk to the ski industry,” said Shirken, “So all of our energy will be renewable.” 

“This is an amazing quality of life. Many ski towns aren’t real. We have great restaurants, bars and clubs. We have it all but it’s understated. We are not Aspen,” Shirken concluded. 

While L.A. is flocking, so is the next generation of Mexico City. For Shirken it’s not just the winter sports but also the amazing summers with hiking, biking, waterskiing, fly fishing and golf. “It takes you away from all the problems of the world when you are here.” 

Back in Los Angeles, Pendry Hotels & Resorts has already announced the first release of Pendry Residences West Hollywood by Montage Hotels & Resorts for purchase. Together with AECOM Capital, the investment adviser of global infrastructure firm AECOM, and Combined Properties Chairman Ronald S. Haft, the Sunset Boulevard corner in the old House of Blues space is still in full construction mode but scheduled for a fall 2020 opening. At this location, the 40 residences will range from $3 million to $30 million and will include a 149-room hotel with multiple Wolfgang Puck concepts and a membership only club called The Britely. 

Architectural residences by EYRC feature floorplans ranging from 2,900 to 6,000 square feet with large private verandas. Select homes include landscaped terraces of up to 3,400 square feet with private pools, spas, and outdoor kitchens with incredible views. Designed by Martin Brudnizki, the interiors include custom kitchens, floor-to-ceiling windows, white oak floors, Poliform walk-in closets and dressing rooms, and private elevator access from a secured parking garage. 

Swiss-born Estelle Lacroix who worked for Thomas Keller in New York, and opened the NeueHouse in Hollywood, was brought in as the Managing Director of Lifestyle for the private club that will only be accepting 2,000 members. “We are trying to build a community,” said LaCroix. “A lot of social clubs and co-working spaces have opened in the area but we want to focus on being a place for fun and an intimate community with lots of amenities and programming.” 

Part of that programming will include a private garden entrance, an L.A. focused retail store, a rec room with a bowling alley and screening room, plus a private elevator that will take you to the spa, 24-hour gym, pool or private rooftop with a Hollywood Hills view. There will be a music venue programed several times a week with a 200-person capacity and hopefully, the popular Live at Montage concert series from Deer Valley will continue at this location. Lacroix added, “What music venue in LA gives you access to great food and drinks?” 

Five Questions with Mike Fuerstman, Co-Founder and Creative Director for Pendry 

BHC: How are you splitting your time between locations in West Hollywood and Park City? 

Mike Fuerstman: My family and I lived blocks from where Pendry West Hollywood is located for almost 10 years, and while we reside most of the year in Orange County, will 

still own our home in West Hollywood. It is one of the most exciting, dynamic, and walkable neighborhoods in the world. We plan to spend much of the year at Pendry West Hollywood as the epicenter for our social life and business lives. I’m sure we will host lots of dinners, entertain in the social club and on the rooftop, and generally be around to mingle with guests and friends, making sure the hotel feels amazing. 

Pendry Park City will be our winter escape. The summer in the mountains is lovely as well, but we wait all year for the snow and the chance to ski and make memories together. Between the festive season, Sundance, ski week, and a couple of long weekends, we will be there plenty in the winter. We will usually go for at least a few weekends in the summer as well. 

What was your vision for Pendry Park City and why did you want to expand in that market? 

We envision Pendry Park City to be a modern ski resort, one of the first in North America with a contemporary architectural point of view. The design is elegant and chic, yet comfortable. We will have unique venues that aren’t typically featured in a ski resort, such as a rooftop pool and event space, disco parlor, several boutiques for shopping, a variety of interesting restaurants, and some other surprises. 

We have always loved Park City (and personally it’s where I learned how to ski) and we have had great success with our Montage Deer Valley resort. But we’ve always been on the lookout for the opportunity to create another type of mountain resort, one that is much more contemporary in design and programming, to push forward the idea of what a North American ski hotel can be. When we met Brian and Kirsten Shirken, our visionary partners, and began to hear their ambition for a modern resort in the middle of The Canyons, we knew this was the perfect fit for Pendry. 

