Los Angeles County leaders are proposing to buy a skyscraper in the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles and move its workers from the Hall of Administration and several other county buildings to the high-rise.
The Board of Supervisors has its eye on the 52-story Gas Company Tower, a commercial office building at 555 West 5th Street, for the new county headquarters. The steel and glass building is reportedly about half-vacant. It is listed for sale by several commercial real estate companies.
In a controversial vote on Tuesday, Oct. 8 the Board approved a notice of intent to purchase the office tower for $200 million. The vote was 3-1-1, with supervisors Lindsey Horvath, Holly Mitchell and Kathryn Barger in favor. Supervisor Janice Hahn cast a strong “no” vote, while Supervisor Hilda Solis abstained.
The matter will come before the Board for two public hearings and is expected to generate public comments.
The hearing dates have not been confirmed, but they could happen on Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, according to sources in the county. On Nov. 6, a Wednesday board meeting the day after Election Day, the Board will hear more public comments and can vote on the purchase and acquisition of the building, said CEO Fesia Davenport.
Hahn said at the Tuesday meeting the price reflects a strong buyer’s market for empty office buildings. While Hahn said some call it “a fire sale” that makes “financial sense” for the county, she said leaving the Los Angeles Civic Center would be a bad move that doesn’t serve the county’s 10 million constituents.
“It would fundamentally change how the public sees county government,” she said at the meeting. “We would kick out county employees from the Hall of Administration to go to this location.”
The Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration building, named after Janice Hahn’s late father who was a longtime supervisor, houses the L.A. County Assessor’s office, county chief executive offices, and the offices of the five supervisors, as well as the auditorium where the supervisors and various commissions hold public meetings at 500 W. Temple St.
Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration is where the Los Angeles County Supervisors meet in Los Angeles. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
The Hall of Administration is located in the civic center adjacent to the Los Angeles County Music Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, county Hall of Records and other county buildings. Gloria Molina Grand Park lies between the Music Center and Los Angeles City Hall, and also abuts the Hall of Administration. The park has become a focal point for New Year’s Eve and Halloween celebrations. The area is served by the LA Metro B Line Civic Center/Grand Park Station.
“I don’t think that L.A. County should abandon Grand Park and our civic center,” Hahn said. “I worry what will happen to this center of downtown between Hill and Broadway if we decide to shutter these county buildings, instead of retrofitting them and investing in the future of the civic center.”
Children play in the water at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Solis abstained from the vote to move forward, saying she wanted to hear more about plans to retrofit the county buildings in downtown. She asked for a “holistic plan” on upgrading the older county buildings before the Nov. 6 vote.
“There is also value in preserving the history of our building. It was built by the first prominent Black architect, Paul Williams,” Solis added.
The Hall of Administration was built in 1960, along with the adjacent Los Angeles County Courthouse, and conceived as part of the 1947 Civic Center Master Plan. Williams was joined by fellow architects in designing the building in the late moderne style, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy.
On their website, the conservancy noted the building is known for “its lavishly appointed interior,” which includes wood paneling still found today on hallways and within supervisor offices.
In February 2023, Brookfield DTLA Fund Office Trust Investor, an investment trust that owns several downtown L.A. office buildings, announced in SEC filings that its subsidiaries had defaulted on two downtown L.A. high-rises: the Gas Company Tower and a second building, this newspaper group reported.
One analyst at that time said the buildings were worth less than their loans.
Vacancies were the result of demand for office space dropping precipitously due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and the continuing trend of employees working from home. Downtown L.A. had a 25% office vacancy rate during the second quarter of 2023.
The Gas Company Tower built in 1991 has 1.5 million square feet of office space. It was designed by Richard Keating of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which also designed the Sears Tower in Chicago, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy.
The building has an elliptical top of blue glass made to look like a gas flame, representing the building’s original tenant, Southern California Gas Co., according to the L.A. Conservancy website.
While the building apparently is available for much less than its original worth due to a down market, some still question the county’s expenditure for new digs, saying the money may be better spent.
“Finding $200 million for office space during a budget crisis shows the county can act fast when it sees value in real estate. Imagine if that same urgency and focus were applied to scaling up permanent supportive housing and transformative community services — investments that could truly uplift our neighborhoods,” said Brian Kaneda, deputy director of Californian’s for a Responsible Budget and member of the Re-Imagine L.A. Coalition, which focuses on budget advocacy in L.A. County, in an emailed response.
Hahn said the county government serves both a practical and logistical purpose in the downtown civic center area.
“I think there is value in a civic center in a city — a singular place where people know to go when they need help from their government. And decades ago, the planners who shaped downtown Los Angeles thought so too,” Hahn said.
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Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration / Los Angeles County Hall of Administration – LA Conservancy
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