Despite the North Hollywood Arts District's wealth of entertainment and media companies, it has relatively few live/work buildings. (Does sleeping in the office parking lot count?) Vista Investment Group president Jonathan Barach tells us an affiliate of his firm just snapped up one of them: NoHo Lofts.
The property, 5355 Cartwright Ave, is a former 1950s brick-and-concrete warehouse building that was converted to a luxury live/work complex in 2006. The sale includes a 15k SF parcel across the street that's fully entitled for up to 20 units. There are no immediate plans to develop the lot, although this could change, Jonathan (with wife Sunny on a recent trip to Croatia, where the water is apparently made of gold) told us yesterday. He notes the NoHo Arts District has a surprising dearth of true live/work loft buildings like the kind you see in Downtown LA's Arts District, Hollywood, and Culver City.
His first priority is to launch a renovation and improvement plan for the main property. Plans call for upgrades to unit interiors and existing amenities such as the rooftop deck, fitness center, and club room. Jonathan says the creative live/work building is 97% occupied, with a large concentration of artist residents involved in graphic design, music, architecture, advertising, and post-production. Colliers' Kitty Wallace repped both the buyer and seller, CityView. Sklar Kirsh's Andrew Kirsh handled Vista's legal work.
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