Serving Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, and the Greater Wilshire neighborhoods of Los Angeles since 2011.

Ross buys Ross Site

Preview

The intersection of 3rd and Fairfax has always been a mish-mash of commerce. There’s the charming Farmers Market, still staking its claim in the shadow of the uber-mall The Grove. Across the street, the string of discount stores step-in-step with K-Mart, share the jammed parking lot with highbrow Whole Foods. Just east of it sits Ross Dress for Less in all its glory, the expansive parking lot in the back being one of its better qualities, but probably better known for being the location of a methane gas explosion in 1985. Personally, I love this commercial mesh.

Curbed LA and the LA Business Journal reported yesterday that developer Alan Casden’s plans to buy and develop the site as a 300 unit mixed-use property of senior and market-rate housing will not come to fruition. Not only was the neighborhood unhappy with the plans (increased congestion on an already-taxed corner), but evidently Casden’s relationship with the site’s owner  Cerberus Capital Management LP took a turn for the worse, and Cerberus put the lot up for sale.  There were reportedly ten offers on the property, including The Grove’s owner Rick Caruso, but Ross Stores Inc. won out, paying $45 million for the site, supposedly much more than it was worth to a developer.

Makes you wonder how many deep-discounted dresses and handbags Ross needs to sell to pay that mortgage! Perhaps they have other plans in mind that have yet to come to the surface. But for the time being at least we won’t have a long line of construction vehicles and cement mixers making 3rd Street even crazier than it already is. (But note to drivers, today, January 11, the City has 3rd Street across from Pan Pacific Park dug up today and its one lane only traffic in both directions currently.)

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Julie Grist
Julie Grist
Julie co-founded the Larchmont Buzz with fellow buzzer Mary Hawley in 2011 and served as Editor, Publisher and writer for the hive for many years until the sale of the Buzz in August 2015. She is still circling the hive as an occasional writer.

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