Digital Bungalows, Santa Monica
This is Sci Fi speed. Of course, we do not know the cost for a business to get this speed. PMI’s Digital Bungalows is one of twenty Santa Monica office buildings (and the smallest) hooked into the City dark fiber optic network as of this date. Read more below.
Venture capitalist Marc Andressen has been one of the greatest advocates of the soundness of the current crop of startups. Now Marc is sounding the warning bell that startups may be burning cash to fast. Marc recently tweeted:
“When the market turns, and it will turn, we will find out who has been swimming without trunks on: many high burn rate co’s will VAPORIZE”
First, Landlords should be concerned because the companies that will vaporize will be their tenants. If company burns go back down to six months and the music stops, that is it for their rent.
Second, venture capitalists are pushing back against higher rents and longer term leases. And they are especially opposed to big security deposits. That is why it is hard to get more than six months security or out of pocket costs covered.
Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson recently wrote:
“I’ve been grumpy for months, possibly for longer than that, about this. I’ve pushed back on long term leases that I thought were outrageous, I’ve pushed back on spending plans that I thought were too aggressive and too risky, I’ve made myself a pain in the ass to more than a few CEOs.”
To read more of the story, see the article below:
Marc Andreessen Sounds Warning on Start-Ups Burning Cash – NYTimes.com.
Many new apartments for Millennials have limited closet space. PMI has decided to provide some easy solutions to the lack of closet space. These solutions include wardrobes, clothing racks, wall organizers, curtains with racks, under bed storage, and building cabinets with sliding doors. None of these solutions should require a building permits
Wardrobes
Ikea wardrobe priced under $200
Wall Organizers
Metal rack for organizing clothing
Curtains with Racks
Cabinets with Sliding Doors
Under The Bed Storage:
PMI renovated this 1911 Echo Park Craftsman apartment building at 1306 Temple Boulevard sandwiched between a grade school and a liquor store. The paint and rails detracted from the character of the building. The absence of landscaping and accessibility from the street gave a commercial image for this residential property. PMI retained most of the historical features but used paint, landscape, and wood fencing to create a more residential pallet. PMI used tall timber bamboo to soften the exterior and provide a transition from busy Temple Boulevard and the Hollywood Freeway. The vertical redwood fencing (the hipster fence) gives a contemporary feel and provides the security required by new residents in a gentrifying neighborhood. See renovated exterior below.
New Exterior at 1306 Temple
Prior to the renovation, tenants accessed units through narrow corridors. See picture below.
PMI resigned the property to eliminate the corridors and provide individual unit access from the property exterior.
The original developer in the 1920s divided the each unit into small rooms: kitchen, dining, living, and bedroom The decades old interior plaster and aluminum window dated the units. See below.
Without the corridor, the renovators expanded each one bedroom unit and combined the kitchen, dining, and living into one great room. Each unit had new drywall, paint, solid hardwood floors, and double pane windows. White paint and straight lines made each unit look larger. New large redwood sided balconies extended each unit into the outdoors. Contemporary fixtures and the open kitchens, especially in the unit with a doug fir exposed ceiling, gave the units a loft like look. See pictures below.
The old nook kitchens had laminate counters, cheap wood cabinets, and white appliances. See below.
The designer created a contemporary cafe kitchen look with stainless steel appliances, white quartz countertops, thermafoil cabinets, and eating bars. 
The former bathrooms had a mix of old and new finishes. See below.
The new bathrooms have contemporary vanities and new subway tiles to create a contemporary look with a hint of history. See below.New redwood horizontal fencing and stairs (in the second picture below) replaced the old plaster balconies and wood stairs with vertical rails (in the picture below).
The entrance to the parking lot and units was not gated or secure. See below
The renovators gated the parking lot and secured all access with six foot redwood fencing. See below
With the historical building exterior maintained, the apartment property allowed millennials to live in loft like contemporary one bedrooms in a secure environment that still enjoyed the character of Echo Park and all its amenities and flavor. It was another success by renovator PMI Properties as well as designer and project manager Adaptive Realty.
1920s Small Duplex Kitchen, Hollywood
Kitchens, even in apartments, were an important room in the old days. Prior to the 1950s, apartments had large kitchen with space for a breakfast table (see above picture).
After 1940s and on, kitchen were relegated to galleys with maybe a pass thru eating bar. But the kitchen was still large enough to prepare the Thanksgiving dinner (see pictures below).
1960 Galley Kitchen
1960s Apartment Kitchen With Pass Thru
Now developers are again shrinking the apartment kitchen further. Kitchens are are no longer hidden in a separate room or a galley but front and center in the great room. Many millennials no longer cook meals but bring home takeout, throw something into the microwave or toaster over, or eat out. The kitchen’s have been reduced to grand coffee bars. Kitchens must look better than before. Kitchen are showpieces with contemporary cabinets, quartz countertops, and stainless steel appliances (see pictures below).
2013 PMI/Adaptive Kitchen in the 1920 renovated Hollywood Duplex above
2014 PMI/Adaptive Renovated Apartment Kitchen, Echo Park
Kitchen In New Stella Apartments, Marina Del Rey
New Icis Apartments Glendale
New Eleve Lofts Glendale
Bellevue Lofts Echo Park
New Wilshire Vermont Apartments, Koreatown
Kitchen in the hallway at Luxe on 4th Street, Santa Monica
7950 Sunset, West Hollywood
Station House
San Francisco
Avalon Apartments, San Francisco
Now California residential landlords have a new tool to improve tenant credit and reduce evictions. Experian and Transunion have started adding rent payment data to credit profiles. Landlords can use this information to discern dead beats from tenants more likely to pay their rent and on time. This tool comes at a time when evictions are taking longer and have become more expensive. California State cutbacks have significantly increased the time it takes landlords to get an eviction proceeding. Tenants now have the right to demand jury trials that can spiral costs.
