Condominiums

In an effort to speed sales of its already fast-moving condominiums and increase demand for its rental units, Irvine Co. is offering residents of its apartments as much as $3,000 credit if they purchase one of the company's condos. Details of the plan were mailed late last month to residents of the giant land developer's 11,000 apartments in Irvine, Newport Beach and Tustin. Though this is the first time that the Irvine Co.

Matthew Gordon Lasner is the official biographer of the condominium. (Well, as official as these things get, anyway.) Several years ago, the assistant professor of urban affairs and planning at Hunter College in New York became curious about how condo ownership of apartments, town houses and their legal cousins, co-ops, became ubiquitous in this country in so short a time. "Like everybody else, I just presumed they began in the 1960s and grew from there," Lasner said. But he started digging through legal documents, news reports and historical records, tracing the birth of the "owner-occupied apartment" to a building (alas, long since demolished)

In the late 1960s, it was Los Angeles' tallest building -- and a first piece of what became downtown's modern skyline. Now, the 42-story tower at 6th Street and Grand Avenue is making history again, this time as what appears to be the largest "adaptive reuse" project in Los Angeles history.

From the beginning, the death of professional tennis umpire Lois Goodman's husband was beset by contradictions. When Alan Goodman, 80, was found dead in April at the couple's Woodland Hills condominium, paramedics noticed a suspicious cut to the side of his head. But Los Angeles police initially agreed with Lois Goodman's account that her ailing husband had fallen down a flight of stairs. Days later, a coroner's investigator found that the injuries were consistent with being struck by a sharp object.

Forty-eight unsold units of the Monterey Island condominiums, 222 Monterey Road, Glendale, will be put up for sale at auction Aug. 11 at opening bids at or below 50% of the last asking price, according to the R. Thomas Ashley marketing firm of Newport Beach. The complex was built two years ago but ran into problems attributed by the Merrill Lynch Real Estate Advisory and Appraisal Group to pricing that generally exceeded the price levels of good-quality housing of that type.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday killed a plan to convert an affordable-housing complex in Venice into a project consisting mostly of upscale condominiums. The council voted unanimously to oppose the redevelopment request of TransAction Cos. Ltd., the owner of Lincoln Place, one of the largest affordable-housing complexes on the Westside. The decision came as good news to tenants who fought the proposal. "We're flying a little bit high right now," said Ingrid Mueller.

Signaling a major step in plans to redevelop downtown Torrance, a new condominium project could be ready for occupancy in August after receiving final approval from city officials. Groundbreaking is planned for March 1996 for the 44 condominiums, slated to be built on the southeast corner of Cravens and El Prado avenues, city officials said.

Ascon Properties moved one step closer Tuesday night to building hundreds of condominiums on its contaminated former landfill behind Edison High School. The Huntington Beach City Council voted 4 to 3 in favor of a General Plan amendment changing the property's designated land use from public, quasi-public and institutional to residential, with the possibility of up to 600 condominiums. The actual number of condominiums will be decided later.

As many as 80 residents living in the crumbling Huntington Terrace portion of the massive Monterey Hills redevelopment project will be told to vacate their homes early next week because the sinking condominiums are no longer safe, Los Angeles building and safety officials said Thursday. Officials said the buildings could be made habitable again with extensive repair work planned by the city Community Redevelopment Agency, which will also pay for the relocation of the residents.

The Los Angeles County Community Development Commission plans to build 41 single-family condominiums near Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, but current residents of the site contend that the plans will deprive them of their property rights. The CDC plans to develop the Willowsprings project, along 120th Street between Wilmington and Willowbrook avenues, in three phases. The agency owns a 1.

Actor Wentworth Miller has made a break in Hancock Park, selling his condominium there for $1.275 million. In a French Normandy-style building constructed in 1926, the unit includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a fireplace in 1,638 square feet. The remodeled condo features golf course views, walnut floors, custom built-ins in the dining room and a turret. The building has 24-hour security and valet parking. Miller, 40, starred in "Prison Break" from 2005-09 and in the 2010 film "Resident Evil: Afterlife.

