The Garmont Capitol Building cost $800,000 to construct in 1926.
NEWS
Change Coming With Two Historic Garment Buildings Being Converted Into Loft-Style Apartments
The 12-story Garment Capitol Building, built in 1926, has a faded Gothic Revival exterior whose roof is punctuated with 5-foot-tall graffiti spray painted on the side.
Just a few doors away, the 12-story Maxfield Building has a lime-green Art Deco exterior bleached a few shades lighter by the sun and a lobby that has seen better days when it was the home of various clothing manufacturers and textile offices that moved in after the building was completed in 1925.
Since the 1970s, the structures were part of the vast Anjac Fashion Buildings empire, owned by the Needleman family, which rented the structures out to sewing contractors and textile-related offices. In 2006 and 2007, the buildings were sold for a little more than $41 million to Jade Enterprises, which basically kept the structures on life support as the economy started to nosedive.
Then, two years ago, Los Angeles–based Capital Foresight Development,headed by Naty Saidoff, bought the architectural gems. The Garment Capitol Building sold for $5.1 million, and the Maxfield Building sold for $6.2 million.
Saidoff, who in 2012 bought the Santa Fe Lofts at Sixth and Main streets near Skid Row, is turning the two Fashion District structures into loft-style apartments that will include a variety of living spaces—from 500-square-foot studios to larger, luxurious penthouses to be added to the roofs of both buildings.
The ground floors are being built out to be restaurant ready and/or house retail shops and design studios.
“We’re very happy these two buildings are being converted,” said Kent Smith, executive director of the Los Angeles Fashion District, a business-improvement district that covers more than 100 blocks in the old garment district. “Those buildings had been marginally used.”
The transformation of old garment buildings to lofts is nothing new. But no such projects have taken place since 2009, when the Emil Brown Lofts, a 1922 building at Ninth and Santee streets, became loft-style apartments now almost completely leased up.
For years, the recession and the slow economic recovery that ensued dried up development funds and loans, but a number of new projects are hitting their stride right now.
Debbie Welsch, in charge of asset management at Capital Foresight Development, said that work on the Garment Capitol Building started several weeks ago. Already, new glass is being installed in the tall industrial-style windows for the structure’s 77 apartments. The opening date for the new apartments is June 2015. “Many people are going to want to live there because the views from some of those units of the Los Angeles skyline are priceless,” Welsch said.
The company is still taking bids from contractors to work on the Maxfield Building, which will have 96 units that should open in October 2015. The building will probably be painted some shade of gray.
Demolition at the Maxfield Building yielded some surprises. Welsch said crews discovered a vault behind a second-floor wall. When they opened it, they found jewelry and old family photos that belonged to the Needleman family. They were returned to Steve Needleman, who had his Anjac Fashion Buildings office there until he sold the two high rises. He said he was happy the new owners returned the brooches, necklaces and earrings, which had belonged to his mother and grandmother and carried a lot of sentimental value.
He is also happy to see the buildings renovated. “They need to be re-energized and brought back to life,” said Needleman, who owns a number of buildings on Broadway, including the Orpheum Theatre. “Those larger projects I don’t do.”
An architectural frontier
Right now, the area surrounding the Garment Capitol and the Maxfield Building is an urban wasteland at night and on weekends, when few pedestrians venture by. The structures are located a few blocks away from the Flower District and wedged in between fabric stores, trim shops and taco stands. The Santee Court and Santee Village residential area is nearby.
Many urban planners believe the new apartment buildings will stoke other kinds of developments, such as new stores, restaurants and coffee shops. “What we have seen in the rest of downtown is the residents come first, and then the ground-floor retail responds to that,” Smith said.
He points to Broadway between Eighth and Ninth streets. The once-shabby street got an injection of life in 2001 when Needleman spent $3.5 million to rehab the Orpheum Theatre, which opened in 1926 as a vaudeville showplace and later showed movies. The theater still retained some spectacular design elements, such as elegant chandeliers, plush curtains and ornate ceilings. Since Needleman renovated the theater, it has become a vibrant entertainment hub for concerts by well-known artists, a location for movies and commercials, and a chic events center. With the theater renovation came the opening of the Orpheum Lofts, located over the theater.
