High Rise

A $125-million high-rise apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles that was planned before the economic downturn will finally get underway in September, the developer said. Wood Partners started planning the 22-story project in 2006 but shelved it two years later as the economy stalled, said Brian Hansen, the Atlanta company's director of development for Southern California. "Right now the downtown apartments market is doing very well," Hansen said. "Unlike most urban centers, housing is lacking.

Gardena police are taking law enforcement in a new direction: Instead of just tailing the bad guys, they're tracking the good ones. Using a system like the one used to recover stolen cars, Gardena is monitoring the movement of its patrol cars, prisoner transport vehicle and undercover detectives. It is the first law enforcement agency in the nation to use the high-tech system to follow its police force. "I feel more comfortable using Teletrac," said Officer Nick Pepper.

Rising 10 stories next to the Hollywood Freeway, the sleek, stucco-and-glass building looks more like a backdrop for television's "L.A. Law" than a prison designed to house some of the most notorious criminal suspects in Southern California. Kevin Mitnick, the 25-year-old computer genius accused of breaking into university and corporate computers from Los Angeles to Leeds, England, now calls it home.

Orange County will soon join Dallas in the limelight of a television series. The success of the new series, however, will not be measured in Nielsen ratings but in the yen it can attract; the show is targeted for Japanese businessmen. The three-hour, three-part series portraying Orange County's business and investment potential is scheduled to air early this summer in Los Angeles on Channel 18's Japan News Magazine and later on two major networks in Japan.

Allen and Anita Kohl of the Kohl's department store family have sold their Santa Monica penthouse for $10.5 million. The condo takes up the top floor of the building and has 360-degree views. The high-rise, built in 1963 and remodeled in 2004, has 24-hour security, a fitness facility, gardens and fountains. The penthouse's features include a rooftop deck with a spa and barbecue, two direct access elevators, a library, an office, a media room, two master suites, balconies and floor-to-ceiling walls of glass.

Since designing Santa Monica Place mall more than three decades ago, Frank Gehry has become a world-renowned architect and Santa Monica has become one of the most lively and thriving beach cities. The suburban-style mall, however, languished in time, walled off from the increasingly vibrant street life. Now a developer is betting it can become hip again. Macerich Co. spent $265 million to rip the mall at Third Street and Broadway down to its steel foundations and rebuild it as a three-story outdoor shopping venue.

It's a symphony night. The lights of the downtown skyline twinkle, the snow-blanketed Rockies stagger in the distance and subterranean metallic groans rise from the innards of the U.S. Mint in the heart of downtown. I sit a few blocks away in Boettcher Concert Hall, surrounded by the modern geometry of the Denver Performing Arts Complex, waiting.

A high-rise state office building in Riverside was evacuated and several surrounding blocks cordoned off by police Tuesday morning after a bomb threat, authorities said. Riverside County Superior Court offices in the California Tower building received a call at 9:52 a.m. from a person who said there might be bomb in the building, said Officer Taylor Cooper, a California Highway Patrol spokesman. Authorities searched but did not locate an explosive, Cooper said.

A redevelopment plan that could bring more high-rise buildings and traffic to Marina del Rey has run into opposition from the staff of the California Coastal Commission. In a report, the commission staff has recommended that Los Angeles County's revised plan for the redevelopment of Marina del Rey be rejected unless key concerns about open space, traffic, public coastal access and building heights are addressed.

DEAR SOS: The most wonderful tiramisu I have ever had was at Tulio Ristorante at the Hotel Vintage Park in Seattle. It's moist and sits high on a plate. Would you be able to get the recipe? BETSY LEIGHTON Huntington Beach DEAR BETSY: Here's Tulio's recipe. Prepare it a day ahead and it's ready when you need it. Italian lady fingers and mascarpone, a soft fresh cheese much like cream cheese, are available wherever Italian food products are sold. Tulio's prefers Myers's rum.