Graffiti towers set to be cleared for cleanup and sale

The sale of notorious Oceanwide Plaza in downtown Los Angeles is expected to be approved by a bankruptcy court judge, clearing the path for removal of graffiti that has loomed over the city skyline for years and completion of the long-stalled real estate development.

Work cleaning the skyscrapers — known informally as Graffiti Towers — will begin immediately, according to the $517-million sale agreement tentatively approved by federal judge Deborah J. Saltzman.

On Monday, the city withdrew its objection to the Chapter 11 sale, saying the buyer had agreed to begin graffiti removal immediately and formally close the sale in six months.

The plan will likely lead to substantial movement toward completion of the project ahead of the 2028 Olympics and speed cleanup, which nearby residents and businesses have been demanding.

“Completing this project is about far more than finishing a building — it’s about restoring confidence, reconnecting a vital commercial corridor, and unlocking the economic potential of one of the city’s most strategic destinations ahead of a transformative decade for Los Angeles,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “I look forward to an expedited closing and the proposed buyer delivering on their commitments.”

The approved buyer of the mothballed residential, hotel and retail project is a partnership led by Kali P. Chaudhuri, whose KPC Development Co. owns and builds commercial properties in California and India.

KPC and partner Lendlease, the original contractor for the project, filed an initial purchase agreement with the court in February after a lengthy auction process.

The original developer, Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings, spent about $1.2 billion on the project before running out of money in 2019 and halting construction at about 60% completion. It will take about another $850 million to finish it, said John Petty, executive vice president of real estate and construction for KPC.

KPC will complete the project as designed, Petty said, with 504 residential units, a luxury hotel and a shopping center.

While graffiti removal will begin within two weeks, he said, construction will start after the sale closes. The immediate goal is to get the complex looking nearly finished from the outside in time for the Olympics, Petty said.

The first phase of construction will include installing the massive LED screen planned to wrap around the base of the complex at 11th, Figueroa and 12th streets.

Early in 2024, taggers began turning Oceanwide Plaza’s skyscrapers into canvases for graffiti. BASE jumpers parachuted from its heights, and a performance artist recorded himself teetering along a one-inch-wide slackline strung between two of the property’s 40-story towers.

The complex gained fame as an arresting sight on the L.A. skyline, a graffiti-covered oddity on Figueroa Street — the wide thoroughfare that connects downtown’s financial district with L.A. Live, Crypto.com Arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center. It fills a large city block across the street from the arena, an A-plus location in real estate terms for being in the midst of year-round activity.

The removal of graffiti and eventual completion of the towers will be a relief to people who live downtown, said Cassy Horton, co-founder of the Downtown Residents Assn.

To many who live downtown, Oceanwide Plaza is “a massive beacon of lawlessness and dysfunction” that represents the city’s “inability to keep downtown clean and safe. Having some forward progress means a lot to folks,” Horton said.

“This is an important next step in turning one of Downtown’s most visible symbols of blight into one of its greatest comeback stories,” said Nella McOsker, president of the Central City Assn. business group, in a statement. “We expect new ownership to be a good neighbor and immediately remediate blight conditions, and we need the city to continue its work to cut red tape so that Oceanwide can restart construction and deliver a project that Angelenos deserve.”

While the graffiti has to go, Petty acknowledged the talent apparent in its application.

“There’s some incredible artwork on that building, and we are paying respect to the graffiti artists” with a planned coffee table book, he said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.