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Sprayers in action: A man is working on the facade of one of the towers of Oceanwide Plaza
Photo: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images
The project was intended to be part of a “new Los Angeles,” a “metaphor” for the resurgence of the city center, with a luxury hotel, more than 500 luxury apartments and an upscale shopping center. An ensemble with the illustrious name of Oceanwide Plaza, which rises more than 180 meters high for the whole world to see. So said then-Mayor Eric Garcetti at the official start of construction in March 2015.
Today, Oceanwide Plaza terrifies Garcetti's successor, Karen Bass, as she says. Local politicians speak of an “eyesore” for the city.
Nothing has come of the dreams of old. The three buildings at Oceanwide Plaza were erected but were never completed. In 2019, construction work was stopped because the owner, the Chinese Oceanwide Holdings, ran out of money after having already invested a billion dollars in the project. Political tensions also probably played a role; the regime in Beijing may have ensured that no more investments flowed.
The fact is: Since then, the high-rises have stood as ghost towers in downtown Los Angeles. A metaphor for the failure of capitalism.
Graffiti, shots, parachutists
For a long time this didn't seem to bother anyone much. Until the graffiti came. It started a few weeks ago and word quickly got around in the tagging scene that there was an extraordinary place to leave your signature. Floor by floor, sprayers immortalized themselves on the facades, first on one of the houses, then on the others. Meanwhile, on more than 25 floors where almost unsecured balconies allow access, the floor-to-ceiling windows and walls have large lettering.
Now the whole world can really see it: the spray-painted high-rise buildings right in the center of the Southern California metropolis are making international headlines. Directly opposite is the arena where the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and professional ice hockey teams, the LA Kings, play their home games in front of thousands of fans. The Grammy Awards have just been presented in the hall. There is a huge entertainment center a block away. The trade fair is also just a few steps away.
Some people consider the new look of the ghost towers to be an expression of an urban attitude to life. The graffiti artists transformed something ugly into something alive, wrote a columnist in the Los Angeles Times: "Isn't that LA at its finest?"
The authorities see it differently: "It's not art, it's criminal," says police chief Michel Moore. His people have now arrested numerous people on the site, and many more have managed to escape.
Recently, it was no longer just men and women climbing the towers with spray cans. Shots were said to have been heard there recently. There is also a drone video circulating online in which you can see half a dozen base jumpers diving one after the other with a parachute from the steel framework at the top of one of the high-rise buildings. It's dark, the city lights glitter below. The jumpers glide between the buildings with their umbrellas and apparently land safely in a parking lot.
Mayor Bass was horrified by what seemed spectacular in the film. "I'm very afraid that someone will fall or be pushed off," she told NBC Los Angeles. The complex must be sealed off, otherwise there will be a “tragedy.”
Owner should clean up
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles city council has called on the relevant authorities to put pressure on the owner. Oceanwide Holdings must remove garbage and construction rubble from the site, dismantle the scaffolding and finally secure the high-rise buildings.
Until now, it has been made easy for intruders. A security service has been practically non-existent since the company responsible for it stopped working on the site. The owner stopped paying.
It is hardly to be expected that he will now respond to warnings from the authorities. The last entry on the Oceanwide Holdings homepage is from November 2020; the holding appears to have been insolvent for a long time. Attempts to contact us are unsuccessful.
The contractor Lendlease, who was once hired, has just stated that Oceanwide still owes him and various subcontractors around $200 million (around €185 million). Lendlease says it now wants to use legal means to force a fiduciary sale of the properties in order to get its money. Only then can “this unfinished project move forward for the benefit of the local community.”
In fact, after years of progressive decline, the question suddenly arises: What will become of Oceanwide Plaza? Tear down again? Finished building? Who could do that?
A new home for the homeless?
Suggestions are already circulating that the city should take over the complex itself. Los Angeles has a huge homelessness problem and is constantly looking for housing for people who are currently living on the streets. Hotels or empty buildings are often rented for this purpose. The idea is that hundreds, if not thousands, could find a new home in Oceanwide Plaza, and there would also be enough space for their medical and psychological care.
“It’s not that simple,” said city councilor Kevin De Léon, in whose constituency the ghost towers are located, in a recent interview. They don't have a billion dollars lying around to buy the complex. "And it would cost at least another billion dollars, conservatively estimated, to actually complete this building."
An initial deadline for the owner to put things in order in and around the ruins expired this Saturday. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. Nobody in the city administration expected this, and so the first teams arrived on their behalf on Friday and began securing the area. City councilor De Léon's office says a 3.50 meter high fence should keep out intruders in the future. The next step would be to remove the graffiti.
The city council approved almost four million dollars for this. The mayor promises that they will get them back from the owner, “every cent.” That should be difficult.