2020-03-26_The_Hollywood_Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 46 MARCH 26, 2020

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Real Estate

Style

helped make it a popular filming

destination. Case in point is the

Victorian-style Auguste Marquis

Residence, which was the funeral

home in HBO’s Six Feet Under.

CAA agent Jim Nice recalls

driving by the Six Feet Under

house on his way to look at a

Craftsman bungalow 15 years ago

— a home he ultimately bought.

“For me, it was a selling point

because we loved that show,” he

says. Nice says the transforma-

tion of the neighborhood has

been profound — much, but not

all, of it positive. He enjoys the

new restaurants and the neigh-

borly pride people take in keeping

their homes and lawns pristine.

But he’s seen more developers

come in to flip homes and show

less interest in maintaining the

rich history. “As a homeowner,

you’re always happy that values

are going up, but some of the

displacement that is happen-

ing is disappointing,” he says.

“We’re here because we like the

neighborhood, and we’re not try-

ing to change it in any way.”

Today, there are dozens of

new building projects in various

stages of development, sand-

wiched in by upholstery shops,

auto repair shops and a couple

of old-school vinyl record stores.

“It’s actually getting really

hard to keep track,” says Letty

Vermeulen, owner

of brokerage firm

Aspire Los Angeles

and an 11-year

resident of the area.

CIM Group, which

has been credited with helping

transform Hollywood, currently

has four projects in West Adams,

including a 29,000-square-foot,

three-story, mixed-use develop-

ment at 5600 West Adams Blvd.,

plus a 43-room hotel down the

street. But the largest project

is Cumulus, which will boast a

50,000-square-foot Whole Foods

as its anchor tenant. Located

at the corner of La Cienega

and Jefferson boulevards and

developed by Carmel Partners,

Cumulus is being constructed

on an 11-acre site and includes

a 30-story high-rise with 1,200

apartments, 200,000 square feet

of office space and a 1-acre park.

Compared to the market six

years ago, Vermeulen sees a dra-

matic change in the psychology of

potential buyers who are consid-

ering a move to West Adams. “The

proof of concept is here. We no

longer have to just sell the pros-

pect of this place.”

Add an Extra Roof to the Dream House

(Without a Permitting Nightmare)

BACKYA R D BUILD

$^1.^2 M

Interior of a modern four-bedroom, two-bathroom Spanish residence in West Adams that

is listed for $1.2 million. ACME Real Estate’s Dominique Madden has the listing.

This 1,500-square-foot Craftsman bungalow

in Historic Jefferson Park is listed by Andrea

Dunlop of Sotheby’s International Realty.

T

hanks to West Adams’ average lot size of 5,500 square feet,

it is an ideal neighborhood for homeowners to consider

building an accessory dwelling unit, which is a small resi-

dence, aka a granny flat, next to a single-family home. And there’s

never been a better time to build one in California. A state law that

went into effect Jan. 1 cuts much of the red tape that made ADUs

a permitting headache. The impetus to streamline the process

is the state’s housing crisis, and elected officials are hoping that

ADUs might serve as a new affordable housing-stock option (most

current ADUs rent at below-market rates). As a result, a cottage

industry has sprung up, with hopes of capitalizing on the new law.

Below are three companies approaching ADUs in distinct ways.

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Cover
L.A.-based Cover fan-
cies itself a hybrid of a
technology firm and a
design-build firm. After
they launched it in 2014,
the founders spent sev-
eral years developing
both proprietary soft-
ware and a panelized
building system that
allows for a new twist
on prefab homes. “We have a finite set of blocks — think of them as life-size
Legos — and we can combine them to create an infinite number of designs,”
says Cover CEO and co-founder Alexis Rivas. “We are geared toward mass
production but can tailor it to each specific property.” Costs start at around
$190,000, which includes permitting, construction and utility hookups. — P. K.
Bunch Design
Bunch Design co-founder Bo Sundius
realized the transformative power of
ADUs after his father was stricken with
Alzheimer’s and he and his co-founder/
wife, Hisako Ichiki, needed to move
him into accessible housing. “It was a
horrendous situation, but the ADU we
built on our property was a lifesaver,”
says Sundius. L.A.-based Bunch offers
four pre-designed prototypes and
higher-cost custom options. Among
the four prototypes, $175,000 is the
base price for a 400-square-foot stu-
dio with one bathroom, and $250,000
buys you an 880-foot, two-bedroom
with one and a half bathrooms.
United Dwelling
Culver City’s United
Dwelling is partnering
with homeowners to
build new ADUs on their
property at zero cost to
clients. The company
also manages the rental
and splits proceeds
with the homeowner in a
15-year lease arrange-
ment. During the life of
the agreement, owners can buy back ownership by paying United Dwelling
$87,900. “In a neighborhood like West Adams, very few people have the capital
on hand to build an ADU, nor do most have the mentality to be a landlord,”
says founder Steve Dietz. The ADUs are not custom and come in one style.
According to Dietz, owners can expect to earn about $320 a month.
Nice
10sty_realestate_L [P]{Print}_53633426.indd 46 3/24/20 12:35 PM