Apartment Buildings

A 1920s-era apartment building in Koreatown has been acquired by a Los Angeles investor who plans to renovate the brick Tudor Revival-style complex near Wilshire Boulevard. The six-story Windsor Apartments at 3198 West 7th St. and an adjacent parking lot zoned for development sold for $10.75 million to a limited liability corporation, according to investment banking firm George Smith Partners. The Windsor was built in 1926 at 7th and Catalina streets as an upscale apartment hotel in what was then suburban Los Angeles.

A 1970s Burbank apartment building with an expansive penthouse intended to be occupied by the owner has been purchased by Champion Real Estate Co. for $15.6 million. The 62-unit complex at 600 E. Olive St. is mostly made up of two-bedroom, two-bath apartments but it also has an 8,000-square-foot penthouse with a rooftop deck and private swimming pool, according to real estate broker Tyler Stevens of Lee & Associates. “It reflects an era gone by when builders constructed apartment buildings with an owner unit, and this particular owner unit was highly unusual,” Stevens said.

An arsonist set six downtown San Jose apartment buildings ablaze and 10 people were left homeless, authorities said. At least three residents and a firefighter sustained minor injuries. More than 120 firefighters using 40 pieces of equipment responded to the blazes burning in a 10-block area east of San Jose State University. Police captured a suspect and turned him over to fire authorities for questioning. The name was not released.

A Los Angeles slumlord was convicted today of 112 misdemeanor violations of various fire, health, and building and safety codes at four apartment buildings and one hotel. Vijaynand Sharma, 39, was acquitted by a Municipal Court jury of six other similar violations. Sharma, who remains free from custody, could face a county jail term of as much as 56 years and fines of up to $200,000. Sentencing was not immediately scheduled.

Construction workers ruptured a natural gas main Friday, forcing firefighters to evacuate three apartment buildings in the City Terrace area east of downtown Los Angeles, officials said. Workers digging a trench with a backhoe broke the gas line about 11 a.m. in the 2800 block of East Lancaster Avenue. The Fire Department was alerted and decided to evacuate three two-story apartment buildings while waiting for Southern California Gas Co. crews to arrive and fix the broken two-inch pipe, Fire Department spokesman Greg Acevedo said.

The Los Angeles City Council directed the city attorney Tuesday to draft amendments to the building code that call for new standards to improve earthquake safety in apartment buildings. The amendments, which apply to so-called "soft stories" in multistory apartment buildings, are aimed at preventing another tragedy like the collapse of the Northridge Meadows Apartments in the 1994 earthquake, in which 16 people died.

Seven people died when fire roared through two apartment buildings on the West Side early Tuesday, authorities said. They said five of the dead were from the same family. Investigators found a gasoline can at the scene and said arson was suspected.

Fire swept through four adjoining apartment buildings in Montreal, killing four people including a 15-year-old boy who jumped from a third-floor window, Fire Chief Yvon Pineau said Friday. Pineau added that arson is suspected in the blaze, which occurred Thursday, leaving 20 families homeless.