At one time, credit companies reported filed eviction actions against tenants. Landlords refused to rent to tenants who had such evictions filed against them. This service was a very effective method to discern good from bad tenants. Tenant advocacy groups convinced legislators that this method was unfair since landlords could unjustly file evictions. So now, the credit companies can only file evictions that go to judgement. Bad tenants beat the system by moving out just before the eviction court date and thereby avoid a judgement on their record. Today it could take three to five months to get a court date. The next landlord would never know that the tenant was in eviction because without a judgement, a tenant’s credit score is not impacted.
With the new service, Landlords may be able to discern such deadbeats from rent payment histories. Further, tenants will have a powerful incentive to pay their rent on time because if they don’t, their non payment or late payment will be reported on their credit and will impact their credit.
The catch for landlords is that to use the service, landlords need to sign up with an online payment service like Rent Track and pay $1.95 per month per tenant. Rent Track is an automatic online bank payment service. Rent Track alerts you the moment tenants have paid. Funds deposit within 24-72 hours. However, the tenant needs to opt in to rent payment reporting
However, if the landlord turns uncollected rent over to collection agencies, the collection agencies can report the uncollected rent to the credit companies. Once the collection appears on a credit history, it will stay there for seven years and drop a credit score.
Unfortunately, such collection information is not routinely reported. The online payment services may change this practice. You may read more in the Los Angeles Times article below .
Experian, TransUnion start adding rent payment data to credit profiles – LA Times.
Pundits have identified several precursors of gentrification. One precursor is artists moving to a new neighborhood: Soho, Venice, Chelsea. In Northeast Los Angeles (Echo Park, Silver Lake, Highland Park, and Eagle Rock), the rising indie music industry has helped fuel Northeast Los Angeles gentrification. According to a Los Angeles Times article (Sunday, August 17, 2014, E5), the area in Northeast Los Angles is home to many of he city’s most successful independent labels. Combined, the area has become its own little epicenter, and one of its strengths fuzzy, strange rock as delivered by indie artists and bands. According to the LA Times, a notable number have recently relocated from San Francisco. “Everyone we know, pretty much,from San Francisco moved down here, said prolific rocker Ty Segall. “People are moving down here because there’s a lot of stuff going on and its cheaper–a lot cheaper,” explained Segal of the migration.
Seven out of LA Weekly’s ten top rock clubs are located in Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Downtown. The remaining three are in West Hollywood. Even Sunset Strip’s rock clubs have noted a loss of business to Silver Lake’s emerging indie rock clubs. Young creatives now go east for a unique variety of night life not currently found elsewhere in Los Angeles.
Echo Park Rising is a indie music event in it’s 4th year that focuses on the music, creativity, diversity and small businesses of Echo Park http://epr.la/. There were multiple stages and activities throughout the weekend of August 15, 2014, located on the main routes of Sunset Blvd, Glendale Blvd, Alvarado Avenue and Echo Park Avenue and beyond . Here are some pictures from the event.
At the Cafe Bookstore
Cafe at the Bookstoe
Hanging Out
Crowds in Front of a Club
Crowds Waiting to Get Into a Venue
A line in front of another Indie Rock Club
I am pleased to announcement our new asset manager, Gabrielle Hakimian.
Gabrielle Hakimian will responsible for all asset management functions across PMI’s commercial and creative multifamily portfolio in Southern California and San Francisco. She has seven years of diverse domestic and international commercial real estate experience, across office, industrial, and mixed-use assets. Prior to joining PMI, she managed real estate transactions for The Walt Disney Company, by providing and executing strategic solutions on leased assets throughout the United States. Also, while working with Jamison Services, she directed all daily operations, with responsibilities for over 1-million square feet of office, retail, and parking in Downtown, Los Angeles.
Gabrielle holds a Masters in Real Estate Development from New York University and Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from University of Southern California.
3525 Eastham, Culver City
Creative office is defined broadly as non-traditional office. A “traditional office” has eight to nine foot acoustical dropped ceilings with two-by-four foot parabolic or prismatic fluorescent lighting, drywall walls, and carpeted floor with three per thousand square foot of enclosed offices. Creative offices usually have higher ceilings that are open to the structural lids; with pendant lighting; floors with wood or polished concrete; and maybe some walls with brick, block, or concrete. Broader definitions incorporate collaborative space plans and lifestyles associated with Millennials.
PMI’s Eastham space, a converted warehouse in Culver City, exhibits the fundamental most look for in a creative office: a high bow truss ceiling, pendant lights, polished concrete floors, and cement walls on the inside of the exterior perimeter walls.
It is difficult to accomplish a creative look with low acoustical ceilings and two-by-four fluorescent lights. Larger tech companies are more inclined to try. One tech company used numerous flags hanging from acoustical ceilings to make their space look creative. Others have tried to accomplish the same goal by painting their walls with bright colors.
The Google space below displays high ceilings, funky furniture, bright colors, recessed lighting, and concrete floors but keeps the acoustical tiles:
In the picture below,Google attempt to accomplish a creative feels with higher ceilings and the placement of the desks.
Google attempts a creative feel with high ceilings and a wall mural but keeps the acoustical tiles.
PMI Properties 
