Chinese developer City Century has finally closed on a sought-after development site in downtown to build a $1 billion housing and retail complex adjacent to the L.A. Live entertainment venue.
The project, called the Olympia, is to be built on a site that the developer has now closed on for $121 million. The site is located on Olympic Boulevard along the 110 Freeway, according to the Los Angeles Times.
City Century announced three years ago that it wanted to build three high-rise residential towers sandwiched between L.A. Live and the Metropolis residential and hotel complex. The project could include over 1,300 residential units as well as shops and restaurants.
The City Century acquisition comes at a time when other Chinese investors have pulled back in the United States. Government policies put in place in 2016 have restricted the flow of money out of the country, and the U.S.-China trade war has also dampened investment.
The Times noted that direct investment by Chinese companies in the U.S. has dropped from a six-month average of more than $20 billion in 2016 and the first half of 2017 to less than $5 billion on average in the last two years, according to data from Rhodium Group.
Oceanside Plaza, another major Chinese development downtown, has stalled since January. The condominium, hotel and retail project, valued at more than $1 billion, was being built by Oceanwide Holdings, a publicly traded international conglomerate.
Greenland USA, a subsidiary of major Chinese developer Greenland Group, is wrapping up the $1.3 billion Metropolis, a 3.3-million-square-foot development three blocks south of the Staples Center that has reshaped the DTLA skyline. [LAT] — Pat Maio