Are there plans to expand the Live at the Montage music concept to the West Hollywood or Pendry Park City or how will music be infused in the properties? 

Live at Montage is awesome! I’m really proud of the program our team at Montage Deer Valley has put together. We would love to do something similar for Pendry Park City, we’re just starting to explore what a collaboration would look like and are talking to a few artists. Fortunately, we have the venues to create something spectacular. Live music is in our DNA as a company, so our guests can almost certainly expect some sort of cultural music series. 

There are similarities but how will the audience and programming of events differ from Sunset strip to Park City and the forthcoming La Quinta location? 

Every Pendry property offers bold and sophisticated design and caters to guests that want a stylish, luxury experience, but yes, West Hollywood, Park City, and La Quinta are all very different. And each Pendry Hotel has an entirely unique collection of offerings that are reflective of its destination. Pendry West Hollywood, for example, has a Social Club with bar and bowling alley, a screening room, a music venue, and some glamorous and intimate bars. And all of the culinary offerings are in partnership with LA’s most acclaimed chef, Wolfgang Puck. The vibe is very glamorous and very LA, and the venues and programming reflect as much. 

Pendry Park City is the center of a ski village, with a ski-in, ski-out location and jumping off point for outdoor experiences, an amazing Après ski bar and lounge, multiple restaurants, a disco parlor, a collection of shopping boutiques. The style is contemporary and fresh, with offerings that are active and bustling. 

With Pendry La Quinta, we are bringing to life a modern desert resort experience. The architecture is mid-century, the interiors 

are clean and sophisticated, and both take advantage of the sweeping views of the Santa Rosa mountains. The grounds are serene while the pool scene is buzzing. We have an incredible golf course that wraps the base of the mountain, as well as our neighboring Montage property with a signature Spa Montage. The whole setting allows for this amazing escapism, just a few hours’ drive from LA. 

All three properties, West Hollywood (city), Park City (mountains), and La Quinta (desert) feature amazing spas and fitness centers, resort pools, and some of the best assortments of bars and restaurants in their destinations. And all offer truly spectacular residences available for purchase, which allow our guests to live more permanently with us and enjoy this lifestyle year-round. 

With so much competition in L.A. – especially on Sunset – how do you plan to keep things interesting for the Pendry project? What do you see as key differentiators for the brand in the West Hollywood location? 

We’re really fortunate at Pendry West Hollywood. We have a world class location on Sunset, with views of all of Los Angeles. We have world class architecture and interiors, with AIA architect of the year Ehrlich Architects and esteemed designer Martin Brudnizki, respectively. We have one of the all-time great chefs, Wolfgang Puck, a Los Angeleno, overseeing all of the culinary destinations on property. On top of that, we are introducing a Social Club, screening room, music venue, rooftop pool, and a tremendous spa. And as a Southern California luxury hospitality company, this is a home market for us, and our team is so excited to bring our gracious service culture to West Hollywood and make our guests and residents feel amazing. This should be a winning combination of team, product, place, and culture – we can’t wait to bring it to life. 

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“What trends are you seeing as far as length of time homes are staying on the market? And if a property is taking longer than expected to sell, what steps do you take to maintain the relationship with the seller and keep the listing?” 

“Even before news of a coming recession started making the rounds, the real estate market was sluggish. For about the past year and a half, it’s been a bit uncertain. With all the ‘what ifs’ out there right now – trade wars, Brexit, the 2020 election – the reality is that it can take longer to sell a home. 

If you’re a seller in this climate, it may mean that you need to think about accepting an offer that’s less than your asking price. Why? Because if a recession does hit – and we know at some point it will because the economy is cyclical – that offer may be far more than the seller will get if they wait until the market goes further downhill. 

