The Question of the Year for South Park: What’s up with Oceanwide?
A period of no-news or, at best, murky news on the stalled, three-towered development project known as Oceanwide Plaza has started finding its way out of the fog.
Oceanwide Holdings, the huge Chinese owner/developer of the half-finished $2.5 Billion mixed use project has admitted “Liquidity Issues” and stated its intensions to sell/consolidate all of the company’s other US based properties and use the proceeds, (as well as a ton of new investment) to finish the block sized development directly across Figueroa from the Crypto.com Arena. Oceanwide Plaza is estimated to need another $1.2 Billion to finish construction and at least $200 Million to pay off existing liens on the previous construction completed by Lendlease who pulled off the job several years ago due to non-payment of invoices.
Oceanwide Holdings disclosed in a recently released Unaudited Interim Results report that the company is in active negotiations to solve financial issues with their New York and Hawaian Islands projects. Key to solving the remaining liquidity problems will be the attraction of new investor funds which has been made more difficult due to the recent dramatic rise in interest rates.
The project broke ground in 2015 with plans for occupancy by 2020 but construction ground to a halt in early 2019 and has languished since. Hopes are high that the current malaise will be put behind them and construction will be restarted in 2023 and completed by mid 2025. If finished, Oceanwide Plaza will be the crown jewel of South Park and Downtown LA real estate featuring 504 residential condominiums, a 184 room Park Hyatt Hotel and over 150,000 square feet of retail shops and restaurants. In addition, Oceanwide will have the largest LED electronic billboard in the US. The location of the project is unarguably spectacular with it’s close proximity to LA Live and planned Olympic activities at the end of the decade.
Completion of this beautiful property is a key to the future of South Park and would add many new residents and boost commercial and entertainment activity. We’ve got our fingers crossed and are rooting loudly for Oceanwide Holdings’success!
By: John Nilsson