[Carfreeliving] LA unbundling parking?

[Brinkman, Cheryl]

But, the the parking is on floors 5 -16, all above ground. So they still
have some room for improvement.
 
 
 
Want Deed to Park Place?

By Cara Mia DiMassa, Times Staff Writer

 

 

When David Kean got home from his shopping spree Sunday, he immediately
went online. 

 

"Well, I spent 40K today," wrote Kean, a real estate agent, in a post on
the website LoftLA.com. "Expensive weekend."

   

Pricey jewelry? Luxury car? 

 

No, parking spaces.

 

Kean is a future resident of 1100 Wilshire, a swanky high-rise condo
development downtown. And for his $40,000, he bought the right to park
his Mercedes CLK coupe and Lincoln Aviator in two spaces on the sixth
floor of his building. 

 

Not long ago in car-friendly Los Angeles, free parking seemed like a
birthright. 

 

But the real estate boom has hit even the parking lot. 

 

1100 Wilshire is selling parking spots for $15,000 to $20,000 a pop,
offering new residents, who are paying $400,000 to $1 million for their
units, the chance to wrap the cost of their spaces into their mortgages.

 

Such prices may have been standard in tony sections of New York, Boston
and San Francisco, long known for their walk-able downtowns and
elaborate public transportation systems. But in Los Angeles - home to
some of the world's first parking garages as well as those sprawling
postwar shopping mall parking lots - the price tags are raising some
eyebrows.

 

Real estate professionals said the setup seems unusual - even along the
canyon of high-rise condos in West Los Angeles. Shel Kirschner, an agent
with Coldwell Banker in West Los Angeles, said that he hadn't heard of
selling parking spaces separately from condo units.

 

"If you buy a unit in any of condos on the Westside, 90% of the time,
you do have assigned parking" included with the purchase price, he said.

 

Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at UCLA, said the
arrangement "is bringing us more into line with what other big cities
are doing." 

 

By charging separately for parking, said Shoup, author of "The High Cost
of Free Parking," 1100 Wilshire in effect encourages use of public
transportation by residents of the building, which is just a few blocks
from a Metro subway stop. 

 

"Unbundling the parking gives people a new choice," said Shoup. "Maybe
it will deter people who want to own three cars, and encourage people
who own only one. This is exactly the direction L.A. ought to be moving:
People who use less parking pay less for housing." 

 

In other cities, "it would be unthinkable to have the parking thrown in
for free. It would turn it into L.A."

 

Residents of the 1100 building get two unassigned spaces with their
purchase price, said Kevin Ratner, a senior vice president of Forest
City Enterprises, which is developing the project.

 

But the building's design requires drivers to climb a four-story "speed
ramp" before parking on the fifth through 16th floors. The unassigned
spaces are on the higher floors - and just getting to them could be
enough to induce acrophobia. 

 

Hence the premium parking. 

 

"You can buy your way down in the building," said Ratner. "I would do it
if I were buying there. When you roll it into the mortgage, the monthly
impact is comparable to what you would pay for parking. And for resale,
it's great." 

 

While urban planners might hope the high prices will drive some
residents to mass transit, early evidence suggests otherwise. 

 

Developer Forest City rolled out the parking program just a few weeks
ago, and the response has been positive, Ratner said. 

 

"You can buy more than two spaces ... you could have more than two cars.
It is a car-centric town," he said. "Maybe your husband has a couple of
hot rods."

 

In downtown Los Angeles, where parking has long been at a premium, some
say the 1100 Wilshire prices are just another necessary evil. Many lots
downtown charge $100 or more per month for parking. Residents of the
Higgins Building at 2nd and Main streets recently voted to charge
themselves a condo fee of $65 a month to pay for a valet for themselves
and their guests. 

 

Kean, the 1100 Wilshire condo owner who purchased two spaces, said he is
guaranteeing himself an easy ride home. "Otherwise, you come home late,
and you have to circle up to the 11th floor.... It's a mile up."

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-parking9nov09,1,4393294.story?co
ll=la-headlines-california
<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-parking9nov09,1,4393294.story?c
oll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true> &ctrack=1&cset=true

 


 

 
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