Sometimes, agents need to explain to sellers that it may be in their best interest to accept a short-term setback in order to achieve a long-term gain. 

A little education can go a long way toward fostering a healthy relationship between an agent and a client. They may not share the same perspective – but it’s part of the agent’s role to help them understand ALL the market conditions that could be contributing to the property not selling as quickly as the seller might have expected.” 

“It’s clear that we are seeing properties linger on the market for longer stretches as the market is correcting. However, we are still among the strongest markets in the world. Homes that are priced properly and in a compelling location will receive a great deal of interest and sell quickly. 

And if a property is taking longer than expected to sell, what steps do you take to maintain the relationship with the seller and keep the listing? 

We maintain an open, honest and transparent dialogue with the seller throughout the listing period. Again, it is a correcting market, so if a home is not selling there would need to be a conversation about a price correction. We’ve found that with a trusting and open relationship between broker and seller, this doesn’t need to be an oppositional conversation.” 

“It’s a function of price (higher takes longer). Properties under $10 million priced correctly are selling briskly. We are at the end of sellers thinking they know the value of their home so aspirational pricing means excessive market time and reductions over time until the price is correct. There is a glut of speculative houses that will take years to be absorbed and the prices will have to come down considerably. The flats of Beverly Hills have been the best market in town but now the spec builders from the bird streets of West Hollywood are building very modern homes in the flats and I think they will be problematic to sell.” 

“The real estate market is adjusting into a more even playing field for both buyers and sellers. Newer listings are being priced more realistically based upon location, a home’s age and square footage, lot size, quality and unique features and floor plan. I believe that most sellers are pricing their properties at a perceived value to immediately capture the largest audience within their price range. This is due to the market being very price sensitive in conjunction with buyers being very astute. I’m also noticing that a number of older listings are coming back on the market at new and improved listing prices. 

According to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of 9/26/19, in the Beverly Hills area only, there are 108 active listings, 10 in escrow and 82 properties sold. The average days on market is 121.” 

“Clients always ask what they think their house is going to sell for and obviously realtors don’t have a crystal ball, but we do have experience and knowledge of the market in the neighborhood. It varies, because some clients want to sell their house very fast so we try to list it right under what we think the price should be. Some clients want to go for the gusto and see if they can get an emotional buyer that will pay their price. So, there are two strategies, but luckily, Los Angeles is still a very healthy market. 

“Maintaining your relationship with your seller or buyer is just like a marriage or a friendship. You have to be open and honest and communicate and the minute that you stop communicating with your client is the minute things can fall apart.” 

“Generally speaking, high-end properties are staying on the market longer than they have in the past. The most important thing I do to maintain a good relationship with a seller in this marketplace is to manage their expectations from the beginning, especially as it relates to the time involved in getting a property sold and pricing/value.” 

“More than ever, pricing a home ‘properly’ is of the utmost importance. The time a home sits on the market is very dependent on area. Luckily, the Beverly Hills market is strong, especially if you have the right agent representing you. A general rule of thumb is that good products, priced properly, sell. If you list a home and are not getting showings, it’s important to get to the root of the problem so that you’re getting the greatest number of real buyers in the home, as often as possible. Communication is vital between listing agent and seller and it needs to truly be a team effort where transparency and feedback is paramount. It’s important for sellers to know that their agent is involved, engaged, and actively pursuing the right buyer – and has their finger on the pulse of the market and buyer pool.” 

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“In light of the continuing spotlight on local residential real estate, what is the most important advice you can offer home sellers?” 

“The best advice I offer my sellers is to recognize the current state of the market. We are in a very price-conscious market. Sales are happening frequently, however, to fetch the most amount of money in this market, you must price the home with value perception. Buyers are extraordinarily savvy and are not only aware of price per square foot but all surrounding homes sales. It is important that you sell your home quickly, as accruing days on the market will ultimately result in a lower sales price, longer carrying cost (which is added to seller costs) and one very negative scenario… becoming stale or shopworn, which indicates there is a stigma or a problem with the property. Most times there is nothing wrong with the home, but in fact, the only issue is that it’s overpriced. 

