L A Mart

Owners of the L.A. Mart in downtown Los Angeles have agreed to sell the 860,000-square-foot gift and furniture wholesaler mart to Saddle Brook, N.J.-based Vornado Realty Trust, one of the market's owners confirmed Wednesday.

The L.A. Mart, a 12-story complex in downtown Los Angeles, has been purchased for about $55 million by Glendale investors. The 784,000-square-foot property at 1933 S. Broadway is a combination design center, office and showroom, real estate brokerage Madison Partners said. It serves the interior design, gift and home furnishing industries. Los Angeles County also leases more than 140,000 square feet of office space at the L.A. Mart. Vornado Realty Trust sold the property to a limited liability corporation called PHR LA Mart.

Ron and Norma Freymuth drove from Corona to downtown Los Angeles this week to arm themselves in their fight against discount stores. Their weapons of choice: lemonade-themed products for a summer display, nautical items and gifts to sell the rest of the year. Owners of a Farr's Stationers franchise in Corona, they and thousands of other shop owners from the West and beyond combed the L.A.

Furniture pros in downtown Los Angeles didn't stand for it when rivals in West Hollywood got their big chair. They got themselves a bigger one. So now there are dueling giant chairs outside the Pacific Design Center and the L.A. Mart in an impromptu furnishings feud that is sitting well with interior designers and admirers of outdoor furniture alike.

There is a mall in downtown Los Angeles where furniture and gift items often sell for half the normal retail price--but few consumers have heard of it and most can't shop there. The L.A. Mart, celebrating its 30th year at the corner of Broadway and Washington, has become the unchallenged spot where the Southern California gift industry shops for merchandise.

Furniture pros in downtown Los Angeles didn't stand for it when rivals in West Hollywood got their big chair. They got themselves a bigger one. So now there are dueling giant chairs outside the Pacific Design Center and the L.A. Mart in an impromptu furnishings feud that is sitting well with interior designers and admirers of outdoor furniture alike.

Consumer finance lender CashCall Inc. will get its name on top of City Plaza in Orange after agreeing to lease seven floors in the tower. In an expansion of its mortgage and finance offices, CashCall will rent 125,208 square feet in the 19-story tower at 1 City Blvd., landlord Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. said. Financial terms were not disclosed, but real estate experts familiar with the Orange County office market valued the seven-year deal at about $20 million. CashCall is one of Orange County's largest employers, with about 1,600 workers, Chief Executive J. Paul Reddam said.

The L.A. Mart, a 12-story complex in downtown Los Angeles, has been purchased for about $55 million by Glendale investors. The 784,000-square-foot property at 1933 S. Broadway is a combination design center, office and showroom, real estate brokerage Madison Partners said. It serves the interior design, gift and home furnishing industries. Los Angeles County also leases more than 140,000 square feet of office space at the L.A. Mart. Vornado Realty Trust sold the property to a limited liability corporation called PHR LA Mart.

The three Philadelphia architects who launched House & Garden magazine in 1901 intended it as a scholarly journal devoted to architecture, garden and decoration. The magazine went on to chronicle the lifestyle of a country and culture coming into its own. Along the way, it documented such diverse topics as WWI victory gardens, the first electric washing machine, American Modernism and Space Age interiors. In turn, the publication became a fascinating reflection of upper-middle-class America.

A group that proposes to develop a new gift industry showroom in downtown Los Angeles has identified five prospective sites for what would be one of the largest commercial real estate projects in downtown in more than a decade, a building of up to 1.4 million square feet that could cost well over $100 million. The building would house permanent showrooms for the gift and decorative home accessories industry and could be anywhere from 800,000 to 1.

Owners of the L.A. Mart in downtown Los Angeles have agreed to sell the 860,000-square-foot gift and furniture wholesaler mart to Saddle Brook, N.J.-based Vornado Realty Trust, one of the market's owners confirmed Wednesday.

Ron and Norma Freymuth drove from Corona to downtown Los Angeles this week to arm themselves in their fight against discount stores. Their weapons of choice: lemonade-themed products for a summer display, nautical items and gifts to sell the rest of the year. Owners of a Farr's Stationers franchise in Corona, they and thousands of other shop owners from the West and beyond combed the L.A.

There is a mall in downtown Los Angeles where furniture and gift items often sell for half the normal retail price--but few consumers have heard of it and most can't shop there. The L.A. Mart, celebrating its 30th year at the corner of Broadway and Washington, has become the unchallenged spot where the Southern California gift industry shops for merchandise.

The city of Los Angeles and Unocal Corp. are sponsoring the last of nine household hazardous waste roundups Saturday at the L.A. Mart parking lot, corner of 21st and Hill streets, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. More than 1.5 million pounds of household hazardous waste has been collected since the joint effort began. The program is designed to give residents the opportunity to safely discard up to five gallons or 50 pounds of paint, car batteries, pesticides and cleaning solvents.

A century-old red brick office complex in Venice that once housed the business of legendary furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames has been sold to New York investors who plan to improve the property. The husband-and-wife Eames team were among the most famous designers of the 20th century, creating popular modernist pieces, including a curvy leather-and-plywood lounger, that were widely embraced in the decades after World War II and are still sold today. DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners bought the building at 901 Abbot Kinney Blvd.