More than half the units in downtown L.A.'s most prominent residential tower are finally sold as the region's long-suffering condominium market turns around, industry observers said. Foreign investors and wealthy Southern California residents in search of a pied-a-terre have helped drive sales over the halfway mark at the Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live, developer AEG said. The condos were planned during the housing boom of the mid-2000s, when AEG decided to crown its $2.5-billion L.A. Live entertainment, restaurant, office and hotel complex with 224 condos that would be serviced by the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

PGA champion Tiger Woods has sold his condominium in Corona del Mar for $2,213,875. The town-house-style unit features an open-plan living room on the second story to take advantage of views of Santa Catalina Island. Features include high ceilings, a balcony, three bedrooms, a loft, three bathrooms and 2,000 square feet of living space. Woods, 36, once the holder of top spot in the world of golf, ranked second after a third-place finish in late July at the Open Championship. Public records show he bought the property in 2004 for $3 million.

The Venice compound of the late actor, photographer and artist Dennis Hopper has sold for $5 million. The property includes an industrial-inspired main house of about 5,000 square feet, a pool house, a guest cottage and three two-story condominiums for a total of seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms and 9,595 square feet of living space. The main house, with a corrugated metal exterior, was designed by Brian Murphy; the condominiums by Frank Gehry. Hopper, who died in 2010 at 74, starred in and directed "Easy Rider" (1969)

The Beverly Hills home of the late Bernie West , a writer and producer on the 1970s and '80s television shows "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons" and "Three's Company," is on the market at $3.15 million. The contemporary condominium, built in 1993, features direct elevator access, 11-foot ceilings, a dining terrace, a library/den, four bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms. Its 5,066 square feet of living space are on one level. West, who died last year at 92, shared a writing Emmy in 1973 for the groundbreaking sitcom "All in the Family.

Poor old Noor should be allowed to rest in peace. He earned that with a thoroughbred racing season in 1950 that track old-timers remember fondly. Endangering Noor's after-life resting place is that great American symbol of progress and ingenuity, the real estate development. Noor currently rests in Grass Valley, in the old gold mining country near Nevada City, Calif. His resting place is the former site of Loma Rica Ranch, which is on the drawing boards for eventual bulldozers, leading to cement and condominiums.

The City Council decided on a 4-0 vote Monday night not to grant an appeal to a developer trying to build a 26-unit condominium project on a half-acre lot. Steven Weinberg wanted to build a senior-citizen housing complex in the 5300 block of Marine Avenue. But the project was loudly opposed by neighbors, particularly members of the Marine Village Townhouse Assn., who noted that the housing project was nearly three times the density normally allowed.

A closet fire discovered by a child Tuesday afternoon caused about $50,000 damage to a condominium, firefighters said. The child saw the fire in a second-story bedroom about 4:40 p.m. and alerted his mother, who called 911 and evacuated her three children, said Capt. Scott Brown, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority. Sixteen firefighters arrived to find smoke billowing out of the condominium in the 30700 block of Calle Chueca.

The long-awaited condos at L.A. Live are finally going live: The first escrow is set to close Tuesday in the high-rise luxury condominium complex at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, nearly a year after the inn opened its doors. Conceived in boom times, the one- to three-bedroom units have been under construction throughout the real estate crash that has crippled home sales during the last few years. Developer AEG is hoping for a sales kick from the budding recovery, economic momentum around L.A. Live and the cachet of being part of a posh hotel.

California home sales slumped for a third straight month and prices rose slightly, according to data released Thursday. A total of 33,176 newly built and previously owned houses and condominiums sold statewide in September, a 3.1% decline from the previous month and down 17.5% from September 2009, according to real estate research firm MDA DataQuick of San Diego. Real estate professionals and economists expect the sales pace to remain sluggish for the rest of the year as buyers take longer to commit to purchases and sellers wait out the slow period.