“Perception is reality and the phrase ‘the market is speaking to you’ could never be more true than in this current market. You cannot be priced too low in this market, if you are you will get multiple offers. However, if you are priced too high you will get no offers and in fact your showings will be infrequent. A general rule of thumb, how many showings per week are you getting? Three or more indicates you are well priced and close to offers. 

“If you do happen to come out with the wrong price because a spouse, investor or partner wants to ‘try’ a certain number, just make an adjustment quickly, within a couple weeks, listen to the market as it speaks to you. Lastly, hire a well-seasoned professional and take their lead based on facts and their qualifications. Often times the property is too close to the owner for them to make the call on how to price it, so you must separate yourself from the emotional aspect and leave it in the hands of a trusted broker.” 

“You are selling the most expensive asset you own, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression! Try to make a ‘wow’ factor for your buyers. It is important to make sure your home appeals to the senses: eyes, ears and nose. It’s easy to light scented candles, play some soft music in the background, put out fresh flowers and make sure your house has good lighting. The entrance to your home should be beautifully landscaped with flowers and a green lawn. Be sure to declutter and organize the entire home because you want it to look spacious, even in the closets. You don’t want anything to fall on a buyer when opening a closet. 

Most importantly, you don’t want to distract a potential buyer with your presence. To help a buyer visualize themselves living in the house, it is best to not be home during showings or open houses, same goes for pets. My advice is to interview three strong brokers in your area and get an independent appraisal. If you are serious about selling your home, accessibility is important, and you have to be prepared to accommodate a buyer who requests a last-minute showing.” 

“The best advice I can give to sellers of luxury properties is to carefully analyze value. That can be done with an experienced and professional realtor looking at every detail of the subject property and comparing it to similar properties in the area. Often, a property receives an offer which the seller deems low, however in today’s changing marketplace, it’s important to negotiate, and perhaps take a number that’s less than expected. There are many instances of rejected offers where months later the seller regrets ignoring the buyer’s interest. We also see examples of record- breaking prices at the high end. Each property is unique in every respect. Selecting the correct asking price is the most important starting point when deciding to sell. 

“It’s absolutely crucial to work with a reputable agent. Hand-pick an agent who is knowledgeable in the overall real estate market, but also your home’s area specifically, to ensure an effective pricing strategy. There are a number of precautions to be made prior to hitting the market (i.e. cleaning, staging, pre-marketing, etc.) and the right agent will work hand-in-hand with you throughout them all. Once the home is ready for market, an aggressive marketing strategy catered to the unique features of your properly is critical for maximum exposure. Once offers start coming in, your trusted agent will be there to guide you through the escrow process to a low-stress sale!” 

“Obviously, getting top dollar is everyone’s objective! An experienced agent who specializes in either the architecture of your home or the location (or both) is the most ideal person to have in your corner! They will help you position the house and create a marketing strategy to achieve your mutual goals. Being part of a collective of agents that sell like properties is always an advantage for the seller. Extensive marketing exposure is also key. Digital, print and targeted social media enhance your opportunity to reach clients on a domestic and global level. Additionally, one of the most significant aspects of successfully selling a house is timing. Like anything else in life, timing is everything!” 

“The most important advice that I give my sellers is always the same. I tell my sellers to make their home look its absolute best. What does that mean? Buyers buy a lifestyle. They want to feel that they are buying the way that they would like to live. I recommend clean, uncluttered spaces and newly-painted walls. I ask my sellers to put away personal belongings and family photos so the buyer can feel like it is their house, not the seller’s home. Many of my sellers say that it is nice feeling like they are living in a model home while waiting to sell!” 

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