The Risings Go Cool
Industry icon Nelson Rising, 72, is not just age-defying, but he's got 44-year old son Chris to keep him that way. And they're applying their youthfulness to their work, showing that a mammoth Beaux Arts structure in the Financial District can be remade into high-style creative office.
We snapped them Monday catching up on business together at the PacMutual campus they purchased in April of last year at 6th and Grand. The two started Rising Realty Partners in 2011 and already own 16 buildings and 2.4M SF. But they don't agree on everything: Nelson's got hot water in that cup; Chris prefers room temp.
RRP's landmark at 523 6th is actually three connected buildings that were constructed between 1908 and 1926. By means of collapsing corridors, they've taken the building from 425k rentable SF to 460k and are budgeting $15M for CapX and TIs. They bought it with NY-based financial partner Mount Kellett Capital for $60M from Alliance Commercial Partners, which had paid $68M in 2007 and also invested $15M in repairs. Originally RRP bid off-market, but even when that triggered an auction in 2011, the recession-fatigued competition stayed away, and they had the makings of a bargain. With major tenants including popular online retailer Nasty Gal, Seattle-based starchitect NBBJ, and American Business Bank, rents have risen from an average $1.90 to $3.50/SF.
Among improvements, they've removed a single story Verizon retail store to return a courtyard to the building, which they believe will draw the neighborhood into a newly signed Le Pain Quotidien, Earth Bar, and Tender Greens moving into the building in the next couple months. Nelson remembers first noticing PacMutual in 1966 when he was a young lawyer at O'Melveny walking by it with a partner en route to the California Club.
With the help of Johnson Fein architects, ceilings are being raised to 12 feet, and pipes, bricks, and columns are being exposed. Man, you'd think you're in San Fran's SoMa district, except instead of small buildings, this one's huge. Of course, WiFi wafts through every floor.
Carpeting has been removed to reveal polished marble. Most upgrades will be done by March.
Outside of their own 7,000 SF sixth-floor office that Gensler is building out, RRP will have pure sunshine.
The entrance is not only off Grand, it is grand.
They don't do detailing like they used to.
On the other hand, some beautiful windows were plastered over in decades past but will soon be recovered.
PacMutual is adjacent to the Biltmore and both face Pershing Square, placing them at the hub of the new downtown experience, surrounded by LA Live, South Park, the Arts District, the Bank District, Bunker Hill, and Civic Center. With the area now at 50,000 nighttime residents, and 6,000Ã units under construction, all they seem to need is an Expo Line to the beach and a Whole Foods. Oh, wait, they're getting those!
Nelson has a lot of accomplishments under his belt: pioneer of Playa Vista, developer of Library Square, and on the board of the Irvine Co and Caltech. But now he and Chris are literally reaching the sky: Does even the Binoculars Building have an 87 foot green wall?
