The nine lives of Nelson Rising

From the January issue: The office of 75-year-old developer Nelson Rising has a decidedly un-septuagenarian feel. The space, inside the Beaux-Arts PacMutual building in Downtown Los Angeles, is teeming with millennial energy, as evidenced by the generation’s typical accoutrements, including a Ping-Pong table and open plan layout featuring cement floors.

The latest projects overseen by the chairman and CEO of Rising Realty Partners seem to echo the relationship the developer has to the office — they all involve taking something old and making it feel young again. PacMutual is a case in point. Rising bought it for $60 million in 2012, then stripped it of decades-old drywall, got rid of the dropped ceilings and replaced the carpeting. The redeveloped creative office building attracted “#Girlboss” Sophia Amoruso’s Nasty Gal as a major tenant.

The hype allowed Rising to sell it for $200 million in 2015 to Ivanhoe Cambridge and Callahan Capital Properties, though he retains his office there.  [More]