Apartment Building

In the wake of significant drops in both sales and new construction of apartments during May in San Diego County, the region may be moving from a sellers' to a buyers' market, according to George Carlson of John Burnham & Co. The firm's May figures show apartment transfers down 37% from 147 projects (2,448 units) in May, 1985, to 92 (1,347) this May. New building permit valuations dropped 4% from $46,448,985 (1,499 units) in May, 1985, to $44,690,606 (922 units) this May.

For many landlords, the rent is coming due. Figures released Monday show that owners of Orange County apartment buildings suffered in 1992. Prices tumbled, few buildings were bought or sold, and vacancy rates edged upward. The average sale price per unit in complexes of 20 or more apartments slipped to $58,227 last year in the county, down from $68,400 in 1991 and the recent peak of $76,558 in 1989, according to the survey by CB Commercial Real Estate Group in Anaheim.

Permits for multifamily housing units nearly doubled in California in September, largely due to a change in the state building code affecting handicapped persons, according to the California Building Industry Assn. The 86% jump in multifamily permits taken out in September was mainly for structures of five units or more, according to Robert Rivinius, the association's executive vice president.

A tower is rising in low-rise NoHo. Construction will begin today on a 15-story apartment building in North Hollywood that will be the tallest residential tower in the San Fernando Valley when it is completed next year. The $43-million NoHo Tower being developed by JSM Construction Inc. will include 191 apartments and 17,000 square feet of shops on the ground floor at Lankershim Boulevard and Cumpston Street, across from the Red Line subway station.

To get to her aunt's apartment from her own, Lidia Olmos, 15, takes a scary walk. She passes dilapidated buildings covered with graffiti. She sees gang members selling drugs. Sometimes she hears gunfire. But once she is inside her aunt's apartment complex, everything changes. There are no graffiti, loud music, broken windows or young men selling cocaine. "I usually don't come out," Lidia said. "I stay in my house. But I like coming here.

When a USAir Boeing 737 and a SkyWest commuter plane collided in a wall of flame Friday night, horrified residents of Park West Apartments in Westchester watched the tragedy unfold less than half a mile from their balconies. But the real impact of that night was yet to hit them.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to provide up to $322,000 in relocation money to dozens of low-income tenants who must move from a South Los Angeles apartment building deemed unsafe by city inspectors. Tenants were given eviction notices last month after housing officials concluded that owner John Callaghan had illegally converted what was supposed to have been a three-unit apartment building on 49th Street into as many as 44 separate living spaces — a warren of narrow hallways; tiny, shared bathrooms; and communal kitchens, much of it laced with unpermitted electrical and plumbing work.

Fifteen people were displaced but no injuries were reported Monday after a fire gutted the top floor of a Pomona apartment building. The cause is under investigation, but fire officials said it may have started in the attic of the 12- to 18-unit building on Foothill Boulevard, said Capt. Rod Washington of the county Fire Department. A parking structure was also damaged in the blaze, but the extent was unknown Monday evening.

Over the objections of Supervisor Gloria Molina, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved plans by developer Jona Goldrich to build an apartment building and board-and-care facility for senior citizens in Marina del Rey. A spokesman for Supervisor Deane Dana, whose district includes the marina, said Dana supports the proposal because it will increase the supply of housing in the crowded marina area. It was approved on a 3-1 vote.

A light plane that had just taken off from Santa Monica Airport crashed nose-first Friday through the roof and two floors of an apartment building in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles, killing the pilot and another person and igniting a fire that forced at least two people to leap from the building. Neighbors, gardeners working nearby, a coach from nearby Fairfax High School and an Orthodox Jewish volunteer rescue team rushed to help as residents struggled to flee the flames.